|
Eddie : ejkotynski@gmail.com |
|
Welcome Friends and
Family! |
|
To contact us: |
|
Hannah : hgk753@gmail.com |
|
To
our dear friends and family: Hello!
Long time no see! Or possibly: Long time no hear? I truly intended to do this
quite a bit ago...at least, it’s been on the to-do list in my mind for the
last couple of months. And for whatever reason I began procrastinating on it, the reason for
putting it off has become: how daunting it is to think about trying to write
an update now after procrastinating so long … go figure! But here I am,
sitting down to write something that I hope will be interesting and make you
smile and give you a glimpse into ’the life of the Kotynski’s’ these last 7
months: Highlights! Gabe . . . · Went
on his 1st trip to the dentist and had no cavities! Yay! :) · Started
drawing people! They have yet to acquire a body, but they have great facial
expressions and legs! · Got
his first buzz-cut! Eddie happened to cut it the night before April Fools,
and although it wasn’t purposeful, it was perfect! Gabe went to pre-school
the next day and all of his classmates asked who he was. He looked so
different they thought he was a new kid :). · Is
so interested in being God’s and what it means to have Jesus in his heart and
asks so many amazing questions. For example: “When we die, when we come alive
again, do we become babies again and then grow up again?” · Is
becoming an expert tree-climber. He can climb up so high now and with little
or no help from Daddy. · Is
learning to count backwards. · Learned
to say ‘V’ as in: ‘very’, not ‘wary’ ; ‘L’ as in: ‘Lily’ , not ‘Wiwy’ ; and
‘X’ as in: ‘fixer’ not ‘fisker’. · Is
learning to bike without training wheels! · Started
Preschool at Veritas Christian Academy (Daddy’s school!) on his 4th birthday!
He is really liking school and comes home so happy, but he is still
struggling with the transition of being away from home every day and for so long every day. It seems to be getting easier
for him to go each morning, though, so that’s encouraging :). He has an
amazing teacher and almost every afternoon when the girls and I go to pick
him up she’s there to help him into the car and tells me how he’s doing.
Through her I’ve learned he’s made a particular friend named Jake, but that
all of the boys like to play with him and that he’s really good at cutting
:). I try to get Gabe to tell me things like that but he either gets silly
and says ‘nothing happened’ all day (with a big grin and can-I-go-play-now
urgency); or he’ll tell me a song they sang that day; or that he drew a
ladybug with a grouchy face except that it looked more like a grouchy man; or
that Jake told him he was stinky; or that Cade didn’t want to play with him.
Ha! I guess when you’re in the midst of it your perspective is a bit
different than those looking on :). Ana . . . · Also
went on her 1st trip to the dentist with the joy of being declared cavity
free!...although she did break one of her front teeth recently :(. It wasn’t
painful and actually she laughed about it, which was rather strange...but it
still hasn’t given her any trouble and the dentist said it broke just on the
edge of exposing the root...so it could get infected or not...we’ll hope for
the not! · Is
learning to dress herself and loves to help choose out her clothes every day. · Turned
2 in February! · Is
recognizing certain letters and likes to point them out in books (especially
’O’ and ’H’ and ’A, for Ana!’) · Is
learning to sing the ABC’s and can count to 8! · Loves
mothering her dolls (& Kari when Kari lets her, which isn’t too often
:)). · Is
becoming more and more clear in her speech. · Says
‘sorry’ to us for disobeying without prompting! · Is
learning to pray! · Can
run so fast and keeps up with Gabe with no trouble. She actually prefers to
run (rather than walk or ride in the stroller) when we’re on walks and she
hardly gets out of breath. I think she inherited the Kotynski-running-genes! · Loves
to pretend and often plays elaborate stories with Gabe. For a while they
loved to pretend that they were the mommy and daddy in a family and their
dolls were their babies and they’d go to work and talk on the phone and put
the babies to bed and go for walks :). · “Reads”
books very animatedly and loudly and usually without a clue of what the real
story is. She just makes one up! · Recently
discovered Kari as a playmate and doesn’t just regard her as ‘the baby’
or ’my sister’ anymore :). It happened the day after Gabe started going to
school for most of the day. That morning we were home and not doing anything
in particular—just playing together. Kari and Ana spent the whole time
chasing each other around the house and dissolving into giggles every time
they caught each other. It was delightful to watch! · Just
began biking! She has been practicing pedaling around on the back porch every
day and getting better and better. So last Saturday we took her to the store
and helped her choose a helmet and promptly set off to the park. She loves it
and most days she keeps up with us really well! · Is
asking lots of questions about Jesus tonight. We were singing, “I was once in
darkness; now my eyes can see. I was lost, but Jesus sought and found me!”
