Today we left with you a non-family member for the first time in your life. It still amazes me that you are 4 years old and have been with a family member every second of your life. However, almost half your life has been in a pandemic so maybe from that perspective it isn’t that surprising?!?
Either way, you were SO excited to finally be going to school after watching Lexi and William year after year. You were telling everyone your teacher’s name and asking for a week straight, when do I go to school, how many days?
Wednesday morning we had a little open house where we got to see the classroom, bring in your school supplies and have a mini pre-conference with your teacher. You were very shy, but still excited.
Friday morning, you slept in until 8:00, got up and started playing by yourself. We had a quick breakfast, your favorite—key lime Yogurt and orange juice. We put on your new purple dress and put a headband braid in so you could match Lexi. Like William and Lexi, Daddy made you an amazing sign with your favorite—a purple bunny front and center. We took a few pictures and then drove the 5 min to school. You were pretty quiet the whole ride there (which is unusual for my non-stop question asker) and snuggled no-knee a bit. The only question you had was if you were going to do Math or not, which is hilarious to think that is what was on your mind and that you even know what Math is.
When we got there, you hopped right out of the van, got in line to get your name tag and then stood next to the school until all the students were checked in and ready to start your day. You waved a quick good-bye and walked into school without a second thought. No tears (even from me, which was surprising).
As Daddy and I went home and respectively went to do work, it was the first time that all three of you kids were in school and we could work un-interrupted (or for at least 2.5 hours). I know this is just the beginning, but it is just as big of a milestone for us as it is for you.
Daddy and I both came to pick you up and and when you were dismissed, you ran as fast as your new purple shoes could take you with the BIGGEST smile on your face and Ryan into my arms and gave me the biggest, longest and strongest hug ever. I even started to let go a little but you grabbed harder and I just embraced it as the banks of my eyes overflowed. You had the BEST day and were so HAPPY to see us and that just made me so happy.
Kate, as you start your first years of preschool, I pray that you start to build friendships, become less shy and more confident around non-family members and you have SO much fun you don’t even realize you’re learning. And just maybe enjoy math 🙂
Believe. It is such a simple word but the depth and potential of this word is limitless. From believing in your intuition, to believing in others to believing in the impossible to believing in Jesus Christ our Savior—the possibilities and outcomes are remarkable. In what has been the most challenging year, belief has been a staple in keeping a positive attitude for me. Every morning I choose to believe in myself, I choose to believe in the good of others and choose to believe in God and that this year is all part of a bigger plan. I should probably write several more blog posts about this word and unpack it a bit, because I believe (see what I did there 🙂 it is a truly powerful word. So as a true believer, celebrating Christmas and the birth of Jesus at the end of 2020 is a perfect way to end the year.
The Christmas season felt like a true gift from Jesus. To me, it was just as special and magical as it ever has been, probably more so. Each of you kids are true believers in Santa and of Jesus. We had a Zoom call with Santa that my work organized and when he asked what you were most excited about for Christmas, you yelled, ‘Jesus!’ It was definitely not what Santa was expecting to hear, but I was sure proud.
Every year, you kids get a little more into celebration of Christmas. You understand the Bible stories a little better, you want to be more involved in the decorating, the baking, the gift giving (and receiving), the wrapping, the music, the lights, the Christmas cards, the books, and the movies. Everything you experience is like gold and it is one of my favorite things as a parent.
Each year, I try and add or update one piece of my Christmas decor to help balance my love for Christmas decor and desire to want our house to look and feel like a magazine. Last year, part of those dream became a reality when we were gifted a 12 foot Christmas tree to sit in our front room. However, those dreams quickly diminished as string by string, the lights started to go out. Daddy and I attempted to fix some of them by replacing each bulb in a string one-by-one, but as more strings went out, I decided the whole tree just needed to be re-done. I knew it was going to be a time-consuming project so, come November 1st, that tree came out and I got to work. The tree originally had 1400 lights on it and each light was clipped to a branch to keep it in place. My plan was to replace light for light and take one light off and replace it with a new light to ensure it looked as good it originally came. I quickly discovered that the lights they put on these trees are made for that specific tree. They have strategically placed the bulbs in specific locations on the strings (which are also circular verses linear) so they hit at just the right spot on the branch and there are no ‘un-used’ lights. A regular string of lights that you buy at the store are obviously evenly spaced out on the string so there were many lights that weren’t able to attach to the branch that the original set was attached to—which also meant I was going to need more lights than the 1400 that were previously on there. Section by section, I took off the existing lights and replaced with a new set. With 5 individually-wired sections on the tree, I had to also strategically guess how heavy or light I needed to string in order to make sure I didn’t run up short, or have too many lights at the end. I did not manage the top two sections well and they didn’t have enough lights on them, relative to the rest of the tree, so I had to re-do those. Many, many hours, 1800 lights (maybe more) and a sore back later, we had a beautiful jaw-dropping tree.
