The Kolariks: February 2015

This month, naturally, I want to celebrate LOVE!

There was a book I read a long, long time ago that I love to still come back to - explaining that there are five primary ways, languages, in which people give and receive love: words of affirmation, quality time, gifts, physical touch, and acts of service. I might be biased, but I think our family does a pretty darn good job loving each other well!

Words of Affirmation: I think we've always tried to use kind, encouraging words in our house - but we definitely had to step up our game when Abby joined the troupe. Being so little still, Abby continues to demand much of our attention and physical presence, so we do our best to curb Bruce's jealousy by verbally communicating his importance throughout the day. And, it's fun that even at three, Bruce is great at using his words to build us up, too. He does a commendable job expressing thanks for various things, and it melts my insides when he tells me the lunch I made him was "deeeee-licious!" And, he's finally telling us he loves us - without being prodded!

As both of the kiddos continue to try and find their footing as independent people, there are plenty of moments daily that push our patience and drive us crazy, but we're trying hard to find a balance between being firm without being rude, apologizing when we blow it, and looking for opportunities to tell our Littles how awesome they are, and how proud of them we are.

Quality Time: Monday through Friday zip by in a blur, but our family absolutely wins at weekends. Abby even has a "weekend dance" she does when we celebrate Friday evening that the weekend has arrived again. Some weekends have special events going on, others can be pretty mundane - but we spend them together, and I love it.

Duck Pond!

Build and Grow program at Lowes

Valentine's Day stroll to the gas station store

Gifts: Oh what a wonderful establishment is The Dollar Tree. Who doesn't like getting and giving gifts? And I love that I can bring my kids to the dollar store and let them pick out ANYTHING they want. Sure, the toys are cheaply made and sometimes even fall apart in the car coming home from the store - but sometimes we find real gems, too, and either way - my kids are happy. We make at least one trip there a week, and the cashiers know us by name.

One quirky thing about Bruce these days, is that he loves giving "gifts." We have a few small gift boxes that he loves to stuff full with treasures he finds around the house. Sometimes he's Santa, sometimes it's our "birthday" - but just about every evening we spend some time opening presents from Bruce. Love that kid.

Physical Touch: I think everyone in this family speaks this language. Abby begins the day needing snuggles on the couch. Although I would rather her wake-up calls didn't come before 6am, it is nice that unlike her brother at this age, she doesn't want to immediately start playing. We just tuck in together for awhile on the sofa, watch a little Netflix, and wait for the rest of the house to wake up. She still has a need to ride my hip for a lot of the day and hold my hair, and as inconvenient as that can be, I know I'll miss it when she's older.

Then there's the "knock over" game that is played in the hallways and just about everywhere else imaginable. Here's how this game works: Abby is standing somewhere and Bruce decides she needs to be knocked over. Most of the time, this is legitimately a friendly game and makes Abby giggle, resulting in a little wrestling on the floor. There's something that flutters in my heart when I see them rolling around on the floor together - legs and arms all entwined - grinning from ear to ear and squealing, a hope that these siblings will grow to truly love each other. And then a split second or two later the flutter is gone when I realize their legs and arms are all entwined together and one will be broken soon if I don't intervene. But the moment is nice for a moment.

Abby's claim to fame these days is her Frankenstein hug. She's really social and has an intense desire to hug everybody... but is a little socially awkward in the process. She'll put her arms straight out in front of her, and slowly walk towards her target with an impish grin on her face. Sometimes the Little on the receiving end will furrow their brow and try to melt away from her, but more times than not, her embrace is welcomed and Abby feels accomplished.

Bruce loves to just hang on you while you're sitting on the floor playing or reading with him. Or crawl all over every inch of you like some kind of spider. Sometimes he can get a little crazy, but really I think he just craves to be as close to you as he can be, whenever he has the opportunity.

And this may surprise you, but Charlie and I are always needing hugs and snuggles, too.

Acts of Service: I win this category hands down in one word - mom. But really, everyone in this family goes above and beyond to help each other. Well, maybe Bruce is boycotting this for the time-being, but his heart is gold and I know the rebellion towards being helpful will pass. He did pick up Abby's nuk for me in the parking lot yesterday. That's something, right?

Maybe it's just the age she's at now, but Abby is such the sweetie-mama's-little-helper. She helps me unload the dishwasher everyday, she's *awesome* at folding laundry, she's always ready to bring me fresh diapers, or whatever else I need, and she's the best and finding toys Bruce would like to play with and presenting them to him like trophies.

she also runs a make-shift orphanage these days

babies get straight-up mustard under her care regime

but they always get a bedtime story

feeding the chickens

And Charlie? We're sure lucky to have that guy around. He can do anything, fix anything, solve any problem - and he's at our disposal, willing to do whatever needs to be done to make our lives better. He engages with the kids before and after work, takes emails and phone calls for work around the clock, chips away at house projects during weekend nap times, and stays up way too late at night working on side projects for extra income. He really is the best. And he's ours.

Other highlights from the month:

My mom came for a visit! Rick wasn't able to join this time, but we still had a great time! She tagged along to all of our "usual" weekly appointments, and thankfully treated us to the coveted breakfast at Ozzy's diner before she had to head back to Texas.

The curse of the February Cold struck again! Unfortunately, this month always seems to come along with a nagging winter illness. Charlie seemed to avoid it fairly well, but the kids and I have been pretty snot-faced and have been coughing all day and well into the night... It's been lovely, but I think we're over it for the most part now. Hurrah!

We celebrated my birthday! Charlie fixed a nice dinner for me and he and Bruce made a wonderful cake. Since Bruce was in charge of the design, of course it was pirate themed, but I think Charlie did a pretty great job of executing the "anchor."

And Mardi Gras! I made a king cake, complete with tiny plastic baby (much to Abby's delight), and we met our international friends for a fun BBQ dinner.

Abby is sitting at the big table now! Earlier than expected, but the silly girl keeps climbing out of her high chair! She isn't talking yet, but is working really hard on her animal impressions. So far, she nails cow, horse, cat, pig, snake and sheep.