and she asked about the dark and if Jesus is here when it’s dark and then
commented that “He’s alive and once He died and will I die too?” What
amazing, deep questions for a little person of two! Kari . . . · Has
definitely changed the most of all the kids in the last 7 months! I suppose
that only makes sense, as, after all, that’s more than half her life :). She
has grown from a tiny thing whose abilities consisted of wiggling, smiling,
and watching (and of course: crying, eating, and pooping—ha! :)) to being
able to roll over, sit up, scoot on her tummy, crawl, pull up and stand, and
walk holding on to someone’s fingers! · Is
interested in everything and loves being included in everyone’s activities.
Even when she’s not included on purpose, she’s not afraid to push herself
into the hubbub and become part of it herself. · “Talks”
a lot! Most of the time it’s a happy babble, little conversations with one of
us or herself… She’s keen to copy sounds and has been trying to say dog
(‘doe’), uh-oh (‘oh-oh’), and bye! (‘ba!’) (although waving goodbye is
favored). Before she discovered all these sounds she can make with her voice,
she loved to click her tongue and was delighted if we clicked back at her.
We’re working on “please” in sign language—which she sometimes does without
prompting and other times pretends she doesn’t know what we’re talking about
when we ask her to sign it (she’s becoming incredibly stubborn all of a
sudden...It’s kind of a shock coming from our normally laid-back, compliant
baby!). She also is really good at saying ‘no’ by shaking her head back and
forth and consistently signs some other things that she’s made up and we’re
trying to decide what they mean :). · Is
figuring so many things out! She loves to explore her toys—shake, open, shut,
push, pull, throw, put things into containers and pull them out again and put
them back again… · Is
working on her 8th tooth! · Gives
great kisses :). · Turned
ONE in August! We had a big family Birthday Bash here at our house on her
birthday with Hannah’s whole family and her Uncle Tim and Aunt Karen and
cousin Amy and her family. It was a perfect time and so special because
Kari’s birthday was one of 6 among all of us and we got to celebrate everyone
as well as steal some last wonderful times with Liz and her family before
they returned to Bolivia on Labor Day. Andy (Hannah’s brother) even flew down
from Grand Rapids! We had a treasure
hunt in the yard, a piñata, tie-dyed t-shirts, some really exciting-to-give
gifts, yummy food, and a sleep-over :)! It was lovely. · Can
blow on whistles and little recorders and make them work! This is a recent
accomplishment and she’s always so incredibly delighted to hear the sounds
her blowing makes. She also likes to help blow on her food to make it cool
off and tries to help blow bubbles
when we get the bubbles out. · Just
started fearlessly climbing all over the playground equipment at the park—up
and down slides and stairs. She literally went from hardly giving the slides
a glance and actually being afraid when we helped her slide, to climbing all
over everything all by herself with hardly a call for me! · Loves
to hold our hands when we pray at meal times. Hannah . . . · Helped
draw and paint a ‘Noah’s Ark’ theme mural at our new church site! It was
awfully fun :). · Got
to visit the Biltmore (the biggest “house” in America) which is in Asheville,
about 20 minutes from here. A friend of mine gave us free tickets—otherwise
it’s rather expensive, so I don’t know that I’d have ever thought to go, so
it was a real treat! My mom and sisters, Liz and Sharon, and my Aunt Karen
& her family and her sisters and mom and their husbands came—whew! What a
list! But it was tons of fun! :) · Began
leading the ‘Prayers of the People’ at church periodically & reading one
of the Bible passages during the service sometimes. I like that a lot. · Took
a trip to Grand Rapids with my mom and Sharon and the kids in April and got
to visit my lovely friends from college, my brother Andy, and Aunt Nancy and
her family! · Was
part of a Bible study with my good friends all year. Among us we have 14
kids!! · Planted
a garden! And it GREW and ‘bore much fruit’. It’s been very exciting!! There
are even some squashes and zucchinis in-the-making still :). · My
Grandma Elaine and Aunt Mimi came to visit and met Gabe, Ana, and Kari for
the first time! Eddie’s cousin David and my Aunt Nancy and her girls, Lauren
& Emily, came to visit too! · We
started putting ‘babysitting’ into our monthly budget—so we got to go on lots
of dates this summer! We hope to keep getting away sometimes during the
school year. Our church has also started a Parents Night Out once a month
which has been a tremendous blessing! · Got
to spend 3 wonderful days with Eddie’s parents when they came down in June!
