Happy Holidays

It's time again for my favorite bonus holiday: General Conference! I'm looking forward to spending the next two days being spiritually fed. Plus, our fridge is stocked with good food, so we'll be physically fed too. But it's the spiritual feast I'm most excited about.

I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means

I registered Peter for in-person school this week. He'll start back on Monday. I have mixed feelings about this. I know he's been looking forward to going back, and I'm happy for him that he'll be able to. But I know I'll miss having him at home, and I know Topher will miss him too.

Right at the end of the registration process, when it was time for my electronic signature, there was one last thing I had to check. I really wasn't sure how to interpret this statement. I mean, I assume they were asking if I had completed the registration for this student, but that's not what they wrote...

Sew Cute

Last night I helped with Sophie's first in-person and inside-a-house Primary activity. There were four girls, so four sewing machines were needed for the pillowcase tutorial they had planned. The leader in charge asked if I would be an extra adult there to help. I said yes, especially since I didn't really want to hand off my sewing machine to someone else.

I was so impressed with how quickly the pillowcases came together! Sophie cut her fabric, pinned it, sewed it, and ironed it, all with varying degrees of supervision. The trickiest part was reminding her that she needed to keep watching what she was sewing. She had a tendency to get distracted and start watching the other girls while she was running the machine.

I think she did a great job!

While the girls were sewing, one of the machines stopped working. The needle was bound tight and had to be removed with pliers. The little girl using it switched to a different machine, so I sat down to see if I could figure out what was wrong. My machine had done something similar and cleaning out the built up lint helped a lot. So, I took apart the bobbin case holder and used a little brush to clean out big pieces of lint. When I couldn't get anymore out, I put it back together and replaced the needle. And then it worked! I'm not sure if what I did fixed it or if it just needed a new needle, but I was happily surprised that I was able to take it apart and put it back together again. For all the things I still need to learn about sewing, I guess I have picked up a few things over the years.

Book People

Continuing our comeback tour, I took Topher to the library! The other kids were busy doing schoolwork, and very sad to be left at home. But I felt like this was an experience for Topher that needed all my attention.

He loved it!

We have a pretty tiny library, so I didn't know how impressed he would be. I didn't need to worry about it though. He was so excited to see paintings of some of his favorite book characters on several of the walls as we entered the kids' section. Then I pointed out books that he was familiar with that were out on display. I had already explained the concept of borrowing books, so he started taking books off the shelves and saying, "Can I buy this one? Can we buy that one?"

I had only brought one library card with me, so we had to limit ourselves to 15 books. He was disappointed until I told him we could come back soon and get more. We concluded our adventure with a scavenger hunt and a prize from the librarian on duty.

The library has always been a regular part of my kids' lives, no matter where we've lived. Even during our summer in Wisconsin I convinced the librarians to let me have a library card even though we lived in a hotel and it was not exactly procedure. The other kids love libraries, but I think maybe they've taken them for granted. Topher was full of a new kind of wonder looking at all those books he could borrow.

I know the feeling.

By the way, the book he's holding, Something's Wrong!, is fantastic! I highly recommend it.

Ready for Sunday

This is my only Sunday view picture from yesterday. I took it after we got home from attending church in person! We spent lots of time on Saturday making sure we all had clothes and shoes that fit and were clean and ready. At least, I thought we had. It wasn't until we were putting those shoes on just before walking out the door on Sunday morning that we discovered neither Phoebe nor Sophie had shoes that fit and were appropriate for the chilly day. I fixed the problem by handing Phoebe's shoes to Sophie and giving Phoebe a new pair I had just gotten for myself. They were a little snug, but they were tolerable. Thankfully, I had a backup pair.

As we walked into the church building the missionaries assigned to our ward were eager to learn our names since they thought we were new. We got a few hugs from members of the ward and at least one person squealed when she saw us. I was trying not to draw attention, so it was both sweet and awkward. The fellow conducting the meeting announced that they were welcoming some old friends that they hadn't seen in person in a while. And then we worked on being reverent and not drawing attention. The most exciting thing that happened during the meeting was when Topher casually tossed his hymnbook into the empty pew in front of us. He also discovered the bathroom and the drinking fountain. Apparently he needed a drink four separate times during the twenty minute singing time. I'll make sure to let his teacher know that he's not really that dehydrated for future Sundays.

