Jocelyn Rau

November 16, 2024

Twelve!

Lana turned 12 last month, and it’s been so fun watching her turn into her real “big kid” self this past year.

Her love of outer space has taken a back seat to pop music and a skincare routine, but her undeniable artistic ability and being one of the most creative souls I have ever encountered remain steadfast and stronger than ever.

I’ll admit, I was a little nervous on how her academics were going to hold up going into middle school this year, but she is absolutely crushing 6th grade. At the end of the first quarter she’s carrying straight A’s, and we got the same email we got for Della about the 6th-grade teachers bringing up Lana’s name as one of the standout students for her work ethic and accomplishments during this first part of the school year. Proud is an enormous understatement there.

Also new this year was her breakout cross country season. Before school started we were talking about Della doing lacrosse and Morrison doing baseball and flag football, and Lana said, “I don’t have a sport.” I immediately told her not to even give that a second thought – tons of people don’t do sports, plus the artist in her blows 99% of people away. But she did a cross country camp this summer, and she and I even threw a couple runs into our almost-daily morning walking routine on the bike path, so I could tell she was kind of looking forward to giving running a shot. Giving it a shot – HA! She ended up being the fastest 6th-grade girl on the team!!! She was also invited to run in an invitational meet 2 weeks after their last Conference meet of the season, which she wasn’t super enthused about since it meant she had to race after her birthday, but she did amazing. They only took 10 girls and 10 boys total from all 3 grades (6th, 7th, and 8th). She even went for a practice jog the night before the meet because they didn’t have any organized practices in those 2 weeks between Conference and the invitational. Unfortunately she was struggling with a cough and chest cold when the meet came around, but she still ran her best 1.86-mile time of the season at 14:38 and was the fastest 6th-grade girl for Bay in the race. Plus the WFB girls placed 3rd overall out of like 27 teams, and all 3 grades ran together! Again, proud doesn’t even begin to describe the emotion I felt watching her not only give something new a try this year but excel in the amazing way that she did.

Her favorite color is back to purple from black, and she even admitted she went a little emo for a bit. 😀 Her favorite foods are still sushi, Thai beef with sticky rice, and Jimmy John’s, which she can’t wait for for her birthday dinner together with me. Goofball! (ETA: we ended up going to Noodles again for her birthday lunch instead of Jimmy John’s – game-time switch in the car as we were leaving) Nigh-Night remains her constant companion, and her flair for the creepy and macabre in her sense of humor always entertains everyone.

My little Shmee!! You impress me by the day, and you’re one of my favorite people in the world. Happy 12th birthday, Lana Marie! We love you so very much, and we can’t wait to celebrate you year after year after year.

The best – photo and yearly post comparisons:

September 14, 2024

FROSH!

As you know, Della started high school this year, our first foray into the world of truly big kids. And I’m not gonna lie, it’s horrifying. I know full well what high schoolers do when left to their own devices sometimes, so I’m just putting full faith that we’re steering her in the right direction at all times possible and she’s actually listening and taking our advice to heart. Hey, a girl can dream, right?! 😆

But anyway… It prompted me to make some pretty cute comparison photos that I wanted to share for posterity. Here are her first days of elementary and middle school plus last day of 8th grade, then first days of all three. I’ll make them for last day of high school, too. Those will be crazy!

September 14, 2024September 14, 2024

End School –> Summer –> Start School

As usual, I am far behind over here, but such is a busy life with 5 kids and a full-time job. Said kids all passed their grade levels last year, whew!, we had a fun-filled summer vacation, then they all started back to school within the past 2 weeks. We are now in 3 different schools for the duration with Della starting high school and Lana starting middle school, so that’s a big change, too!

Here are pictures from the last day of school in June and the first days of school this month, but I’m not going to photo dump everything from summer in here. So sorry, that would take forever. I’ll mix a couple summer fun pics in that I might not have posted on social, but our vacations (late winter/early spring break in Florida, Canada in July, and St. Thomas in August) would be entire posts all their own and I just don’t feel like doing that. 😁 But that little Instagram box in the right sidebar here rotates through all my Instagram pictures so they’ll pop up over there, and if you follow me personally on Facebook then you’ve seen most of them there, too. And if you haven’t, just use your imagination! 🤣

August 8, 2024September 15, 2024

Fourteen!