Of course, as soon as the tree was done, you guys were begging to decorate it so away you went putting up the ornaments, knowing that I had every intention of taking every ornament off and re-doing it. To help compensate for my OCD ways, I did tell you we could set up our old tree and it could be the ‘kids’ tree. We could put colored lights on it and you could decorate it in any way you wanted. The three of you picked out pink, purple, green and blue ornaments and had fun putting all of your favorite colors and home-made ornaments on.
On a similar note, the three of you LOVE to help decorate the rest of the house with all of the decorations. Lexi put together the entire nativity scene this year and Williams and Kate loved putting the snowman shelf together.
Like clockwork, our elves, Sparkle Minnie, Sparkle Mickey and Sparkle Daisy arrived on December 1st bringing a Paw Patrol advent calendar. The elves also helped us celebrate St. Nicholas Day on December 6th and brought us a fun Christmas painting book on the first day of Christmas break. As always, they got into some mischief by wrapping your bedroom doors with wrapping paper, getting eaten by dinosaurs, climbing up bows like a rock climbing wall on our shelf/window, taking a shower, sitting in the fridge, playing with the Tsum Tsums, and even made a visit to Grammy’s house. Finding them each morning was a high of the day and brought each of you so much joy.
Lexi, you are turning into quite the little gift giver. You listen to what others are saying and then suggest gifts that you’ve heard them mention and are really thoughtful in thinking about what the recipient would like to receive. All of the gifts you gave were spot on this year. You picked out new drill bits for Daddy, a Lion Guard figurine set for William, a lego kit and aqua beads for Ivy and a Barbie Pet Washing Station (complete with a bunny) for Kate.
At school, the Advent program was virtual due to Covid. They recorded what the program would have been like if it were in person and then shared the video link out for everyone to watch at home. You also both had fun celebrating pajama day and having an Advent party during the last week of school.
Your last day of school was on December 18th, a full week before Christmas, which allowed all of us to ‘quarantine’ for a decent amount of time and gather with Grammy and Papa and Uncle Joe & Auntie Angie, Dustin and Sheila and all the cousins on Christmas Eve. It was such a fun and much needed celebration. You kids had so much fun playing together, opening gifts, singing and just being silly. The adults ate delicious food, drank nummy drinks and played the 2nd Annual Bothwell Christmas exchange game.
The girls both received My Generation Dolls, which happened to have their same names and William received a beloved Nerf gun and a big T-Rex. All of the gifts were HUGE hits. Lexi is absolutely in love with her doll and couldn’t believe she got her own, let alone one that is named Lexi.
Christmas morning felt like a movie. All three of you kids were bursting with excitement you could barely keep your feet on the floor. Santa brought each of you what you had asked for; Lexi, a Barbie Pool and Barbie diver; William, a Dinosaur that eats people and Kate, a new purple Bunnie, Bunnie book and a dauber coloring book. After Santa gifts, you guys were SO excited to gift each other the gifts you had picked out, we went right to those. Lexi & Kate had picked out Lion Guard figurines for William and it will probably be one of the most played with toys out of everything you guys received. William & Kate had picked out a color your own squishie gift for Lexi and William and Lexi had picked out a pet washing barbie (because it came with a bunny) for Kate. The rest of the gift opening went well and was nice and relaxed. We took turns opening gifts and admiring what everyone received. The last gift that was opened was for Lexi and Kate had a huge blanket over it with a red bow and when they pulled it off, it revealed a BEAUTIFUL doll house, all hand-made by Daddy. It has a working elevator, working lights on a remote control, stained wood floors, doors between the rooms, windows, a side closet and complete with a kitchen set, bath tub and hand-made bunk beds. He spent hours upon hours building this for you girls and the details in it are exquisite. Your love for this dollhouse makes all the work he put into it worthwhile. The two of you have already spent so much time playing at it and tuck your dolls into their bunk beds (complete with home-made pillows and blankets from Grammy) every night.
