I cannot tell you how much I love summer! It just seems even with things aren't perfect, they are better when it's warm outside! I am also a lot more lax on rules in the summer. The kids are allowed to watch TV during the week which they are not allowed to do during the school year and their bedtime is an hour later. The only bad part is that makes my night time work start an hour later too!
Last week Raelynn got to pick out her Bunny and tonight, a week later she is finally named. Introducing Blu! Blu is one of Raelynn's 4H projects and she is learning how to "show" Blu and what all needs to be known about her. Her other 4H project is photography. She wanted to take pictures of Blu and Moon, her pony, and use that for her photography project. She is really doing great with 4H but I struggle. It is overwhelming to me and I just cannot grasp it all but I am hoping after this summer I will be much more informed. The leaders are amazing. I don't even know how to tell you how amazing they are. They don't even laugh at me, well at least not much! The one leader that is housing Raelynn's bunny has 3 daughters and they are teaching Raelynn everything. We are out 2X a week so we are getting to know them better all the time and they love animals and love 4H. They just want to expose Raelynn and the other kids to all they can. They have invited Raelynn to spend the week of fair with them EVERY day ALL day. I can't even explain how excited Raelynn is. She loves every second of it. I love to see her excitement but I was equally excited that I was not expected to spend every day all day at the fair with dirt and animals!!!
Raelynn also finally, after almost 7 years, expressed jealousy of her brother. It was so sad but so understandable. She had a rough day and one thing led to another and she broke down and out of the blue started asking why everyone thought Cooper was so cute and so funny and why he got all the attention and then there was Cooper's Cause that was all about him. It broke my heart but at the same time I always knew she had to feel a little jealousy and wondered if she just kept it buried. She brought up things that she was jealous about that happened when she was in Kindergarten so it obviously had been building for some time. I think she was surprised by my reaction as I agreed and told her I completely understood. I don't know if she thought I was going to be mad but she seemed so happy that I wasn't. I told her we had tried so hard to give her equal attention and she assured me it wasn't me, it was everyone else. After she had told me so much of what bothered her we discussed how her brother looked up to her and why he did some of the things he did and why he got so much attention. I felt so bad for her but it must have needed to be said because she has been perfect every since. Even tonight she seemed gentle with him as she tried to teach him how to hold her Bunny. At one point she got short with him and stopped her self and said, "I am sorry Buddy, I just didn't want you to hurt Blu, let me show you again." I almost fell over! Anyway, it is just another example of how our family is growing together, It was another very teachable moment and another instance that I am so happy I had read so many articles about sibling jealousy!
So tomorrow is another crazy busy work day but it will be warm outside just waiting for me to be able to get out and enjoy it. I cannon wait!
