Hazel at six months.  Baby girl, you are a charming, beautiful ball of joy.  You make us laugh every day, and you love to laugh at us, too!  You’ve been sitting up on your own for a while.  You’re pretty good at tummy time, but you do not like it.  That yellow star fish and your blue fishy are your most favorite things.  You act like you want food so bad, but I finally gave you a bit of avocado and you were not a fan (what!?!).  Your brother is still your favorite person and you just might be his.  I love watching your sibling relationship grow.  You’ve already lightened the mood in our serious little family, and I can’t wait to see all the ways you’ll continue to bring joy into our lives.  It’s hard to imagine loving you more, but we do every day!

Max is 4!

On Saturday, the day before your birthday, you asked if all your friends were coming over for cupcakes on your birthday.  Um.  Several weeks ago I asked you if you would like to have a party.  You said no. A few days after that, you said it would be nice if some friends could come over and read books with you, so I started planning a book club for you later in the month.  Then you decided that you would like to have a party the next day.  To your credit, I put out an invite that morning, and nearly all your friends came on such short notice to sing happy birthday, eat cupcakes, play legos, and color with sidewalk chalk.  

Max, you are strong.  You have a fierce will and a fierce temper and a fierce love.  You are so curious and you have more questions than I can answer.  All my pictures these days are of you asking why or where or what or how.  You make connections quickly and surprise me daily.  You are silly and stubborn and a germaphobe and you insist on picking your own clothing.  You are confident and are not easily influenced by others.  Three has been a challenging year as you push boundaries and assert your independence.  God has gifted you greatly and we pray daily that you submit your strong will to Him.  We know you are capable of great things and we pray for wisdom to parent you well.  

Four is going to be fun and we’re so grateful to be your parents.  We love you, Max Amos!

We celebrated Max’s birthday last weekend with pancakes for breakfast on the seawall and burritos for dinner on the beach.  We took a ride on the Ferris wheel after sunset and answered all your questions all day long.  It was a lovely day celebrating your last day as a three year old!

Kyoto Day 4.

Homeward bound!  Apartment 🚶Kyoto Station 🚅 Osaka Airport 🛫 Naha Airport 🚗 Home 🙌🏼.

I’m still processing how I feel about travel with kids.  I read once that one does not “vacation” with children.  One “takes a trip.”  I wholeheartedly agree.  That is not to say it’s not worth it or enjoyable, but I wouldn’t call it relaxing.  I am glad we went, and I think it was an enriching experience.  There was valuable time spent together without errands to run or emails to check or chores to do, and we were super active, probably walking 4-5 miles every day.  And we saw a lot of cool places.  But travel is expensive, and Max might not remember any of it.  Hazel certainly won’t.  So was it worth it for Ben and me?  I think so.  You don’t know what you’ll learn until you go.  I was exhausted and happy to be home by the end, and Max had some pretty rough moments.  Overall though, I think travel provides expensive (both in dollars, er, yen, and energy and patience) but valuable lessons not learned other ways.  Max easily and quickly made friends with kids he saw all over the place, despite only sharing a few words they could understand.  We gained SO MUCH RESPECT for the immigrants and tourists in America.  International travel can be intimidating when you don’t know much of the language, but Japan was so accommodating.  

Will we do it again?  Maybe.  Probably.  We’ll see?  For now, we are back to enjoying our little island home.  Maybe that’s the best part of travel.  Okinawa never felt so much like home until we left for a while and came back.  ❤️