After gift opening, we spent the rest of the day hanging out in our jammies and enjoying our new gifts, including a family Nerf gun obstacle course. It was a wonderfully relaxing day.
On the 26th, we got to work right away in the morning cleaning the house and getting things put away to host the Sampson’s for Christmas. It was a busy day but had a wonderful time celebrating with them. We introduced the gift exchange game with the siblings and it was a Big hit. All the kids got Lego kits, more dinosaurs, doll accessories, crafts, games and much more. It was a fantastic way to wrap up Christmas 2020.
Merry Christmas my sweet monkeys and may you never stop believing.
If there was one word to describe you it would be happy. So short and simple but it encapsulates you perfectly. You genuinely are just a happy little 3-year-old. You love to smile, laugh and be silly. Most mornings you tip toe downstairs and your big eyes and golden hair radiate to give you this angelic glow as you jump into my arms with pure joy. You’ll snuggle in and just rest in contentment before you start your day.
This past year with you has been a joy. You have grown so much, and laughed your way through the many many changes life threw at you and adapted as if nothing in the world had changed.
Between transitioning out of a crib and into a big girl bed, to being the only kid at home 3 days a week while William was at school, to no scheduled naps, to Mommy working from home everyday, to Lexi and William doing distance learning—I would say that is a lot of change for a 3-year-old to adapt to.
Throughout all of this change, there has been no shortage of sharing your expressive and animated nature. When you are excited, your eyes get huge and twinkle with elation as you tell us a story. Whenever I walk in the door, whether I have been gone for 10 minutes or 10 hours—you drop what you are doing, yell, ‘Maammaa’ and run and jump into my arms for a big bear hug. On the contrary, if you don’t get what you want; you hit or push your siblings, yell, tattle or will hold each of my cheeks with your palms and swivel me head to look you in the eye and get my attention. Although you are the baby, you demand to be heard and not be stomped on and refuse to let anyone think that you are the youngest. You yell and demand things with such confidence, sometimes I have to remind myself that I’m the one in charge.
As devious as you can be to Lexi and William—you have a very special bond with each of them. You and Lexi tend to have more hot and cold moments, which is probably because you often like to play with the same toys and their is a bigger gap in maturity. You can be a really big stinker to her for no reason. Just the other day, Lexi came downstairs in the morning and wanted to give you a good morning hug and you pushed her away and said, ‘no I don’t want to hug you.’ But, then you go over and give William a big hug. And other days, you give her a hug so big she falls down. Whenever you do or create something, Lexi is one of the first people you want to show or tell. If you get a new toy or pick out a treat at the grocery store—you parade into the house and share the news with Lexi. You also regularly tell me (and her) that Lexi is your best friend. One thing that never comes up cold is wearing matching outfits. Both of you LOVE to match. You have several matching pajamas and I’m working on getting you more clothes that match since you love it so much—and now that you both are in little girls clothes, it makes it easier.
You and William are the best of buds. Your bond really grew while Lexi was at school. The two of you would play toys together, wrestle, snuggle and really go together like pancakes and syrup. He is gentle and patient with you, watches out for you and often volunteers to share or give things to you because he knows it will make you happy. You love to play dinosaurs with him, or build magnetite creations, play trains or watch shows together. You almost never call him ‘William’ and always call him Badger, Badgie, Oatsie or Oatsie the goatsie—or my personal favorite when you are upset with him—Badger Sampson.
Over the last 3 months or so as you grew in maturity and Covid forced all of us to spend every waking second together—you three have really learned to play together. You don’t wreak their creations as often and can play and integrate into their little stories. It has been so fun to watch the relationships build across all three of you but then with each of you individually as well.