Della just turned 14 and I’m sorry, but that just sounds crazy – 14?! However, the day she was born does feel like eons ago…

ETA – we had her 14-year checkup at the end of August, and here are her official stats:

Height: 5′ 7.6″ (95%)
Weight: 117 lbs. 12.8 oz. (65%)
BMI: 18.12 (32%)
Blood Pressure: 120/60

Not only is she now a full-blown teenager, she’s off to high school! We’re going to be in 3 different schools now for the next 5 years, so that’ll be fun. 😀

She remains the unshakable leader of the Rau kids, and we are beyond lucky that she is. The poise and responsibility she shows when she’s in charge is amazing, and the way she makes sure her siblings are 100% ok and everything is taken care of is incredible.

She’s also a wonderful friend, and I’m so happy that she has had such a great group of girlfriends for a number of years now. It gives me comfort that they’re all going into their high school years together – strengh in numbers, right? I’m going to keep telling myself that, anyway, as all of these big-kid years and stressors come our way.

She’s still loving lacrosse and plans to play on the high school team next spring. She’s taken lessons from an upperclasswoman on the team all summer and will be doing some skills clinics with her coach from this spring in the next couple weeks before school starts, so hopefully we can keep her stick in her hands over the fall and winter, too, to get ready for the big leagues on the high school team.

It was cute – she and I were getting her school supplies ready today and ordering the ones she needs, and she already has her color scheme of corresponding notebooks, folders, and binders for each class picked out and ready to go.

Happy 14th birthday, Della Jolee! We love you so much, and the pride we feel watching you grow into this outstanding young woman is immeasurable. Thank you for who you are and everything you do – like I always say, never change for anyone. Here’s to a fantastic year ahead and many, many more birthdays to celebrate!

August 4, 2024August 4, 2024

The second one bites the dust

Lana is off to middle school this upcoming school year, and we’re going to be in 3 different schools now since Della is moving onto high school! I’m sad the girls won’t overlap in school again until Lana’s freshman year and Della’s senior year in high school, but at least they’ll have that year together again.

It’s not nearly as bittersweet for me as when Della headed off to middle school for a couple of reasons – Lana is so ready to move out of Cumberland and elementary school, and I know how great our middle school is. They have an absolutely amazing staff, they are so inclusive, and Lana will get to just keep growing and blossoming into herself even more than she did this past year in 5th grade.

Just like when Della moved onto middle school, though, our walking crew is again shrinking. I need to check on how far after the middle school bell the high school starts, but I’m hopeful the girls can at least walk to the middle school together then Della can branch off to the high school, which thankfully is directly across the street from the middle school. We are seriously so lucky to live in a walkable community. Growing up in a larger city that was the complete opposite, I never knew what we were missing!

We will absolutely miss you in our Cumberland crew, my little Shmee, but I’m so excited for you to have even more opportunities to spread your wings and fly. You were born for greatness, I can just tell, and now it has the chance to get louder and louder and impress us all. And I can’t wait to watch!!

June 18, 2024June 18, 2024

He’s nine!

Morrison turned 9 last month, and this kid is the epitome of 9 is fine!

He remains one of the happiest-go-lucky kids I’ve ever met, meeting every day and opportunity with an open mind and happy heart. Except when he’s bugging and fighting with his siblings, of course. Ahem.

He’s still an absolute whiz at math, scoring 99% (the highest possible score) on all his standardized tests this year, as well as 100% on almost every math test and assignment in his own class. He’s already looking forward to learning harder math next year in 4th grade, and I remember distinctly the thing he wrote as what he was most looking forward to at meet and greet for this year in 3rd grade – multiplication!

