“A portrait of my children once a week, every week, in 2014.”

Lillia: This week you went to the doctor for your annual check up. You are now 5′ 2 & 1/4″ tall! You are only 3/4 of an inch shorter than me now! You are in the 96th percentile for height, and your records show that you grew four and a quarter inches since your last appointment. No wonder why you have terrible growing pains all the time! I wonder how tall you will be when you grow up…You also had to get a vaccine but you were so brave , you didn’t even wince. You wore your sparkly band-aid as a badge of honor for the rest of the day.

Zane: This week you also went to the doctor for a check up. You are 38 inches tall, which puts you in the 46th percentile for height. In other words, you’re not the biggest guy! You were very relieved that you did not have to get any shots, as you described to me in detail how terrible it is to get poked in the thighs (they do vaccines in the thighs for little people because there’s more muscle there). Your development is right on schedule, as we already knew. You also finally made it back to school on Thursday after being gone for weeks. Between holidays, snow days, and illness, you hadn’t been to school since before Thanksgiving (only going twice a week makes it easy to miss a lot of days).

“A portrait of my children once a week, every week, in 2014.”

Lillia: This week you had a holiday concert at your school. I love watching you go through the process of deciding how you will dress because you have very particular ideas about how you want to look. You always like to wear a tie to special events — it’s your “signature style.” After your part of the concert was over, I noticed you were animatedly chatting with your teacher. It makes me so happy that you enjoy school, and that you have such a great relationship with your teacher. As we know from experience, it doesn’t always work out that way. I feel very thankful that the past two years at school have been, by and large, very good ones.

Zane: This week you got to start your advent calendar (we started on the first day of advent, rather than the first day of December). I don’t think anyone has ever been more excited about Christmas than you are this year. I keep reminding you that the big day doesn’t come for several more weeks, but every morning you still ask me, “Is today Christmas?” I kind of wish there was a way to rein in the excitement; Christmas is built up to such a huge degree that it’s inevitably a little disappointing. I do try hard to de-emphasize the gift-getting part of the holiday, but it seems like the whole world is working against me sometimes!

“A portrait of my children once a week, every week, in 2014.”

Lillia: This week you had a “Harry Potter Party” at school. You were so excited about it!!! You and Daddy read all of the Harry Potter books together, and you’ve read them again to yourself several times, including The Prisoner of Azkaban at school with all of your classmates. The party was to celebrate finishing the book, and everyone got to make a wand and dress up as a character. You decided you wanted to go as Nymphadora Tonks, and you insisted that you needed to have colorful hair so you borrowed a wig from your friend. I think you make a pretty endearing Tonks.

Zane: This week it snowed! You were so amazed by it, and you really enjoyed playing in it with your sister. You made snow hills and then tried to slide down them (yes, we got that much snow!). Now you’re big enough to really play in the snow — no more being stuck sitting in a snowbank watching the “big kids” play without you! It’s so fun to watch you experience the change of seasons because this year you seem much more aware of your surroundings. Everything is exciting to you, which makes it exciting to me, too. What a gift to be your mother and see everything fresh and new through your eyes.

“A portrait of my children once a week, every week, in 2014.”

Lillia: This week we took a trip to Boston and visited the Science Museum. I think you had fun, and it was interesting to see how you interacted with the exhibits in a very different way than the last time we visited. You are so much more grown-up now. Your favorite part was the exhibit on the human body. You measured your gait and your core body temperature, and all kinds of other metrics of health and well-being. You probably won’t work in the field of healthcare because you have a, self-professed, weak stomach. But, you seemed intrigued by the science of locomotion and discovering what knowledge can be extracted from raw data.

Zane: This week you have been talking a lot about your friends at school. We are a few months in and now you know many of their names. You have criticisms of their behavior (especially their wanton destruction of your block towers), but you seem to get along really well with a couple of little boys. We still have some difficulties at pick-up because you almost never want to leave. You’re especially offended that you don’t get to eat lunch with everyone else, since you are just a morning preschooler. Maybe next year you can stay longer, but mama is just not quite ready to give you up for that long yet.

“A portrait of my children once a week, every week, in 2014.”
[This photo is from the Pumpkin Festival on October 18th]

Lillia: This week you turned eleven years-old. I thought ten felt overwhelming, but eleven? I just don’t even know what to think! You are turning into such a young lady, though you still have your weird/crazy personality in full force! You decided you just wanted to have a quiet party at home with family and then have just one friend to come over and play in the afternoon. You are very social in some situations, but you have always preferred one-on-one to large groups (you’re much like your parents and grandparents in that way). I hope you had a nice birthday, and I’m looking forward to all of the adventures that your eleventh year will bring!

Zane: This week you went to the dentist! I’ve heard plenty of horror stories about kids who are scared of the dentist, and I totally get that, but you had no problems at all. In fact, I had an appointment at the same time as yours and you just hopped and skipped away with the hygienist all on your own, with absolutely no concerns. You were actually excited! I could hear you chattering away in the other room, and when your appointment was done you just calmly went to the waiting room and looked at some books until I was done. I am so lucky that I have such a well-behaved little boy. It makes me very proud!