Given that you have been home with Daddy your entire life, the two of you have a very special bond. You love to be by his side, help him with things and ask a million questions. He is equally as obsessed with you as you are with him. You two loved to visit Great Grandma, watch trains, wrestle and be silly together. When the big kids first started going to school, you whined about going to pick them up, but soon got into a good rhythm and when Daddy’s alarm went off to go get them, you would just stop what you were doing and say time to go get Oatsie and Lexi. Kate, you lite up your Daddy’s world and you make him laugh everyday. He often says, ‘I just love Kate. She is the best’.
With that said, Mama is still number 1 in your book for the time being. If both of us are around, you come to Mama for snacks, potty help, playing, owies, tattling on others, reading stores, putting you to bed, getting dressed, and snuggles. Anytime I am sitting down, you like to be on top of me and climbing on my arms, shoulders, flipping upside down or requesting ‘criss-cross applesauce’ on your back. You love to be carried around but are particular about where my arm can hold you—usually around your belly. If my hand is on your legs or your butt, you move it to the place you want it. You give my unprompted daily hugs and kisses 5+ times a day and love to snuggle into my neck and whisper, I love you mama.
Adapting to change:
The first real change was transitioning out of your crib and into a big girl bed. This happened pretty easily. We already had a big girl bed set up in your room so instead of putting you to bed in the crib, we just put you there. You got out of bed a few times, but overall, you liked your new independence. Then right around the end of August, beginning of September, you moved to the bottom bunk and started sharing a room with Lexi. I re-decorated the room to be a rainbow unicorn. For the first time ever, I bought what I really wanted and liked for bedding (Pottery Barn) verses what was the cheapest. I need to do a bit more in there from a decor standpoint to finish it off, but overall, I get happy every time I go in there.
You like sharing a room with Lexi, but I think you would be just as happy with William or by yourself. You often go to bed before they do and rarely need anyone to snuggle with you. You would often tell me, ‘Please leave.’ And would roll over and go right to sleep. However, as the year progressed, you started to get a bit more particular—you liked to have lights on and the door open. You love to have your back rubbed and sing songs—Twinkle Twinkle, Row-Row-Row your boat and the badger specialty; Nonee Nonee Hop Hop Hop. The biggest thing I’ve figured out is you need to give me a kiss and a hug and say GoodNight Mama for you to really go to bed. If you don’t do those things and I leave—you’ll for sure be up.
Around the middle of the fall, Daddy stopped putting you down for a formal nap in your bed. You would throw a fit it like crazy and the bigger issue was if you did actually fall asleep, you would fall into a deep sleep and then go to bed until 10:30 or 11:00 at night, which was just not working. With that said, you fell asleep in the van on the way to get Lexi and William almost everyday. For the most part, Daddy would wake you when you got home to avoid the 11:00 bed times, but you would get about a 30 min nap most days. What is crazy about that is, school is 5 min away and you would often fall into a deep sleep in that 5 min—so deep that in the middle of the winter when it was very cold outside, Daddy would open the van door, unbuckle you, walk into school while holding you, wait for William to get out, walk back out into the cold, buckle you back up in your car seat without you waking up.
Then, in March we were all ruffled with a big change—Covid. I started working from home and Lexi and William were home from school for the rest of the year. This was a big and hard transition for all of us. Although you had playmates and mom home, you also lacked the 1:1 attention you had been getting, which I’m sure wasn’t easy. Whether an outcome of this change or just the fact that you were almost 3, you started to throw some EPIC tantrums. These usually happen when you are over-tired and you are not getting your way. The stomping and crying and yelling come out and can’t be controlled. NOTHING will make you happy—which usually results you being sent to your room, which almost always makes the situation worse. You will scream and get so worked up that you will sweat through your shirt. Sometimes, the only thing that will calm you down is having whoever didn’t put you in timeout talk to you.
These past few months have been a gift (albeit challenging gift) but a TRUE gift to have all this extra time home with you. I love seeing you throughout the day, being there to put ponies in your hair in the morning, make you lunch, the 30 extra hugs I get, you falling asleep on my shoulder during a meeting, watching you interact with my co-workers during video meetings or even the fact of you watching me work each day and being a role model for you to pursue your dreams are things that I am so grateful to have.