And spent some great times with Hannah’s family too. · Eddie
and I had our 6th anniversary! · Found
out we’ll be Aunty and Uncle again this fall! =D Liz and Henoc are having
their third...a little girl named Ruth Elisabeth (Ruth-Ellie)! · In
July, Eddie took the kids to spend a couple of days with my dad (a.k.a. Dida
or Grampa Steve :)) while my mom and Sharon came here to our house to paint
all the walls we hadn’t painted last year (which were paneled wood) with me!
It was lots of work, but we had lots of fun and it looks amazing [See the
‘Pictures!’ page]! It brightens everything up so much and I think it will
help keep things cheerier in the winter! (Uncle Tim and Aunt Karen came to
help one day too! :)) · We
turned our office into a guest room and moved the office to the garage :). So
come on over and spend some time with us! We have a room all ready for you!
=D Eddie . . . · Finished
off a very difficult second semester of teaching from January-May. · Got
a chance to edit a middle school Latin textbook from May-July. · Started
my third year at Veritas Christian Academy (August-present). . . and things
seem to be going well! · Started
unicycling again . . . for exercise. I
hope it doesn’t fizzle out. · This
past summer I taught Greek II to a student who isn’t coming back to Veritas,
and we’re reading Colossians, Philippians and Ephesians together this year as
a “Greek III” class. · I
get to bring Gabe to school most days. · I’m
sure I did one or two other things in the last seven months, but I’m not sure
what :). Funnies & Sweeties: Gabe— · I
was making cookies one day in February just around supper time. Gabe got so
excited about the cookies he couldn’t stop talking about them. Every other
word was ‘cookie!’ Eddie told him he needed to stop talking about cookies and
eat his supper. He persisted. Time out. Coming out of time out he said,
“Daddy, when I’m done with this salad, I can have one of those things? One of those chocolate things mommy’s
making?” · Gabe:
“I love my sisters!” … Hannah: “Oh Gabe, that’s so nice to say! I’m so
glad!...Do you think you’d like a brother someday?” [No, I’m not pregnant!
Ha!] … Gabe: “You mean a boy?!”
… H: “Yeah!” … G: “Oh, we can borrow Eli...or Stephen...or Anna…” … H: “Anna?
Anna’s a girl!” … G: “Oh well, Caleb then [Anna’s brother]...and Jubal…” And
the list went on. Apparently he’s content to be the only boy and just to
borrow his friends as brothers :). · Gabe:
“I’ve got it!” … Eddie: “Say ‘Eureka!’” … Gabe: “I’m Reeka!” · ”Mom,
try to be a nice mom today, OK?”
