The Kotas: March 2018

That's what is new in our family: new car, gym will be cancelled in 2 months and kids are going to a new school next semester!

Kids milestones or achievements

Rebecca: You finally decided to write letters to your friends back in Sioux Falls. A couple of the girls wanted to keep contact and be pen pals with you but writing was your weakest point and you never really got excited about that! But since we started homeschool with Connections Academy, you handwriting improved SO MUCH and also your storytelling! You decided on your own to write cards to your friends and it reads so well and it looks so good. I AM SO PROUD!! We are past the struggle to write now, I couldn't be happier about that!!!

Nico: you are finally adjusting to your new school! Teacher has been saying you are improving and I can see she smiles more at you now, meaning you once again showed people around you what a sweet and good boy you are even though you have your attention struggles! People love you, Nico! Daddy and mommy try so hard to keep you that way, away from the world's spoiling. On another subject, Nico, you are obsessed with grandma and grandpa for a good few months now! It breaks and melts my heart at the same time.

Vicky: you are sleeping better. I tell Daddy why you got better but he doesn't believe me. The reason is that I noticed how smart you are so I started having conversations with you before going to bed. I tell you "Vicky, please don't wake up tonight, let mommy sleep ok?". And every time we have a good convo you sleep better. Also, I changed a few things on how I nurse you before going to bed. I'm trying to prepare for weaning you out of breastfeeding sometime in the near future. And you got better from your cold. For now. I'll take what I have for now! On another note, you eat sandwiches like the big kids and that just baffles me since both Becca and Nico only learned how to eat sandwiches the right way around 4yo!!!

Weather is starting to warm up but I can tell it won't be as bad as Texas since I never ever spent a Easter in TX when it wasn't hot already. My friend also tells me that in GA it cools off a little bit in the evenings! That's something to be happy about as I was dreading summer in here thinking it would be as bad as in TX.

We are also so very excited about our trip to Brazil at the end of the year!! You kids cannot wait and me neither! I'm craving all the good things Brazil can offer and missing our families so much! Mom and dad will also try to get away for a few days just the two of us while family takes care of you because we'll be celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary January next year!!

And that's it for today!!
xoxo
Mom

So kids....

Back in Lent 2018 your mom had a different view on how she wanted to continue posting on this blog. And the new focus is that this bog will be a media of communication between me (your mom) and you (my kids), and nobody else! Others are still welcome to read it but I'll write all future posts for you!

Becca, Nico and Vicky. What four months it has been since our move from South Dakota to Georgia. We sold our beautiful house in SD and we moved to a small apartment in GA. Let me explain it a little bit better.

We tried to find a a good house for rent when we were here visiting (during our house hunting trip), and we thought we had found it. But, long story short, after we were back in Sioux Falls, we learned about possible lead exposure in houses built before 1978 and mommy got all paranoid (you have no idea!) so we decided to withdraw our application. That's how we ended up living in an apartment. With 3 kids. And a crazy neighbor downstairs who would yell or sing at 2 or 3am at any given day. And who would also smoke all the time on the common halls while talking on the phone for everyone else to listen.

Meanwhile, we found out that the preschool we had chosen for Nico was not a good fit and daddy's 1h commute each way was really hard to endure every weekday. Also, about 2 months ago, your daddy got word of the existence of a direct bus to Emory from a couple of different park and rides (at another Atlanta's suburbs). All reasons combined, we had absolutely no more strings to continue living in that apartment other than to possibly avoid the hassle and the waste of money to cover the early termination fee and all the packing and unpacking - again - after only 3 months. But we had our minds set! We wanted to move out of there, as soon as possible.

For a month we started looking at the new found location of our interest. And two weeks before our apartment move-out date, we applied for a small but quaint rental house. And here we are now! Sleeping much better at night, not worrying about my kids dinosaur-like footsteps and noise before 8am, with lots of sunshine and desirable high ceilings. And an extra bedroom! And much more cabinet and closet space.

Sure, we had to deal with more than a few unpleasant details moving in to our new home like very dirty windows and floors, remnants of mice (we had now sealed all indoor and outdoors openings in the house so no more mice problems), a water leak, the dry up job of a restoration company and it's 5 industrial fans and a gigantic dehumidifier for 3+ days non-stop (can you imagine the constant noise?) and also the handy men putting the baseboards back on again. Finally, after 2 weeks everything was finally ok, the house was completely bleached, wiped, sealed, and in working order. And much quieter.

Daddy's new bus commute is wonderful and Emory actually pays for it to support carpooling initiatives. He listens to audio books on the way in and takes a nap on the way back. The closest catholic parish to us is full of wonderful homeschool families and we already met many of them and we were able to have multiple play dates. Kids, you look so happy here!

Speaking of homeschooling, Rebecca, you are doing GREAT! What a hard working, gentle, happy and smart little girl you are! You'll go so far in life, I just know this!! I'm always so very proud of you and I tell daddy this every night! I also tell you this in person often, maybe you will remember it.

And Nico, we found a new church preschool for you before the start of the next school year. It started on Monday and we are very hopeful this time! I'm also proud of you, Nico. This move hasn't been easy on you with so many changes and so much idle time on your own until now. But you are a sweet, good boy and you love to learn. You are very smart too, and everyone who gets to meet you says the same. You are extremely curious and inquisitive. You are my happy (and very agitated) boy! And you are always so hungry! I never expected this so early on, I thought it would only start in your teen years.

Vicky, you are also doing great. You love the new house. You love to dance (I still want to catch your signature dance move on camera). You love a good laugh! You have a great sense of humor. And how smart you are too, I'm always so impressed by you. Having two older siblings have taught you many things already. You are veeeery strong willed. But you nurse and act like a baby still. You still wake up at night once, most days. I don't mind much, to be honest. Although it would surely be nice if you were sleeping through the night by now.

We started going to the gym again, it was going great except that probably because of the new environment exposure we all got a cold this week. It feels so much like living in a big busy city going to the gym at 5pm or 5:30pm. But I actually get some prayer time in while exercising and while driving, I get dinner ready before we go, and you guys socialize and spend some energy out! They have a good kids room with lots of running space, climbing toys and balls. And once we are back home, we all take our showers before dinner and daddy is home by then! We all eat together, and before 8:30pm all kids are in bed.

We finally bought patio furniture for the first time ever! Daddy finally got a gas grill. We bought a hammock for our charming yard. Weather this past weekend was great! We enjoyed eating outside - steaks, broiled crispy potatoes, green salad and watermelon. I also made everyone my favorite s'mores (using peeps marshmallows and heating it up on the microwave).

Tomorrow is Nico's birthday!!! We were planning on hitting Six Flags on its opening day this season but the weather is not expected to be great. We are still going to have breakfast on a pancake house restaurant, we are going to take you to a toy store so you can choose something you really want. You been saying you want a car with a remote control. Maybe we'll take you for some indoor fun at a bouncy house place or something. Ah, I almost forgot to register that you been begging me to make you a rainbow crepe cake for your birthday. You saw the recipe for it on Tasty. And I also promised I would get you a Shutterfly baby book because you always feel so sad that Rebecca has one but you have not. It breaks my heart!

Now some pictures!