Another One Bites the Dust.

Another week completed by Mean Teacher Mommy and her very cute, medium naughty students. We had another outburst from Ellie this week about how she's going to drop out because she already knows all she needs to know, and Adam continues to dawdle as though he's getting paid by the minute.

He did finally lose his front fang, and now the other one is sort of wiggly and he looks like a cute little yokel.

Tim also stepped in for some indoor PE, playing Dance Dance Revolution with the kids. Who needs a brand new Nintendo Switch and the just dance game featuring the latest tunes, when you can bust out your fifteen year old XBox and ten year old Konami dance pads and do the Safety Dance? I mean, really.

In nature news, it's hot as heck already, no thank you. Much grumbling on our outdoor PE walk earlier this week, better results with a field trip to Grizz's pool, despite the water still being quite chilly.

We also caught a giant lizard that was looking like he might want to knock on our front door

And saw Mrs. Malard and some of her children

Quarenteam.

We continue to hang in, a month after school shut down. Today the teachers all sent out a picture where each teacher and administrators from the school is holding up a piece of paper with one word, and all together it says something along the lines of "we miss you, we love you and we are proud of you, we are all in this together" that made me cry. We really do have amazing support from our educators. This week the kids did even better about getting into the routine and handling their work - they're getting better about working through their check list through the day. We usually start around 10 and end around 3 with a break for lunch, and then go out and do outdoor PE. All of the rain has everything blooming on the trails, and it's lovely.

Ellie got the okay to take out her palate expander this week, so we'll see the orthodontist again in a year to follow up (and then probably get braces, ugh.) Adam has a front tooth that is absolutely hanging in by a thread and makes me want to vomit - but the thought of yanking it out also makes me want to vomit. It's so fun to be squeamish and a parent.

Our Easter was pretty subdued. Lots of candy, eggs all over the house and just relaxing.

Adam continues to spend most of his time wearing his comfy. It's like the young man equivalent to leggings and a tee shirt. He is also eating us out of house and home - this morning he had two breakfasts, some pretzels, a full lunch and then a banana by one pm. He's going to be taller than Ellie by the time this is all over, and she's going to be taller than me. They are delightful little beasts.

There's also a ton of face timing and zoom calling. Adam has a check in call every day, Ellie is on twice a week. Listening to their poor teachers try to manage thirty students and all the technology makes my brain explode - questions like "can I go to the bathroom?" and "I don't have a pencil" as though the teacher can do anything about it. Or the kids asking the same question that their classmate JUST asked. I am not cut out for the teaching profession.

The assistant principal got in on a PE session today - it's important to remind him that he can stop staring at his monitor as needed during the day.

SPRING BREAK!!!!

Whoooooo! So Crazy and Wild!!!!!

We were supposed to be at the Grand Canyon by now, but canceled everything two weeks ago. I felt bad for the people whose AirBnBs we were scheduled to stay in, hoping that wasn't their main source of income, but also happy to get my money back! The smaller bummer is that it's been pouring since Sunday night - the kind of rain we don't often get, the kind where we have to keep lights on in the house during the day. Makes me feel even more like a deflated balloon.

The kids are doing okay. They are thus far unaware that they won't be returning to their classrooms this year. I had hoped the district would cancel spring break so we could just plow through and be done with this nonsense a week earlier, but I understand that the distance learning is a ton of work for the teachers, and they are probably still scrambling this week to prepare lesson plans and learning options. We had gotten in a pretty good routine last week, so it's hard to go nothing, especially when we can't really go outside.

We did try to escape this morning, but only made it a little bit down the trail before the rain picked back up. Still saw some ducklings though, so that's fun!

I am impressed with how well they're doing, how nice they're being to one another. I love watching when they start doing made up games together, or using boxes to create things for their dolls. I am about to brave Target for groceries and also hopefully a few items for their Easter baskets.

