Each night I check on the (hopefully) sleeping kids before I fall into my own bed. A few nights ago I found Phoebe tucked into Sophie's bed. The next morning I showed them the picture I'd taken and asked why they were both there. Sophie had been feeling sad, so Phoebe climbed down from her own bunk to comfort her.
Phoebe is a wonderful big sister.
The three older kids and I all got the Omicron booster today, the fourth shot for each of us. Unlike most of the previous COVID shot experiences, I didn't take pictures this time. My arm is pretty sore and I'm really tired. The tiredness might have more to do with waking up at six o'clock the last two mornings than the vaccine, though. The plan is to have Peter and Cooper attend seminary in person starting next Wednesday, so we're trying to reset our internal clocks by waking up when we'll need to in order to get them to the church on time. (Song cue!)
My internal clock was very happy where it was, thank you.
We'll see if the booster symptoms get any worse or if I can sleep them off tonight. Peter talked about a sore arm as well. Cooper and Phoebe haven't complained yet about how they're feeling, so hopefully that's a good sign.
Tonight we had baked potatoes for dinner. When Topher heard what was on the menu he announced that he didn't want toasted tomatoes. Close, but not quite the same.
After dinner, while I was getting him ready for bed, the following conversation took place.
Topher: After Daddy dies when he's an old man, can we get a puppy?
Me: Uh, I don't know how to answer that.
Topher: I'll take that as a yes!
I've been cutting almost everyone's hair at my house since the pandemic started. Recently, Sophie told us she wanted a bob, and that was beyond my skill set. Today I took her to get a haircut from someone who actually has training beyond watching YouTube videos and knew what to do with all that hair Sophie has.
She loves the result. I do, too.
Before:
While the big kids are doing their school, Topher and I have been doing at-home preschool. For the first week the theme was letters and numbers, with a few books about starting school thrown in for good measure. This week I felt inspired that we should focus on listening and following directions. Part of our curriculum today included playing board games. He pulled this one off the shelf and asked to play.
I thought it would be too difficult and that it wouldn't be much time before he gave up and we switched to a different game.
I was wrong.
We finished the game.
And he won without cheating or me letting him win.
By almost 400 points.
I wonder what we'll play tomorrow.
I took the kids to the park this morning as part of our day off from school. Lots of other people had the same idea so we had to drive by several parks before we found an empty one. When I finally parked, we jumped out of the car, sprayed on sunscreen quickly, then started running for the playground. That's when I noticed what looked like a mom and grandma walking from a nearby neighborhood, pushing a stroller. My heart fell a bit at the thought that we would need to jump back in the van before getting to play.
I looked again at the size of the child in the stroller. She appeared little enough that she wouldn't be interested in the big playground equipment, and she probably hadn't mastered running yet, so there was a good chance that we could keep playing and still stay distanced. The big kids knew to stay away from her, the only one I was worried about was Topher.
Sure enough, he was very excited to see that we weren't leaving, even though there were other people at the park. As the family, who had now been joined by a dad and a grandpa, walked past the jungle gym he was climbing on, Topher called out, "Hi! I'm Topher! I love polar bears! And I'm staying here FOREVER!"
We made it to the end of the first week of school.
Several of us are exhausted already.
A few of us had panics and/or meltdowns over assignments.
At least one class was missed because someone forgot to go.
The master schedule of this year's classes will look crazy.
I have no idea who is staying virtual and who will be going back in person in a few weeks.
I am ready for the weekend.
Phoebe is always looking for drawing inspiration. She found a picture of her three-year-old self splashing in a puddle and sketched it. I love it. It might be my favorite thing she's drawn so far.