However, one of the hardest things for me with this transition was the lack of understanding you had about everything that was going around you. You didn’t understand that I couldn’t come play with you at any moment in the day, or that you needed to be quiet when I was on a call or that you couldn’t come barging in to tattle that William pinched you. Although you understood that I was working, you didn’t understand that meant I couldn’t be there for you at any moment. When I would say, I’ll be there in 3 minutes or come back later—that didn’t mean anything to you. You wanted and needed me now and couldn’t understand why you couldn’t have me now. Things have gotten better and the warm weather has been such a blessing as you play outside a lot more, but it was a hard thing to try and teach you.
Facts about Kate at age 3:
39 inches tall & weigh 41 lbs—98%
Nicknames: Kate, Katers, Taters, Tator-tot, Kate the Great, Katie<
Wear size 5T clothes and some XS or size 6 (which is the same size as William)
You had your first haircut (which you call a shortcut) a few days ago. You had these beautiful curls and I avoided getting your hair cut for a long time because I didn’t think they would go away, but the longer they grew, the more I thought they were going to stay around so we did a quick cut in the garage. You have these ringlets in the back of your hair and on your sides, but the hair growing out of the top of your head is STICK straight—no volume or curl to it at all. So that will be interesting as time goes on, but for now, I cut that straight hair shorter so your sweet curls show off more.
Fears: laying on back in the water, going fast, being up high, swinging
Loves: Frozen, Frozen II, Repunzel, Bunnies, Books, Purple, the stroller, snuggles, fruit, candy, chips, cheese, nuts (cashews), milk, running errands with mom,
Dislikes: the shower, sitting still, being quiet, meat,
Lovie or Pal is your grey bunny, which you have named Nonee and have also adopted a purple bunny to be pal number 2, which you call Rabby. You love to sleep and snuggle with them and request them when you are upset
Obsessed with the color purple. You want everything to be purple—your cups, your plates, blankets, clothes, shoes, crayons, paper, legos—everything is ‘pupule’ as you like to call it
You talk VERY clearly and in full sentences constantly. Rarely is there a moment of silence with you.
We haven’t worked on identifying any letters or numbers yet, but can sing the ABCs and count to 10. Lots of scribbles when you color.
Have hearing like a wolf. You could be two floors away and hear someone open a bag of chips or candy and be down at your side in seconds to have your share.
If we ask you a question and you don’t know the answer you say ‘You call it’
As happy as you are, you also have a stubborn streak in you. When you set your mind to something, you don’t budge. You refused to lie down in the bathtub the other day to wash your hair, so you sat in there for over 30 minutes in cold water—but refused to lay down for me. Then Daddy came up to say goodnight and you would suddenly lay down for him.
In February, we went to Disney. You got the flu 3 days before we left (the last one in our family to get it) and although you were fever free—you still didn’t feel great and were pretty crabby and moody for the first 2 days. You had moments of joy in meeting some characters and swimming—but were pretty clingy to mommy and didn’t get to truly experience the magic. Following Disney, we spent a week visiting with Grammy and Papa in PCB and you loved playing in the sand, splashing in the water and just having a good time with Grammy and Papa.
Kate, you are one-of-a-kind and I pray your determination, stubbornness, ability to command, laughter and kindness will take you far in this world. Please never stop whispering in my ear that you love me.
Hallelujah!! School is out. For Summer. After 10 weeks of distance learning, we are done. To say this experience has been a journey is a minor statement. I felt like we started off strong with schedules, a routine and consistency. However, with each passing week and warmer weather each one of those things deteriorated a little bit. We kept trying to adapt and adjust and find something that worked and I think the constant adaptation was the only thing that did work.
Lexi, I know you act differently with Daddy and I than you do at school, but boy am I grateful for all that your teachers do. As hard as these last 10 weeks have been, I’m also really grateful for them. It has been really wonderful to have special 1:1 time with you and be more involved in your school work. I can see areas that you get excited about (Art & Science) and areas that you need a little extra help in (math). Now I know the things we can do at home to give you that extra practice to build up your confidence. Your reading also has really improved a lot these last 10 weeks. We have been much more consistent in read-out-louds and you’re getting better and faster everyday. I’m so proud of you.
William, you have been done with school for a few weeks and I’m astonished at how much you have grown and learned this year. At the beginning of the year, the only letter you knew was ‘W’ and now, not only can you identify the uppercase and lowercase, you can write them and identify the sounds they make. You are thoughtful, respectful, a good listener and very inquisitive about how things work. I am so excited for you to go to Kindergarten next year and really have very little stress or worries about it. I know you are going continue to learn and love kindergarten.
