Six years ago, Julija and I had no clue what we were
doing. Now here we are and… yeah… we
still have no idea. Every block of time,
every stage of development in a kid’s life has equal challenges for their
parents. We’ve found that even though
the twins popped out at the same time, their developmental cycles are not
always aligned.
This past year was simply amazing. The kids got a couple more countries under
their belt with our last vacation during the school year. We took a beautiful two-week cruise from
Miami to Barcelona with a few stops in the Azores, Portugal and Spain. They are
great travelers. We spend the following
two weeks trekking across Spain, fast train to Paris and after a few days there
(and 15-20 miles hiked) we made it to our second home in Latvia to see Gramma
and Grampa Puida, and the lovely Gramma Guna.. There was a day in Paris we
hiked over 10 miles and never once was there a complaint. AMAZING four weeks with grown up twins.
With a September 20 birthday, they are the oldest in their respective
kindergarten classes. Zella is so social, and the natural born leader of her class. Zander was immediately appalled by the
inclusion of baby Legos – Duplo blocks.
OMG Mom, I’ve already built the Death Star. They both love their structured environment at
school, have many friends they call “best”, and are growing beyond belief
physically, socially, emotionally and together.
Tae Kwon Do is also the number one activity outside of
school. They have traversed many belts
and are part of the leadership program which affords them sparring and weapon privileges.
They both started being a little timid
about hitting and getting hit, but have grown into it. I tell them it’s the one
place you get to hit your brother/sister. 
Rounding out our time is church at Hope City. You bring all of these places together and we
live in a heavenly designed ecosystem. Friends are cross-pollinated between
TKD, school, church and parties. Moms
too. It’s a wonderful life for us all.
Developmentally, they are both reading very well so early
into kindergarten. Their math is strong, along with their computer skills
although they prefer the iPad interface to any computer. It’s funny to see the reach for the screen
instead of mouse and keyboard. No, no hunny, you need to click the mouse…. Arghhhhh.
All is great in this blessed world we live in.