His favorite color is and always has been green, he loves playing baseball now until he can get into track and sprint his heart out and is amassing quite the collection of bats, his favorite food is sushi, he loves to play chess and board games and card games, he has become obssessed with Roblox since they were all FINALLY allowed to get it on their tablets the other day, he still loves to help out whenever and with whatever he can, and he will talk to you nonstop for hours on end when he’s with you one on one with zero sibling interruptions. He still always turns to wave and blow kisses whenever I drop him off somewhere, too, which I absolutely love and soak up as much as I possibly can while they’re still coming my way.

He is becoming an amazing athlete, starting with the aforementioned baseball. He’s taking a one-week baseball skills camp next week that I think he’s going to love, and I gave in and signed him up for flag football this fall. No real football, though! I want to keep his brain permanently intact. He runs faster then anyone I know, and one of the 4 things on his summer bucket list is to learn to ride his bike no handed for more than just a second. (the other 3 things are fishing at a local park, taking a family bike ride, and earning enough chores points to take his mini shopping trip. i’m confident all will be accomplished.)

Happy 9th birthday, Morrison John!! We love you so much, and proud doesn’t even begin to describe how we feel about you. You are and always have been an incredible ray of sunshine in our family. You’re the exact middle of the Rau kids, and you play your role perfectly. Here’s to a googolplex more wonderful memories with you, my sweet, sweet boy!

As always, the best part – year-by-year comparison photos and posts!

March 9, 2024

They’re six!

The twins turned 6 in January, and now they have to hold up 2 hands for fingers!

These 2 get crazier and better by the day. They can both now read entire books by themselves and are loving full-day kindergarten. I was the mystery reader in their class one morning recently, and they were so excited to see me walk into their classroom. This age is so much fun as they are learning more “big kid” schedules and responsibilities with full school days and everything those entail, yet are still the snuggliest of my crew, always coming to Mama for everything. I know those days are numbered, so I soak up every single second. Even the very loud, annoying ones.

Nat is still all about Mario, Cuphead, and pretty much any video game relating to those characters that he can get his hands on. He is crazy about cats, and I couldn’t figure out until just recently why that is. Della told me one day that it’s simply because it rhymes with Nat. No way, that can’t really be why, I thought, so I asked Nat. Yep, that’s the exact reason why. Well duh. He loves mac and cheese and pizza, bananas, strawberry whip yogurts, Lucky Charms cereal, and his favorite color is red. He told me a few months ago that he wanted to sign up for soccer, so they are going to take a little soccer lesson clinic this spring. Not a team yet, just learning the basics. We’ll see if he actually likes it, or if he just said that because he heard someone at school talking about soccer. He is incredibly athletic like Morrison and Lana, though, so he might take right to it.

Avit is the perfect complement to Mario and Cuphead with his Luigi and Mugman, but is much more into art and creating than video games. He’ll still play them, but he’ll grab a piece of paper and start creating first. He loves cocktail weinies, cuties, pancakes, and his favorite color is yellow. I don’t think he’s going to be nearly the athlete that Nat will be, but his artistic ability will for sure rival, if not surpass, Lana’s. The stuff he draws and thinks to create already is far beyond what she was doing at age 6. It’s crazy and mesmerizing and amazing. I told those 2 they should open some sort of art gallery or shop together someday. It would be incredible.

They are both doing so well in school. Their teacher said they are both kind, responsible, good listeners, and very respectful in class. I could not be more proud. They will probably be finished with their speech class after this year as well, which their speech teacher said is so unusual – kids normally have to go for a number of years, not just a little over 1. They’ve both made good friends at school, yet they are always each other’s go-to. I have a feeling they always will be.

It still blows my mind sometimes that we have twins. The years are 100% getting easier the older they get, as we are finally out of the bleary days and nights that were their infancy and toddler years. I much prefer it on this side!

Happy 6th birthday, Nat Jennings and Avit Jerome! We love you more than you could possibly know, and your snuggles, hugs, and lap cuddles make every single day amazing. You 2 have made our family big but complete, and I can’t wait to see where we all go with you! We love you so much!!

And here are the year-by-year photos and posts…