Aly & Fynn- Summer 2019

Aly & Fynn are getting ready to start school in the morning (Fynn for the first time!), and I just wanted to take a few minutes to reflect on this past summer with them! It has had many challenges, but it has also been filled with lots of sweet memories!

This summer has looked very different than last summer. Last year, I remember going crazy by noon because they were already tired of each other haha. This year, their friendship has really blossomed! They spend much of their days in their own little pretend world. Each morning they wake up and decide which scenes they are going to act out for the day. Dragon & the Princess, Mermaid & the Shark, and T-rex & the Princess are some of their favorites. They play nonstop with their stuffed animals Ellie and Dino. I think I could probably throw away all of their other toys, and as long as they have their ex-wubbanub stuffies, they’d be fine! They can spend hours in this pretend world! They also constantly refer to each other as “honey” :)

I also tried to build some structure into our summer days so that we didn’t get too bored or antsy. Aly had lots of reading time, and even read Stuart Little this summer. Fynn started learning how to read with me. He knows many sight words and is beginning to sound out words! I’m super proud of both of them!

Fynn is reading!

We had many adventures around the city. We went to outdoor story time with friends, lots of playgrounds, splash pads,The Bronx Zoo, The Children’s Museum, and Governor’s Island. It has been a lot of fun to get in some final adventures all together.

Governor's Island

The kids also had two weeks of camps, a creative arts/Bible camp, and then a VBS at Redeemer. They both loved them so much, and I know we’ll be listening to this year’s songs for the next year!

This summer was also full of a lot of travel. We took a weekend trip to Great Wolf Lodge and Boston. The kids really love playing in water, and loved the water park! We spent another weekend with our annual Schmarevield weekend in Jersey with some of our best friends!

My little wolfies!

Then we spent 2 weeks in Texas and Oklahoma. We got to meet our nephew Diego and spend time with family in Houston for a weekend, and then we headed for Oklahoma for the remainder. Our OK trip was pretty busy! We took a few days to stay in Tulsa exploring The Gathering Place and the aquarium and lots of swimming in the hotel pool! We got to visit with lots of friends and family, and we got to swim so much, which was great! We visited the Science Museum, which the kids still talk about. And then we wrapped up our time with some friends’ wedding, where Aly & Fynn were the flower girl and ring bearer!

Our final trip of the summer was to San Diego with Gigi & Bop last weekend. The kids played for hours every day at different beaches. The beach is definitely their happy place! They can happily play in the sand and ocean forever! We loved San Diego so much, and it was a great way to wrap up our summer.

Beach fun!

Fynn

Fynn has felt very strong emotions this summer. 3 is a tough age! He has been learning how to properly express frustrations and anger. He has also just been a lot of fun! He is always a happy kid, eager for whatever the day holds! He is incredibly social, always chatting it up with anyone and everyone he encounters. Here is a conversation that he had with a person sitting next to me on the airplane:

”Hi, what’s your name? My name is Fynnlan, but you can call me Mr. Fynn. I have medium skin, but my hands are light. Do you live in Texas or New York? Is your house bigger than our home? Do you love yourself? You should, it’s good to. Did you enjoy the flight? I sure did! Alright, nice to meet you! Fist bump!!”

Fynn has spent this summer on a hunt for a wife LOL. He constantly asks girls: “Are you in our family? Do you love Jesus? Are you already married?”

This summer has also been a time of processing Roman’s death for him. I think because he was so young when it happened, he’s just really starting to understand what it means. He talks about Roman daily. Sometimes he pretends to talk to him, or he’ll pray asking God to tell him things. He tells Jackson about how they have another brother and that they’re the three brothers. He tells me constantly he really wishes Roman were here to play with him. Once, Aly was talking about wanting another baby in our family, and Fynn started to agree but then quickly said, no I just wish we could have Roman. He also loves to tell everyone he sees about Roman. A recent convo with an airport stranger:

“Do you know that God and Jesus are in Heaven? And so is Roman. That’s my brother. He died and we don’t know why. It’s very sad and I miss him. But you know what? We’ll get to see Roman again someday! Mami & Papi got to say goodbye to Roman, but I didn’t. I wish I could have held him, ya know?

He has had many of these sorts of conversations, catching many strangers off guard, but I actually love hearing him talk about him, and the more we talk about these things, the less taboo it is!

The last thing I’ll say about Fynn is that he is really starting to understand the Gospel and loves the stories of the Bible. His favorite thing is how Jesus is the hero of all the stories. His favorite Bible story is one on Revelations and he loves to recount how "Jesus is going to come riding on a white horse, and will defeat Satan foreveeeeeer!!” I also once heard him telling another kid how Satan used to be an angel, but he wanted to be more powerful than God so now he’s in hell.

Tball!
If your pizza is too hot, it helps to blink a lot.

Aly

It has been wonderful having Aly at home this summer. She is such an awesome sister. She helps care for Jackson so well and loves to play endlessly with Fynn. This summer she started taking gymnastics and absolutely loves it! After the first class, she even got moved onto their “invite-only” team.

Also at the very end of school, Aly had a dance audition at her school for a dance program in the city. You are supposed to be at least 7 years old, but Aly, our little 5 year old was accepted on scholarship for their Pre-professional program! Wow, are we proud of her! So this Fall she will begin taking lessons at Ballet Academy East.

Another thing that we are incredibly proud of Aly for, is her academics. In January, she took the City-wide G&T test, where she ended up scoring in the 98% for NYC. This means that she could apply to attend a gifted and talented school or program. I won’t go into what a ridiculous process the G&T program is haha, but we are incredibly proud of Aly, and she will be starting at a new school tomorrow. She is very nervous, but I know she is going to do great!

And a part from all of her beautiful talents, I am most proud of the wonderful young lady she is becoming. She is so kind and thoughtful. She is always eager to help others, and she loves BIG! And most importantly, she loves Jesus a lot! Her favorite Bible story is about Pharaoh and when God parts the Red Sea!

Gymnastics!



A month ago, it felt like the first day of school would never come, but now it feels like I blinked and here we are with a 1st grader and one in Pre-K!