Advancing

It's a new year, and my three children took that as an excuse to continue growing as relentlessly as ever. That's not true; they ramped up the intensity like they're determined to be full grown by the end of January or something. All three kids have grown an entire INCH in height in the two months since November. Jay actually grew close to an inch and a half in 2 months. Jay is now almost 5'10''. Rose is 5'7.5'', and Amber is 4'7''. No wonder I have had to double our grocery budget in the past year! 

As startling as the kids' height gains are each time we measure (and we need to measure more often), they do not feel as sudden as the advancements that the kids underwent at church in the new year:

• Jay became a teacher in the Aaronic priesthood since he's turning 14 this year. 
• Rose graduated from Primary and moved up to the Young Women's organization since she's turning 12 this year.
• Amber moved up a class in Primary since she's turning 9 this year. 

Jeff ordained Jay to the office of teacher at church on New Year's Day. Amber's most recent big advancement was when she got baptized 2 months ago. Rose is the only one who switched organizations, so she gets the spotlight in this post. The middle child always deserves some extra attention! 

My soft vivacious little cherub baby girl is a now a strong intelligent sweet young woman. She is tall and beautiful, inside and out. She is athletic and goes running after school every day that she's not at swim practice. She reads at the speed of light, has straight A's, and helps explain math problems to her classmates. She faithfully reads from the Book of Mormon every night, and has read it cover to cover at least 6 times. Over the past few months playing the piano has "clicked" for Rose and she is working on learning her first real hymn from the green hymnbook: Redeemer of Israel. She is fearlessly learning how to play the cello in the school orchestra. When I pick Rose up from school, she is bursting with Things To Say and talks my ear off for 20+ minutes before going to quietly relax with a video game. She loves warm hugs. 

Rose had her first Sunday young women's class on January 8th, and her first Wednesday night young women's activity on January 11th. So far so good!

I love the process of watching my kids figure out who they are, and getting to know these adorable, intelligent, impressive individuals that they are becoming. It is a humbling responsibility to teach my kids correct principles and also teach them how to make good choices for themselves. I hope my trial-and-error parenting methods don't drive them too crazy!

Rose, after church on Sunday. (She scraped her chin on the bottom of the pool during swim practice on Saturday--the pool they practice in has a very shallow shallow end.)

Jay posed for this picture on his own, holding up the Aaronic Priesthood ordination certificate.

When we got home from church, I demanded parental pictures of my advancing children. I let Amber off the hook because she was baptized just two months ago. When Jay became a deacon 2 years ago, I took pictures of him with Jeff, alone, and with both parents. I was determined to do that for Rose as well, so we had a quick chilly phone photo shoot on Sunday.

New deacon Jay, 2 years ago: January 3, 2021. SNIFF.

We are ALL advancing in age.