This week, Daddy also started working on remodeling our Master closet. The space hasn’t been working for us for quite some time, so it will be nice to get some drawers and and more hanging space and have things be a bit more organized.
As excited as I am for school to be complete for the year, I’m also a little scared about what this summer is going to look like. We can not continue to ask you guys to brush your teeth 7 times and nobody doing it. We just can’t fight these battles everyday. So starting on Monday, you kids need to brush your teeth, get dressed, do a chore and some of your workbooks before you can play outside, watch TV or play with toys. We need to get into some kind of routine where the basic things aren’t so challenging.
As far as Covid goes—the stay at home order in Minnesota was officially lifted and many stores were able to open back up. Restaurants, salons and experiences that are harder to social distance are still closed, but should be able to open in early June. About 100,000 people have died in the US from Covid at this point with the sweeping majority of them being 80+. As awful as it is to know so many people are passing, it is encouraging to know that most people contracting the virus are recovering at home and it isn’t quite as scary as I thought it was going to be when this all started to unfold 10 weeks ago.
That is all for now my favorite little monkeys. It is Memorial Day weekend and we’re looking forward to an outdoor BBQ at Grammy and Papas. Let’s have an awesome summer!!
I’m not sure if it was the sunshine and the 70 degree temperature today but this week was a pretty good week. Pushing the school work to the evening has really helped my mental sanity and Lexi is a lot more cooperative about completing it in the evening. Next week will be the last week any assignments are given with the last official ‘day’ being May 29th!!
You three have been really really good about cleaning up your toys. All toys have been picked up every single night since last Monday so you didn’t lose any additional ones and even earned back all the ones you lost–which are all still sitting in a bin untouched, so it shows how much you really ‘missed’ those toys.
The whining, complaining and attitude was maybe a tinch better–but still needs some work. Lexi lost TV & iPad for two days because she turned on YouTube without asking and then lost playing with Luke for the week for lying to us three times in a row. William also lied and lost playing with Luke for two days.
Yesterday, we did a good-bye parade for William’s preschool. We were able to give teacher gifts and pick up all of William’s things and then headed out to the Vossen’s to wish Avery a Happy Birthday. It was nice to get out of the house and also see some friends, even if it was only 20 minutes.
Daddy did a great job of keeping you out of my hair this week so I could work. Last night, I worked from 9:30 until 2:30am (and have done that about once a week). As hard as it is to work late into the night like that, is one of the few times I can actually focus and dig into some stuff without being interrupted or distracted every 30 minutes by one of you kids, have a meeting or be IM’d by someone. It also does help reduce some of my anxiety.
As a result, Daddy works in the evening from 6-11:30 or so while I do dinner, dishes, clean-up, baths and bedtime. It makes for some long days, for both of us. It isn’t ideal, but is manageable and better than you three running rampant.
The governor also lifted the stay at home order and ‘allowed’ people to start gathering in groups of 10 or less with retail stores able to open to a 50% capacity. Salons, restaurants, bars etc… are still closed with the hope of opening June 1st.
Today the weather was beautiful–sunny and 70 all day. You guys literally played outside from about 10 am until 7. You three plus Luke and Anna played in the sandbox, rode scooters, played hide and seek, played on the swing set, played Star Wars and Decendants and there was almost no tattling or crying. Daddy even was able to golf with Uncle Joe this afternoon. It was a good day. Daddy
One of my favorite things about Mother’s Day is ability to reflect on the indescribable amount of gratitude I have for all of the mother’s in my life, the role that I play in your lives and the role you play in my life.
The photo below was taken at 9:00 tonight, in the middle of our bedtime routine. It is far from perfect. But I love it. It represents our life today. Blurry. Everyone focused on something else. Full of laughter and joy.
The three of you are my greatest blessings, best teachers, proudest accomplishment, biggest challenge and without a doubt my biggest worry. It is amazing how you three little can bring so much joy and fear at the same time.
