Oct. – Dec. 2014

John has really gotten into sports. He loves throwing the football in the house and actually has a nice natural spiral – we’ll see how it progresses, but at the moment, we’re pretty impressed! He has been fortunate enough to go to a couple of UNC Basketball games and loves to play baseball in the backyard. I’m told by his teachers that he plays soccer and football pretty much every day during recess time. John is a quick study and has a strong understanding of the rules of each game he watches and likes to call out the scores to games. He also won’t hesitate to ask questions if there is some aspect he doesn’t understand. Bapa’s love for the Packers has influenced John to pretend to be Aaron Rodgers, which is pretty cool. John has also started playing board games and picks up on the rules quickly. However, you have to watch him closely because he’s starting to get a reputation of trying to take extra turns or moving to the “wrong square.” John is a sweet boy, polite most of the time, and has started asking to be excused from the table and takes his plates to the sink when he’s finished. He’s a joy to be around (when he’s not having one of his 4-year old tantrums) or tackling one of his sisters to the floor – yes, this happens frequently.

Larkin continues to be more and more independent and has really enjoyed the art of coloring. Daddy brings home three to ten drawings each day from school and Larkin likes to describe each one of them to him. She’s quite good at drawing in between the lines and is creative with her designs. Larkin is the biggest helper in her class room to the teachers and also at home. She still has that nurturing side and loves to take care of pretend babies, and offer her help to Reagan (even when Rea not-so-kindly refuses at times). She likes to make her bed or John’s bed, which he gets disgruntled about, and she has even been spotted washing down the table and chairs after a messy dinner. Both John and she have started taking their bicycles around the neighborhood with Paul pushing Reagan in a car shortly behind them. Both are pretty self-sufficient on the bike and it shouldn’t be too long before the training wheels are taken off. Now that she’s moved up in size in most of her clothes, Larkin is very interested in checking each piece of clothing that she plans to put on and says, “see, it says 4T – that’s because I’m a 4T, because I’m 4.” Or if there’s a shirt that she really likes and doesn’t want to part with quite yet, she’ll look at and show us the tags, but then make her argument, “but see, this says 3T, but it’s a BIG 3T, so I can still wear it.” It’s pretty darn cute. Larkin is daddy’s best eater, disposing of anything and everything that hits her plate. All three eat well, but she’s an absolute super star. One recent night Nana made chicken lettuce wraps and the three of them shredded through the entire stack of lettuce and fillings. Larkin likes to flex her muscles after eating vegetables and likes to say how they give her super power strength. She’ll run as fast as she can in place and then breakdown laughing with exhaustion. Larkin has quite the contagious laugh and you can’t help but think of her mommy when you hear it.

Wow, Reagan is growing up quickly. She’s taken Larkin’s lead of independence and wants to do everything on her own. She likes to put on her own underwear, pants, pajamas, etc., and pretty much wants to do everything herself. “I do it,” is constantly said. Reagan’s verbal skills are excellent and it’s rare that we can’t understand what she’s saying. She speaks in full sentences, and boy does she like to be the boss! Not much gets past this girl and we’ll all be in real trouble when she starts to understand our “secret code” of spelling words out loud. Reagan loves to do puzzles (does her favorite one by herself before bed each night), throw the ball (she’s got quite an arm), and run after her siblings (almost as fast as them). Reagan is doing great at daycare and is excellent at giving her teachers the biggest hug ever when leaving each day. Reagan is quite the character and is excellent at showing her emotions, and she will use her entire body and tone of voice to do so. One of her more recent phrases is, “oh mannn,” where she’ll say it with a sarcastic and defeated tone, put her hands over her face, and slump her entire body over. It’s quite hysterical to see.

Each night before going to bed Reagan would ask Paul or the adult putting her to bed to sing the bumble bee song. No one had a clue what the bumble bee song was, so each person would make-up something because she was adamant about wanting to hear this song. After a week or two of this went by, Paul finally asked her teachers and they said, “Yes, we sing the Baby Bumble Bee song.” Well, after reading the lyrics to this song, Paul thought the best course of action was to keep up with the “made-up” version(s), so now weeks and weeks later, each person continues to sing a new rendition of bumble bee to Reagan each night. We like to joke that since the beginning Reagan has known none of know the song and that she enjoys putting us on the spot and making us look and sound completely ridiculous. Gotta love this girl.

