My people

Today I think it will be fun to update you on my children. Do you know what makes a kid update complete? An outdated photograph from Seattle. You can tell it is outdated because my children are sporting their summertime Oompa Loompa look - you know, red faces, white hair, weirdest boss in the world. Also the leaves on the trees are a dead giveaway. And the trees. We don't have trees like that in the desert.

Let's do this!

(And let's go oldest to youngest since Macey hates when we go youngest to oldest and Tess can't read.)

Macey:

Macey is 8 1/2. She takes ballet. My mom is teaching her the piano. She is in the school choir. And she was recently invited to be a part of the third grade newspaper. This was quite the prestigious invitation. Her first contribution was a fictional story about a puppy who snuck into Santa's sack on Christmas Eve and became his helper. And then he saved Christmas. One day you will say you knew her when...

Macey's latest thing is playing Minesweeper and keeping track of where the bombs are on a sheet of paper and trying to win the next round using the last round's intell. Thus far it has been a frustrating endeavor for her. I half-heartedly explained Minesweeper to her, but she seems sure that she is on to something with her method. She also loves horses and playing with her neighbor friend, Megan. She has also recently fallen in love with the world of Harry Potter. She finished reading the first book a few days ago and says that her favorite character is Hagrid. I think that Macey and Hagrid would be good friends.

Olivia:

Olivia is 7 1/2. She takes ballet. My mom is teaching her the piano. She has a knack for it, which makes me really happy. She takes the piano seriously and practices as soon as she wakes up, when she is supposed to be in bed, and generally whenever I want quiet. Unfortunately, Olivia only has one volume - mezzoforte, which is Italian for "Mom will need 800 mg of Ibuprofen and a box of Swiss Rolls if this persists." I have tried to explain pianissimo to her, but it went over like Minesweeper. No comprende.

Olivia is quite a little smartiepants. She reads like a sixth grader and kicks butt at math. (And yet I cannot drive home the concept of pianissimo? Someone is taking me for a ride.) Olivia loves sheep, steak, salad, riding her bike, texting her cousin Paige, and playing with her neighbor friend, Megan.

Chancho:

Chancho is 5 1/2 and we have yet to drop his unfortunate nickname. He is in Kindergarten and endures it. Coloring and sitting in chairs are not his "thing." Luckily, his best buddy Jack is in his class. Unluckily, they have been banned from sitting together. He loves his teacher, he loves having snacks, he loves recess, but the rest of that crap he could live without.

Chancho is really into flying machines of late. It started at the Boeing museum in Seattle. It is an interest that I am trying to nourish and encourage. Santa brought him a Blue Angel jet and a Stealth Bomber to go along with his M-21 Blackbird. He also got a little biplane that you shoot off of a charger gun so that you can watch it fly thirty feet in the air before landing on your neighbor's roof at 8:00 on Christmas morning. Chancho has decided that he is going to be a Blackbird pilot when he grows up. I have explained to him that if he wants to become a Blackbird pilot he is going to have to endure the coloring and the sitting in chairs.

Tess:

Tess is 3 1/2. Yesterday was her very first day of Sunbeams. For those who are not fluent in Mormonese, that means that she gets to sit in Sunday school instead of staying in the nursery and eating Goldfish crackers while smelling other kids' soiled diapers. Tess is proud of her status as a Sunbeam.

Tess is obsessed with Taylor Swift. I have created a playlist for her on YouTube and she watches the videos for "We Are Never Getting Back Together" and "You Belong With Me" repeatedly. She sings along loudly - even the speaking parts. As in, "This is exhausting, you know. Like, we are never getting back together, like EVER." A month or two ago she asked me, "Mom, is Taylor Swifff never getting back togedder?" I told her yes. For that is an eternal truth.

That is what's new with my little people. What's new with you?