To my first born, Lexi, who made me a mom. You are blossoming into a kind, fun and adventurous little girl. Your teachers say you are kind to all of your classmates and everyone always wants to play with you. You have an incredible imagination and love love to play with your toys and have taught your brother and sister how to use their imaginations as well. You watch out for them, but are extremely competitive and always looking for an opportunity to beat them. You’re weary of new people and experiences and are gaining courage to explore new things and almost always love them. I look forward to reading together at bed each night–hearing you learn to read and reading to you too. I love to hear how you process things in the books, how you’re feeling or just general observations.
To William the Badger, who made me a boy mom. I’m in awe of how thoughtful, tender and caring you are to your sisters, friends and cousins. You just do things (without being asked or told) to be nice to your sisters, like taking their laundry up the stairs or stopping playing because you were worried about Kenzie getting hurt. You have a heart of gold. You rarely talk back or have attitude and just go with the flow. You love learning and only want to read non-fiction books or watch non-fiction shows. You love to run, play soccer, ride your bike, play with your sisters, draw, do puzzles, play dinosaurs and cuddle at night. I love how much comfort you find in us laying with you while you fall asleep, often listening to you ask questions or process the events of the day.
To Kate, the bookend baby in my journey as a mom. You are silly, loud, confident, demanding and joyful. I love watching you experience joy in the small things of life, like a flower, an extra treat, or seeing your nooknee. Your eyes dance with excitement and it is impossible not to smile watching your expressions. You move a million miles a minute and will not be pushed around by your big brother and sister. You love bunnies (nooknees), the color purple, Lexi, Badgie, and being outside. I love when you snuggle your whole body on mine, pull up your shirt and beg for your back to be rubbed.
And to my own mom who has and continues to teach me how to create a warm, safe and nurturing environment for you three kids to grow up in. She taught me the importance of family, built and exposed me to faith, showed the importance of friendship, instilled importance of working hard, the value of a good education, giving back to your community and so much more. But of all of those things the most valuable was giving me the space and ability to figure out how I bring those foundational values elements into our home and family.
Your grammy is a pretty incredible woman and I owe so much of who I am and where I am to her. I pray that if I can be even half of the mom to you three that she was to me, we should be in pretty good shape.
Thank you Lexi, William & Kate for being three of the most incredible and happy things of my life. I love you more than you can ever know.
Deep breaths are things I often remind myself to do. This week was really, really hard for me and felt I was very close to breaking down. Work is crazy busy right now and the lack of routine is making things a bit challenging. It felt like everything was just unraveling. You three kids were running wild and doing whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted. Monday afternoon, I came outside to find you had rattled through an entire box of popsicles. You each ate three popsicles one after another, without asking. Toys, dishes and clothes were scattered throughout the house and the attitude, whining and talking back was out of control and we needed to make changes.
First was the toys. Anything that wasn’t picked up off the floor before bed time became mine. After lots of warnings about picking things up, toys were still all over the place when bedtime came. There were some big tantrums thrown as a result, and I picked up an entire bin of toys that became mine until you could go for a week with all toys being put away each night. But, I haven’t had to do it again yet. You have picked things up every night.
Next was having Daddy or I be near you guys at all times and not having both of us try and work at the same time. This allows one of us to actually focus on work and not be distracted by your constant interruptions. This mostly means Daddy has you for the days and I have you guys at night, since I’m in meetings all day.
Next was sticking to the punishments for talking back, doing things without asking and lying. Lots of timeouts were given and Lexi lost TV for the week for lying about the popsicles and blaming it on Luke.
This isn’t perfect and we still need to work on some sort of routine to help make our days more predictable and figure out a better schedule of work for Daddy and I. But, it is a start.
Considering we are 2 months into quarentene, it feels like you guys are pretty unaffected by it. You definitely prefer going to school and learning from your teachers versus us. You have also made some comments like ‘It feels weird to be driving in a car Mom. We don’t really ride in the car anymore.’ You haven’t been into a store since before we went to Florida. Most stores are asking only one person from a family shops and some stores don’t even allow people under the age of 16 inside. Occasionally, Kate will request that she wants to come to the store with me and says, ‘The Virus is all gone away now. I can come with you’. And William refers to it as the Corony Virus. But given all of the changes that you have gone through, you seem to roll through each day unaffected. You love to play with each other more than ever and have even taught Kate how to play your ‘stories’ and rarely, if ever, complain about not being able to do something because of the virus.