Braving the Shave

Yesterday was our day! The day to take furball Adam and buzz him into a more presentable young man. Thanks to all our nice friends, he raised over $200 for pediatric cancer research - every little bit counts, and it was good to feel like we were making lemonade out of lemons (my own hair remains a mess, but I don't see shaving my head in my future.)

Before!

After!

And what this family is really like:

Yesterday was rather up and down. Adam has taken to being a real pill when asked to do any writing for school - that's what he got all het up about on Friday, and then yesterday I told him he had to free write for fifteen minutes, about whatever he wanted. He sat there for fifteen minutes, told me he was still thinking, and then when I said he was going to get a consequence for not doing the work, he started screaming, stormed off to his room and told me I was the meanest person ever and that he hated me. I'm not even mad about what he said, because I know he doesn't mean it, I'm just mad because GET YOURSELF TOGETHER AND DO THE WORK. I'm not here for these kinds of scenes.

This is what he eventually wrote:

"Dear Mom, I'm sorry for being mean to you I know (indecipherable) I should never say I hate you so can I have prodigy back? in the picture box in the box color it in. P.S. Please write back."

Definitely going to save this one forever.

Then during outdoor PE we saw some tiny ducklings, so the day was not lost.

Stories from the School Room.

AKA, our dining room table. We've had some moments - it's not easy to be the mom and the teacher in these times. The other day Ellie was reviewing a math lesson she'd turned in, and her teacher had commented that she needed to review a few problems. We reopened the document and started looking and she had the answers wrong. When I went to explain it to her, she got really worked up and started screaming that school is STUPID and she's QUITTING. She doesn't NEED AN EDUCATION, she's already SMART ENOUGH! (to which I wanted to say, but did not, if you're so smart, why didn't you get that fraction question correct?) We went to her room and had a chat and a cuddle - a lot of it is just frustration with the whole situation, and loneliness for her friends.

Yesterday was a better day - we started doing another fraction lesson (this time with larger numerators than denominators, so she was getting a whole for the first time) and initially she was glaring at me about how I don't know, I don't understand, and I was like "look, I may no longer have the multiplication tables memorized, but I know 1/4 is smaller than 1/2." At least once a day, I tell her to quit treating me like I'm an idiot, and respect me as she would her teacher. It's also hard because I'm trying to explain concepts to her that I just get because I am old and know fractions, and this is her first go round with it all, so I'm trying to help her figure it out and figure out how to solve the problems herself, rather than just saying "yeah, because that's how it is, that's the answer." Good news - she picked up on her fraction lesson rather quickly yesterday when all was said and done (when she started looking at the lesson, rather than rolling her eyes at me.)

I should say though, yesterday was a better day for Ellie, not so much Adam. He started screaming at me about having to write sentences about the book he'd read, and how he couldn't do it. When he gets in a tizzy like that, it's hard to get him to calm down with him ripping up his work and completely melting down. And after a long week, it was hard for me to keep my cool with him, so he and I are yelling at each other, and Tim came out to tell us he can't work with the noise in the back ground and it's like well, that's the life we live right now, buddy. Obviously this is not the way I want to run my classroom, but in the scheme of things, any of his coworkers who are going to be a jerk about noise on a video call are out of touch with what the reality is for families with young children right now. Adam and I eventually got it all worked out, but then after the school day was over, I was hiding had retired to my room to relax, and I heard him start absolutely shrieking at Tim about a video game (I had my ear plugs in, so I couldn't make out the details, just that it was bad and I didn't want to go and be involved.) Adam eventually came into my room clutching Lamby, wanting to cry and get me to go to bat for him against Tim, but I told him to just come snuggle and when he calmed down we could talk. He got under the covers with his head on my shoulder and my arm over his belly, and I felt his body relax, his breathing slow and then his head get heavy as he fell asleep. It's been years since I felt one of my babies fall asleep in my arms, so I just enjoyed the quiet moment, and drifted off as well. We slept for probably an hour, and when I woke up, Lucky was even snuggled up on the two of us.