Months back Paul took away the door knob cover on John and Larkin’s room. The cover insured they would stay in their room for the duration of the night and not to crawl into bed with Paul or anyone else sleeping over in the middle of the night. Paul has started working with them to use the potty when they wake up in the middle of the night and has instructed them to stay in their beds or at least their room until their alarm goes off. They have done pretty well with this, but it’s still a work in progress: they have started getting in the habit of going to the potty when they wake up in the morning, but instead of going back to their bed, they climb in with others and ask them a million questions. Paul’s rule thus far has been to allow for these early morning awakenings as long as a 6 is on the clock, but anything before that, they need to go back to their own beds. Some of us (Grandpa, cough, cough) have a harder time than others with enforcing said rules!

Racetrack starts up again – Now that Reagan is almost as fast as John and Larkin, the hallway (connection of multiple rooms) has become another racetrack. Previously this was used by John and Larkin to run down the hallway with their big yellow truck. Well now they do follow the leader and all go racing down as fast as they can and then slide on their knees. Most of the time this works out okay and they laugh, but the occasional mishap has Reagan running her head into the couch, one of them tripping over another’s feet or John or Reagan tackling the others as they get to the finish line. Luckily no trips to the ER have ensued, but it only seems like a matter of time.

J&L Birthday Party – Paul decided to combine John and Larkin’s 4th birthday with some great friends of his, the Tremewans, and their son Wyatt who was turning 7. They held the event at a place called FunFusion in Mebane, NC, which is kind of like a Monkey Joe’s if you’ve ever been to one of those. The Tremewans and Paul did a Taco bar, lots of snacks and even provided adult beverages (rare for this type of facility to allow this!), which was a nice surprise to most, since it was a kids event. The facility was awesome and the kids and adults had a super fun time. It’s really hard to believe John and Larkin are 4 years old.

Santa – One of Paul’s best friends parents has an “inside track” on Santa and had him come to Paul’s house to visit the family for an hour. John, Larkin, and Reagan were so excited to see him and Santa could not have been better to them. He read stories, gave them each a book as a gift, showed them his big Santa Keys, the Reindeer bells, and took hundreds of pictures with them. Seeing their little faces light up like this is a memory that will stay with each one of us in attendance. It took Reagan a little while to warm-up to Santa, but she did in time. John and Larkin showed Santa their playroom and all three told Santa what they would like for Christmas. It was a very special visit and as if it wasn’t good enough, Santa even brought Paul a bottle of Woodford Reserve. Santa sure knows how to booze, uh, I mean brighten up the day! Thank you Dobson’s for your wonderful Christmas Gift to the Kindem Family!

Holidays – For Thanksgiving Dan and Maureen joined Doug, Nessa, and Aiden in Philly for Thanksgiving, and Kat stayed with Paul and the kids and enjoyed a Kindem Family Thanksgiving. We missed the rest of the O’Brien family during this time, but it was nice not dealing with I-95 and we made up for lost time during Christmas break. The entire immediate family was in town for Christmas, which made this time extra special. Paul hosted the Christmas Eve Open house were friends and extended family members come to the house for oysters, gravlax, chowders, chili’s, and much more. John loved putting on the grilling gloves and throwing oysters on the grill, while Larkin spun around in her pretty party dress, and Reagan gave people big smiles as she proceeded to eat everything on their plate. Paul’s grandmother, Pharmor, at the age of 92, made the trip from Seattle this year, which made the holidays even more fun. Uncle Pete convinced Pharmor later in the week to help him make her famous raised donuts. Man, are these tasty! John, Larkin, and Reagan, enjoyed spending time with all their cousins, and Paul loved being with all his family members. It’s a wonderful time of year, but also a tough one. We do our best to focus on the good aspects and it was amazing to see the kids so excited about Santa, presents, and family.

Jamie, Our three kids are so full of life, enthusiastic about being around others, enjoy trying new things, so inquisitive and ask questions about everything they see and hear about, and eat like champions. This probably doesn’t come as a big surprise to you given they came from you, but I still needed to mention it. Your family and I went to see the Nutcracker (probably your favorite family tradition) over the holiday break and John and Larkin joined the adults while Reagan and Aiden stayed home with Nana and Bapa. This was the first year I thought they would be ready. Well, both John and Larkin enjoyed the show immensely and John literally asked questions every 30 seconds throughout the show. It was a little disturbing to our neighbors, but it was amazing and beautiful to see how his little mind worked – I mean it was chumming like a freight train, analyzing every part of the show, and he was loving every moment. Life is far from the same without you, but somehow we’ve survived another year. Your spirit lives inside all of us, but your children carry it most brightly. I’m amazed each and everyday just how beautiful they are inside and out. You’d be so proud of them! We miss you greatly. Paul