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

Lillia: This week you were busy, busy, busy. I feel like I don’t see you as much as I used to! Between your dance classes, and your art after school, and your playdates, and your homework, well, there’s not a lot of room for me in there! As I’m sitting here thinking about what to write I’m realizing that I don’t really know what you did this week. I need to make sure that we have time together, too, even if it’s just a few minutes to say “hi, how was your day?” I can see how easy it is to grow distant from one’s children as they get older, since their lives become so full of other things. I want to make sure we stay close.

Zane: Hooray! You are healthy again! This week you really enjoyed taking a walk in the woods with me and daddy. You and I go out there often, but having daddy along was a special treat. You were keen to lead us, since you know the paths well, and you really enjoyed showing him all of your favorite things along the way. We are so lucky to have those beautiful woods right here behind our house!

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

Lillia: This week things returned to normal and you are no longer living the life of a Broadway star. In all seriousness, I do think that you hold your head a little higher now. Maybe you learned something about yourself during that week of rehearsals and performances. You also took your semi-annual MAPs test and scored above average in math, which is great! You were disappointed that you didn’t meet your goal (you were only off by a few points) but we are all very proud of you. Your reading & language scores are so, so, so high that sometimes it must be frustrating that math doesn’t come so easily. But, we humans are asynchronous in lots of ways and your math skills are improving everyday. I bet you will see an even higher score on your next test.

Zane: This week you were healthy again!…for two days. By Friday your nose was running. At first, I was willing to believe it was anything but a cold — surely you must be allergic to something! But, no, you were sick again. Your poor little immune system just isn’t prepared to be bathed in all of these preschool viruses. Despite all of your illnesses you are still chugging along and going about your life as normally as possible. You have become VERY interested in letters and text lately. You always want to identify the letters you know when you see them around the house or out in the world. And, you often want me to read you little bits of text on magazines, greeting cards, or wherever you find it. I wonder, will you be a gifted reader like your sister? Even though you are quite young I have been brainstorming ways to meet this need, that you are so clearly demonstrating, to become literate.

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

Lillia: [Lillia is on the right, just in case you didn’t recognize her!] This week you experienced your first foray into the world of theater, and you were really good. Both your dad and I were surprised when you said you were interested in auditioning for the theater intensive that was being held at your school. We’ve always known you have a dramatic side, but every time we mentioned doing something theater-related you seemed hesitant. The afternoon of the auditions I got a phone call telling me that you had been cast as a “swindler” in the play and that you had to stay late to rehearse. I was so happy for you! Fast forward to Friday afternoon and you came home from school to tell me that your first performance went really well and that you were sobbing when the audience applauded for all of you. Nope, not dramatic at all! 🙂 We got to see you perform that night and I was honestly so impressed with all of the performers. I was amazed at how much all of you accomplished in less than a week. You were an excellent swindler, and your performance was very believable. I don’t know if more acting is in your future, but I am so very proud of you for taking that chance and following through.

Zane: This week your rash went away, but you came down with a terrible, terrible cold. You spent a lot of the week coughing, and little people coughing is just so heartbreaking. Thankfully, as of the time of this writing, you are doing much better. You were well enough by Friday to go apple picking, which was very exciting (though I think you were more interested in the pumpkin display than the apples…). On Saturday you went to your first ever baseball game! Your uncle (my brother, Jonathan) was playing in a charity game for the Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth (CHaD), and you made it through all nine innings without so much as one complaint. I’m not sure you really knew what was going on, but you did enjoy seeing your uncle and everyone else who was there to support him — especially his girlfriend Ashley. In fact, I think she’s the only part of the game you remember!