Birthday Boy!

 It's official, our little cat gentleman is eight!

We kept things pretty simple this year - he got a couple of new man tank tops, some books, and a couple of Switch games, which is all he really wants. We ordered pizza and had the grandparents and Victoria, Rob and Keira over for dinner. It felt like a COVID milestone - last year his birthday was the first thing we really "missed," where we scuttled our plans and settled for a quiet evening with only our bubble, telling everyone else we were really sorry and going to miss them. It was so nice, a year later, to have all the grandparents vaccinated and crowded around the dining room table, able to celebrate together. 

And the best birthday present of the day, given to all the parents, was that with the new CDC recommendations about 3 foot social distancing in adequately ventilated classrooms, our district announced that they will be going back for a full day of school beginning April 19th! HOOOOORAY! (also, thank goodness we sent them back to school - the principal has already emailed saying that they cannot accommodate any more switches from distance learning to hybrid.) 

Adam at eight is, as you can see, tall for his age and a major beanpole. He lost six teeth this year but only four of them have grown back in, at present. He has the funniest dance moves. He spends almost ten minutes a day screwing around in the bathroom, staring at himself and pulling faces, before he finally brushes his teeth (I swear, he acts like he's getting paid by the minute to dawdle, with an extra ten dollar bonus for every time I have to remind him to stay on task.) But he's also a genuinely sweet kid, with a kind heart. He notices things, and always has a moment to remark on a beautiful flower, or point out an interesting bird or butterfly. 

His true love right now is video games, so I proposed that we have a little LAN party with Judd and Lexi on Friday night. It worked out great - we haven't been able to hang out with those guys in so long (they haven't been to our house since October) and the kids were absolutely thrilled to have some time together (and a sleepover!) And of course, it was also wonderful for the four adults to get a change to catch up. The weather was really gorgeous this weekend, so we had dinner out on the patio on Friday night, and then Saturday morning they came over for a late brunch and we finished our coffees while the kids all jumped and screamed in the trampoline. It feels good to be getting back to a little more normalcy, seeing more of the people that we love the most. 

All Tim's dreams of fatherhood have now come true!

Back to Class.

Big week this week! After our trip, I emailed our school principal about the odds of the kids coming back after spring break - I felt like that was a good transition point, and I wondered if, with the dropping COVID numbers and new regulations, the odds might be that the school was able to open fully. He dissuaded me, saying that after spring break there's only eight weeks left in the year, and that he doesn't have any word that the school will open full time (which may be the party line, may end up not being true if the schools get more funding and are allowed to put kids closer than six feet apart.) Anyways, between that and having a HORRIBLE week with the kids, I hit my breaking point. I can't be the mom I want to be if I'm also having to be their home school teacher. In fact, I could feel myself transitioning from classroom teacher to class pet - but the class pet of an overwhelmed female hamster who gives birth and then eats a couple of her babies, horrifying all the students. 

I emailed the principal back and said, okay, can we get them in ASAP instead of down the line, and thankfully the school was able to make room for both kids, albeit during different time slots. So Ellie is on campus 8:30-11 and Adam goes from 12-2:30. It's nice because we can all have lunch together, and I get to time to work with both of them as needed. Also, I'm glad Adam is the second slot, because he requires much more nagging in the morning (today he spent ten minutes staring at himself and dancing in the mirror before brushing his teeth, which is about average for him.) I'm getting a lot of steps in, walking to and from the school. 

Everyone had a great first day yesterday, and I am absolutely flooded with relief. I still have to coax Adam through about 90 minutes of school work at home, but it's more stuff that he can do independently. I don't have to sit there and watch him being a pain in the butt over Zoom. I also really like the teacher he got - we've never had her before, but only heard good things. Ellie's teacher is new to the school as a teacher, but actually attended when she was a kid, and get this - her fourth grade teacher was the woman who had been Ellie's distance learning instructor!

Adam's teacher sent me this yesterday, which makes me laugh. He looks like he's in prison, sitting behind the plexiglass wall, waiting to take a phone call from a visitor. That's what happens when you make your poor mom totally bonkers, kid! Several of his best friends from last year are in his class, which is a relief - even though the kids have only a fraction of the interactions they had before the pandemic. There's still a lot that we miss, but there's a lot good about this transition too. 

Lousy Smarch Weather.

Well, apparently this is a once a month update blog, at this point. The reality is, we only do about one noteable thing a month - the rest of the time is spent in a repeat cycle or home school, working from home and outdoor PE. 

The biggest and best change in the past month is that Mimi and Poppy completed their course of COVID shots, and so felt comfortable opening up their home to their smelly little grandkids again. HOORAY HOORAY. I know everyone was really happy to be reunited and have some time together. 

It was very funny to me and Tim - so many people asked us what we were going to do with all of our kid free time and the reality is, where are we going to go? What are we going to do? Not eat at a restaurant or go see a play or a concert or hang out in public. And this is a great house, but we've spent a lot of time in it this year, and spent a lot of quality time together. Which is fortunate! The kids and their grandparents needed the quality time, not us. 

What we need is time out of this house, and a little getaway, so on Sunday when we picked up the kids, we headed up to the central coast to meet up with Bob and Nancy and the kids for another week of commune time, this time also celebrating Amelia's 9th birthday. We rented a house on a 350 acre property, and it was an absolute dream. There was only one house that we could see from our porch, and we only saw the other neighbors once, maybe twice. There was a huge lawn out front dotted with oak trees, and about a half mile down the gravel path was a tree swing, and then past that, just hills and trees for miles, including one really great climbing tree!

It was really a total dream come true, and not just because Tim took the week off and so I got to make him deal with Adam's horse shit when it comes to school. We had enough internet that the kids could do all of their online lessons (and play Minecraft) but it also felt like we were in the middle of nowhere, just relaxing. I spent a ton of time just sitting out in the lawn chairs, watching the turkey vultures and the hawks circling around. We had a fun celebration for Amelia's birthday, and made smores in the fire pit out front. Tim was a fastidious butler, starting cheese and crackers and wine time as soon as he and Adam finished for the day (cocktail hour starting at two? Don't mind if I do, I'm on vacation!) It's really a huge silver lining that during these weird times, we've gotten to spend so much time with great friends. It's basically the only benefit to distance learning (other than the reduced COVID risk.) I'm curious to see if the governors plan for opening schools gets our kids back in the classroom by the end of the year - either way I'm planning on trying to send them after spring break. I think everyone will be able to attend safely, and I think it'll help everyone's sanity (though I don't think being in a classroom is going to make Adam any less of a pain in the butt - just at least it won't be my butt, for the first time in a year.) 

Gigi celebrated her birthday yesterday, which also marks the first anniversary of the last time I sat down and had a meal in a restaurant. Who would have thought that a two week shelter in place would last this long? (I mean, I know a lot of scientists knew this was going to happen - I certainly wasn't mentally equipped to take in that reality on that last Friday, picking my kids up from school and making sure they had everything from the classroom.) 

In short, all is well, nothing is different and yet everything is changed!