(ouch!) · Gabe
has become very interested in monster trucks and we’ve been able to find
little video clips of monster trucks actually performing on ‘YouTube’
(online). Often there is music to go with the clips. One day Eddie was
listening to some music in his office in the garage and Gabe said: “Is that a
monster truck song?” Eddie said, “No”. Gabe replied, “Oh, it hears like it.” · After
being in his bed for a nap maybe ten minutes, Gabe came out and said, “Daddy,
I’m done takin’ a nap.” Eddie replied, “No you’re not” and put him back to
bed. Five minutes later when we checked on him he was fast asleep. · Gabe
to Daddy: “Can I pray for your cough to get better and you pray for my cough
to get better?” · “I
like my two best friends! They’re my sisters: Kari and Ana!” · Gabe:
“Thank you God for our food. [Pause] God says ‘You’re welcome’ we just can’t
hear Him: Thank you God! [loudly] [Whisper]: You’re welcome. [Grin].” · Yesterday
the kids were playing in the sandbox and Gabe wanted to make a sandcastle. He
filled up a bucket with sand, but found it was too heavy to flip over on his
own. He asked me for help. I replied, “You can do it! You’re so strong!” Gabe
said, “No, I’m not strong.” “Why not?” I asked. “Maybe because my hair’s all
gone?” he said. I laughed and asked, “Why, are you like Samson?” “No,” he
said. “I know! It’s because I’m not big yet.” · “When
I was a baby, I turned 1. And then I turned 2; and then I turned 3; and then
I turned 4. [Pause for breath.] And then I turned 7 and then I turned 6! But
I’m 4 now.” Ana— · Eddie:
“Ana, say ‘Lily’!” … A: “I don’t want to.” … E: “Please?” … A: “I don’t want
to say ‘Lily’.” · Banana
= ‘gabanda’ · Balloon
= ‘gaboon’ · Ana
burped loudly one morning and commented, “Wow, that noisy!” · I
asked Ana to look at my eye as it was really itchy and I kept rubbing it. I
opened it up real wide and silly and Ana came and inspected it. Then she
said, “I’m gonna love it.” “Love it?” I asked. “Mmmm-hmmmm” - with a big nod,
“I’m gonna love it.” She put her hand over my eye and said, “Thank you God
for Mommy’s eye. Amen.” · Ana
asked one evening if I would tickle her under the arm if she’d take one more
bite of supper :). Well,
I guess that is the end of my very long-winded update :). If you’ve actually
made it this far : Congratulations! =D And we want you to know: We
love you all so much! We’d be so delighted to hear from you! If ever any of
you are in our area, come stay awhile! We’d love to see you! “May
the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that
you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen!” [Romans
15:13] Joyfully! Eddie,
Hannah, Gabriel, Analisé, & Kari Kotynski |
|
[Kotynski
Family Update] |
|
February -
(early) September 2009 |
|
E-mail for
mailing-address and phone number :). |
|
Hi! I’m Gabe and I’m 4
and I get to go to my daddy’s school now—every day! My best friends are my
sisters, Ana and Kari. We do almost everything together and even though they
are sometimes annoying, I like them very much! I have lots of other friends
too, some of them are new friends I am finding at school! |
|
(This picture is of me
helping mommy bake!) I’m Ana and I’m 2, but Gabe says I’m going to be 3 soon!
(Though Mommy says it’ll be a little while yet.) I love to pretend and dream
and I love being a big sister! I like to draw and color and put stickers on paper
and try to cut and I’m really good at writing H’s. |
|
I’m Kari and I just
turned ONE! (This is a picture of me on my birthday.) These are a few of my
favorite things: crawling, blowing on whistles, milk, peanut butter and jelly
sandwiches, being with people (especially Gabe & Ana), going on walks
with mommy, & getting into everything! |
|
Eddie and I
went to the Biltmore for our anniversary (compliments of dear Jenny
again...Thank you =D!!!) |
|
Gramma Elaine: meeting
her great grandchildren for the first time!!! |
|
Gabey found a cool snail
while we were hiking! |
|
Daddy and Kari hanging
out in the ‘office’ :). |
|
Mommy and Ana at ‘the top
of the world’ in Little Swizerland, NC. |
|
A rare happening: a complete Gabler family gathering! :) |
|
Joyful reunion with Bapa
and Gramma! |
|
The mural Hannah helped
create at church! |
|
Lovebirds =D |
bravenet.com