It's easy to forget how hard this time is for the kids. They're well aware that the coronavirus makes people very sick. They miss their friends. They miss their teachers. They miss their grandparents. They miss their routines. Even though we're trying to keep things fun, even though we've loosened the rules about screen time and bed times, even though we're trying to keep them physically active and mentally engaged, even thought there's lots more time together and affection for one another, they're struggling too. Adam crashed out mid-day last Friday as well, so it's something to be mindful of going forward with our dude, and our dudette too, even though she'd rather eat hair than nap. She's no baby - she allegedly ready to graduate from her education and move on to better things (get a job, hippie!)

Adam is Seven!

Adam was a very calm dude about taking the news that his birthday party at the bounce house place had to be rescheduled until after quarantine, but I also wanted to make sure he had a nice birthday. However, I'd also sort of let time get away from me, so the night before his birthday realized that usually, the week before or so I go to Target and pick up the last minute gifts from his list, this year I only had whatever I'd bought in previous months and stashed in the garage. So, he got some new sheets for his bed (featuring cheese burgers), a game, and a book of knock knock jokes. The good news is that both kids are really into this online game where you battle other people using math, and so we bought them both a six month membership so they can go on more quests and get more swag. THE DAY IS SAVED BY NERD THINGS!

He got a lot of nice birthday messages and video calls, and we did have cake and pizza and a dance party, even if it wasn't with a house full of people like we usually have. He said it was a great one, and for that I'm grateful.

He is such a funny, lovable little dude.

School stuff continues to plug along as we start to get into a rhythm. There's meltdowns and frustrations and hiccups in the technology, but we're getting the work in. After lunch, before we go back to work they like to have me come out on the trampoline and double bounce them and today Adam told me that home schooling is the best, and Ellie told me that I was the nicest mom, which I needed to hear. It's tough for all of us! Especially since it now looks like they won't go back until May at the earliest. Today was also especially fun on the trampoline because some of our friends from school were on a walk through the neighborhood so we got to say a hello.

Ellie got to have a Zoom meeting with her teacher this morning and was in much better spirits afterwards. We all need to see familiar faces! They all wore hats, and Taco got confused and wondered if it was a cat convention.

Adam's teacher had a meeting earlier this week and it was very cute because they all just got a chance to talk about what they've been up to and say hello, and they were so delighted to see one another. I think sometimes it's easy to underestimate little kid friendships (especially when a lot of times my kids will tell me they met a new friend, but then admit they don't know the name of said friend) but they do need each other's company, just as much as I need to have cocktails on Zoom with my friends after the kids are in bed.

We're continuing to get outside for a long walk in the afternoons, or doing some playing outside. These are Ellie's messages for the neighbors.

Monday.

We had quite a rainy night last night, but then quite a nice day today. Both teacher sent a day by day breakdown of the work the kids need to do, and I was so grateful for it (last week Ellie and I tackled a huge lesson over a few days, when it should have been a week or more's work.) It comes in a check list form, which is helpful in having the kids pick what they want to do from the chart of things that need to be done every day. We had some minor technical glitches with Ellie's work this morning but managed to get back on track, and I told her that we're all learning together, we're doing the best we can. We may be like this until the end of the school year, so the earlier we can get on the same page at Salazar Schoolhouse, the better life will be, for the kids and for their only semi-competent instructor.

As you can see, Adam is turning into a real furball. He needed a hair cut probably two weeks ago, and now with salons being closed, we decided we'd just use Tim's clippers to fix him up at home. However, since we're doing nearly a shave, we asked him if he'd like to make a website and raise money for children's cancer research and then we can make a big video when we buzz his hair. He was very sweet and said yes (though initially hoped he would get all the money raised.) So if, in these weird and scary times, you want to donate a few dollars into trying to make the world a better place for sick kids, may I invite you to click through his link? Please and thank you! Help us make some lemons out of lemonade.