A Little Bit of Everything

First, on Friday Harley celebrated her 4 month birthday. Have I mentioned before how much I love this little munchkin? She is such a good baby. She sleeps more than 12 hours at night, naps on schedule, only poops once a week, and is generally happy all of the time. Need I mention she is very different than her older brothers. I guess I got lucky this time around. She is rolling over and loves to suck her thumb. And although we haven't been to the doctor for her 4 month appointment yet. She is gaining weight, lots of weight. Here she is in her BYU Cheerleading attire. We think she was a good luck charm in the BYU victory over Washington on Saturday.
As you can see she was very excited about the "W".

Saturday Grandpa and Grandma Butler came to visit. So, we spent the afternoon exploring our city. Our first stop was the Albert Einstein Statue outside the National Science Building. This is probably the only statue you are allowed to climb on in the district. We had a fun time crawling all over Albert. Atley said he resembled a teddy bear made of raisins. I can't say that I disagree and I certainly couldn't resist giving him a little kiss.


Atley navigated our adventures by carefully studying the map.

For some reason we had never been to the Korean War Memorial on the National Mall. It was fascinating. The Korean War is often referred to as the forgotten war, perhaps because it was after WWII where more than 400,000 Americans were killed and before Vietnam which was such a source of international outrage and confusion. I was shocked at how many were killed, wounded, captured, or are still considered missing. The war was short in duration 1950-53 but more than 54,000 Americans lost their lives. Compare that to Vietnam where 58,000 were killed in the space of 14 years, and you begin to understand how intense the war must have been.


After church on Sunday we spent the evening walking around National Harbor, enjoying the boats and a gorgeous sunset. We caught one of the free movies that play at dusk throughout the summer.
Tuesday was Atley's 1st day of 1st grade, which means it is his 1st day of being gone all day. Of course it was much harder on me than him. He cheerfully exclaimed after getting off the bus that it was the greatest day of his life and he only got punched once. Apparently only being punched once is a good thing!! Not sure how I feel about that.

After school we headed to the mall. On the first Tuesday of each month our local LEGO store has a free build. Essentially, you stand in line to make something and then you get to take it home. This month the boys made a school boy. Very cute and very exciting, for them anyway.

FREEZE

When I was little I hated playing tag. Mostly because I hated running but I also wasn't very fast either. So, when my friends or cousins suggested that we play tag I always agreed by saying, "Yeah, let's play freeze tag." You see I was always thinking or maybe scheming is a better word for it. I realized that if we played freeze tag I could get tagged and then stand perfectly still. It was great! I could rest while everyone else ran around.

Today I took the kids to the Open House at Atley's elementary school to meet his teacher for the upcoming year. As I was walking out of the building holding the baby with one arm, holding Nash's hand with the other, and watching Atley as he walked a step in front of us, I had this overwhelming desire to FREEZE my children. Don't panic! I do not mean like Jeffrey Dahmer in an actual freezer. Rather, I want to keep them the same. I want them to stay innocent and mine. I want them to stay this age forever and let everyone else in the world run around while we stand still. I know this is the antithesis of progress, but despite their difficulty, somehow, I know that these are the greatest days. If only I could freeze time and make them last forever, just like I used to get frozen when I was a kid playing tag.