It was good to hear and see the talks and lessons in person instead of from our computer screens.

Not Quite the Same Thing

I took Topher into a store today. He thinks stores are so much fun. He even loves riding buckled up in the shopping cart. Except, he doesn't call them carts.

He calls them cages.

He told someone he got to ride in a cage today.

Cool.

Found Friends

Remember that busy park we were going to visit to celebrate Topher being vaccinated? Well, there was almost no one there when we arrived. But once a few kids showed up, Topher wasted no time being social.

He asked them to play with him.

He asked if they wanted to be his friend.

He did a happy dance when they said yes.

He informed them which of the slides were dry and which were still wet from the dew.

He played restaurant with them.

He squeezed the hand of the toddler little brother.

He wrapped it up by asking their mom for a hug.

I intervened and stopped him while she chuckled good-naturedly at his request.

Topher had a great time.

Hug It Out

A good friend brought us a gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free chocolate cake to us today to celebrate Topher being fully vaccinated.

I thanked her with a hug.

It was great.

'Twas the Night Before People

Today a friend sent me a text that said, in part, "Day of Freedom Eve is here!" The day we've been counting down to for two and a half years is tomorrow. Topher will finally be fully vaccinated and we will rejoin society.

And I'm not sure how I feel.

We've all missed:

• people
• especially family
• in-person church that doesn't lag or skip
• visiting the Temple
• participating in extracurricular activities
• handshakes and hugs with people that don't live in our house
• staying at parks, even when other people show up
• libraries
• museums
• adventures
• traveling
• going inside other people's homes
• inviting other people into our home
• fully serving in our church callings
• many other things that have happened over the last two and a half years that we've had to skip

All of that was hard. But now that it's time to go back, I'm anxious. Will we remember how to interact with other people? Will we remember how to carry on conversations with people that don't know our particular shorthand? How long will it take for someone to bring COVID home? Are we prepared for that? Am I ready to be crazy busy again? Am I ready for the influence of the kids' friends to suddenly be much louder and stronger? Have we done enough to prepare Topher for how to behave in church? Will I suddenly be called to serve in the Primary as his shadow to help him be calm and reverent?

There are so many more concerns floating through my brain. At the same time, I'm giddy to be back in person. Our reentry celebration tomorrow consists of Peter and Cooper attending seminary in person, me taking Topher and anyone else who is caught up on school to a park that is never totally empty so we haven't been since the pandemic hit, and taking the three older kids to YW/YM tomorrow night inside the church building. On Thursday I might even take the kids to the library.

That would be wild.

A Boy and His Dog

When you can't have an actual dog, sometimes you have to settle for making one out of a paper bag. Bonus, you can practice using scissors and a glue stick and call it preschool. (I cut out these pieces, he practiced cutting scraps with his scissors.) 

Just Around the Riverbend

In a moment of distraction from school, Peter decided to spend some time on relativefinder.org this week. He printed off his list of all the famous people he's related to and excitedly showed us some of the results. Many of the famous relations come from Bryan, at least a few come from me. I thought this one was particularly cool.

If my 12th great grandmother is a Disney princess, does that make me a Disney princess too?

Dog Days

Our preschool theme for this week is dogs. As was probably obvious from one of the previous posts this week, Topher really loves dogs. We've read books about dogs, learned about different dog breads, gone on walks looking for dogs out with their owners, watched videos about service dogs, and pretended to be dogs. We've also played a lot of the dog themed bingo game that Bryan's mom sent to us. I think it might be Topher's new favorite activity.

Never Were There Such Devoted Sisters

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.

Fourth Verse Same as the First, a Little Bit Louder and a Little Bit Worse

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.

Potatoes and Puppies

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!

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

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:

After:

Assistants

Third Time's the Charm

This boy got his third COVID shot this morning.

And there was much rejoicing.

Good Game

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.

Greetings

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!"

Working for the Weekend

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.

Self Portrait

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.