11 years ago, God gave us the gift of becoming parents to our beautiful boy Silas. We will forever remember that day, and thank God daily for the blessing Silas is to us and our family. He has an amazing playful heart and mind. He loves to come up with fun ideas for playing including different roles. For example making a market where you can "sell" and "buy" things, making up his own form for currency, setting up multiple board games and making a new game out of it. All the while he includes his little brothers in the process. It is so amazing to see all 3 boys play together and have so much fun. This ability to still play is so fantastic. Also this past year Silas has really grown up in so many ways. Now a lot of his playing games include making spreadsheets on the computer, and learning new card tricks and how to do a rubix cube on YouTube. He almost always finds something fun to do and we don't hear "I'm bored", or "what should I do" very often.
Silas continues to come directly home after school, and often he has a friend from his class with. It's been fun to get to know his friends as they spend time here. Sometimes his friends stop by and ask him to go play soccer or something, and he loves that. Silas is definitely a social butterfly, but also enjoys just hanging out at home. He can say to his friends, "No, I'm just going to stay home and be with my family today."
Silas has very big emotions and is either super happy og super bummed. This rollercoaster can be challenging to tackle for him and us as parents, but we seek help where we can get it, and Silas is really learning a lot of ways to tackle his feelings and is so good at coming and talking to us, etc. We are so lucky to get to hear all the details of his day and what's going on in his head.
In his freetime Silas goes to different activities.
-Soccer 2 times a week + games. He plays goalie and really loves to play soccer during recess at school too.
-Fdf - which is like boy scouts for both girls and boys
-Golf - 1 time a week at the local golf course. He gets to practice at the driving range, putting green and par 3 course.
-Gospel-kids is still once a week, and he really loves to sing and hang out there. This year there are 2 other boys in his age group as well.
-Practicing piano - Silas doesn't have official lessons, but he has a piano teaching APP that is really great and he can play for 1-2 hours some days! He is looking forward to attending a Song and Music Camp at the beginning of the summer.
Silas also has a sense for business and maybe a bit of hoarding? :-) On his class trip to Thyborøn, he used some of his pocket money to buy some candy cigarettes (yes they still make these!). I asked him how many boxes he bought and he said SEVEN! Seven boxes of candy cigarettes. But then he told me that so many other kids wanted some too, but Silas had bought them all, so he started selling the ones he had bought to the other kids at a higher price :-) :-) HA HA. I guess he understands supply and demand.
Silas had 2 birthday parties again this year. Sunday with his family in Denmark. There we had Grandpa's famous sub sandwiches for lunch, carrot cake for dessert, and played street hockey where everyone was included. It was a lot of fun and we laughed a lot. He got a FCM soccer jersey (the local soccer club), a FCM cap, and a board game (Stratego).
The next day, on his birthday, he woke up to singing and presents. He got a baseball glove, clothes, drawing articles, and a mobile phone! Finally! He was the last person in his class to get their own phone. He was very excited and has already collected telephone numbers from his classmates and many family members. Yesterday he texted me that he was done with school and on his way home. I quickly wrote back "great, can you pick up Liam on the way?"...and he did. So it does have its advantages. :-)
After school on his birthday, he had invited the boys from his class over for a little after school party. They spent time playing soccer at the playground, eating hotdogs, and cake, and just playing outside. Silas had a great day and we ended the day at his favorite pizza restaurant CORNER as a family!
Like most years, Silas was very excited the few weeks before his birthday, and actually had a hard time falling asleep for over 2 weeks. Every night he would have the countdown and explain that now there were only XX days left. The night before his birthday he finally fell asleep around 11pm, and then woke up at 12.30am and was awake for 3 hours. I ended up come in and laying next to him so he could finally fall asleep. He was always been good at looking forward to things.
We look forward to what the next year of life brings for Silas.
The other day Liam was putting on his socks and he says "Mommy, you need to clip my foot nails"...
Silas was on a three day fieldtrip with his class and the other 4th grade class at his school. They went to Thyborøn, a small town on the west coast of Jutland in Denmark. They did so many things such as: Visiting bunkers and hearing about the history of WWII, visiting a house completely deocrated with shells, visiting an aquarium, getting a tour of a fish market, going on an amber safari to find amber, and of course walking the beach, taking the train, and sleeping with his friends in little cabins. One of his challenges on the trip was that 2 of the boys in his cabin wanted to have a "døgner"...which means you don't sleep at all and are awake for 24 hours. Silas told us he did not want to do that, and decided himself to sleep eventhough the other boys were awake!
He had a great time. So great, that for the next few days he was really sad about it being over, and about never getting to do that exact same thing again. We talked about the challenge of being sad when something is over, and then trying to find joy in the memories... But I, know this feeling so much and still struggle, so I guess Silas takes after me in more ways then we can count!
Fridays have been free days with one or more kids for the past 4 years...and before that I often had a free day with the kids at least 1 day a week. It's been a special time and I've really enjoyed these days where we can be lazy, go on a trip, have time to play games, bake, go grocery shopping etc. I will admit there have been some Fridays where I've just really needed some quiet time at home and I've sent the boys to pre-school anyway, or I've kept with my decision and had them home and acutally been blessed with getting more energy from having the special time and doing fun things with them or on the other end been in tears most of the day. Regardless, it has been a wonderful opportunity and tradition.
That being said, I'm in the last 2 months of this phase. Liam starts school in August, and then I won't be able to have these special weekdays with him or any of the boys. I know we'll find alternative times to spend together, and they are done with school most days at 12.30, so I definitely still have time with the boys even though they go to school, which I'm very happy about.
I remember asking one of my dear friends, whose youngest daughter was about to start school in 2018, if she was feeling okay with the whole situation. I will never forget her answer. She said "Yes, I am, I have used my time with her well, and I have no regrets." This response made me look at my own life situation, and if I'd be able to say the same thing in 2022 when Liam was about to start school. Some months later I made a drastic decision to stop working for 1½ years, where I had Liam home for a lot of that time, and then only working 15 hours a week the past 1½ years.
It can definitely be hard at times. I miss having lots of colleagues and being able to be more social during the day. I struggle to remain patient when all 3 kids - and now a dog - are needing me for something at the same time, or are just in bad moods and not talking very respectfully. I get sick of doing the dishes, again again, and feeling like I'm just a cleaning up, making food, machine. But as I reflect on the time, I find myself being grateful. Grateful for having support to make the decision I did in 2018 to be home with my kids a lot more. Grateful that by the grace of God, I have strength every day to stay present in the difficult situations with the kids whether it be talking about screen time usage, friends and kindness, why playing outside is necessary, EVERY DAY, or just seeing them when they need a hug or an ear to listen after a hard day at school. I can honestly say "I have no regrets" and today I needed to remind myself of that, as the tears were rolling down my face, knowing this Friday Free dag is one of the last.
Here are some pictures from a little adventure time with Liam last friday.