As far as the macro-economy goes–over 36 million people have filed for unemployment as businesses have been forced to temporarily close. More than 80,000 people have died in the United States–with more than 80% of them being 80+ years old. Children have been pretty unaffected–meaning they show very mild symptoms or no symptoms. Our official stay-at-home order started March 27th and is expected to lift May 18th as most business have put plans together to re-open in what the government deems a safe way. This mostly means a limited number of people in stores, closed or limited dressing rooms, employees and customers wearing masks and truly going to a store for a given purpose and not to just shop and browse.
One of the most challenging elements of this whole situation is knowing what to believe and how to navigate as a result. Most of the news outlets are telling the narrative that everyone’s life is at risk, which is different than what the actual numbers reflect. Doctors and people that have different opinions or data than what is being shared in the news are silenced. They post something on social media and their posts are removed in what is being stated as a ‘content violation’. Yet nobody can explain what a content violation is? Or why is it a content violation? Are individuals not allowed to have and share different opinions? There are facts out there stating the US was funding the research of the lab where this virus came from in China. There are rumors out there that big pharma companies are behind this. Politicians are taking advantage of this situation by trying to work their personal agendas into bills that need to pass. Then, there are people who won’t see anyone and think they are going to die if they get this virus, which they might, but pretty unlikely based on the numbers being reported. Then, there are people who think this whole thing is completely over-exaggerated and think we should just continue to operate as we normally do. It is confusing and really hard to make decisions on what is OK and what isn’t OK to do.
Hopefully, our stay-at-home order will get lifted next week and we can start to test the waters by opening businesses up and seeing people more freely and pray our medical systems have prepared enough that they can support the individuals that need the medical assistance.
The highlight of this week was spending a few days with Kenzie at our house. Auntie Sheila and Uncle Dustin dropped Kenzie off on Sunday evening as they were preparing to go to the hospital to welcome your new baby BOY cousin, Lincoln, into the world. The weather was amazing so you guys had a lot of fun playing on the swing set, in the sandbox, drawing with chalk, running, reading books and just caring for sweet Kenzie.
It was so fun to watch you all interact together, but it is amazing how quickly I forgot how much work little kids are, changing diapers, getting them down for naps, the extra messes they make and watching them like a hawk to make sure they don’t get hurt or put things in their mouths they shouldn’t.
As a result of the extra attention Kenzie needed, I became much more lax about the school work and started doing most of it at night while the other kids were getting ready for bed. But it kind of worked. We also found out that school will officially be over by May 22nd. At first, I was stressed about this as they are supposed to go to school for another two weeks. As I sat on this information the more OK and relieved I became. It is one less thing to keep track of, worry about, and lets be real… it is getting harder and harder for Lexi to focus and be motivated to do her work. We started off doing all of these extra things to keep a routine as much as possible but, now 7 weeks in, we are doing the bare minimum.
Work has gotten much more stressful. Projects are starting to kick off, which means a lot more meetings and the kids seem to be interrupting a lot more and I’m just having a really hard time focusing and being productive when I need to be. I’ve worked late several nights this week in an attempt to get caught up, but I just never feel like I can dig myself out of the hole I’m in. I’m working on finding time to go for a walk, do yoga and just get some endorphins flowing to help with the anxiety.
With all that said, we have so much to be grateful for and continue to thank God for what we have and what we do know.
I’m a week late in documenting this week, so it is going to be short and sweet. After being off for spring break last week, we moved back into the official distance learning thing again and had to re-learn all of the systems and tools again. By the end of the week, we got into more of a rhythm of the different apps used for different subjects. (Benchmark is for reading activities, classkick is where most of the math activities happen, SeeSaw is the main hub of where you get information and submit most of your assignments)
Although William doesn’t have an official program, he is loving learning and going to school. He is getting really good at identifying his letters and learning those tricky teens.
The Easter Bunny brought him a Nerf gun so we put the teen letters up on the wall and used them as a target shooting practice and it was a BIG hit. He has also gotten very close to having both mom and dad’s phone numbers memorized and loves doing little science experiments.
Kate continues to get into anything and everything she can and has a loud an authoritative personality. You are an observant little monkey and are learning how to role play by watching Lexi and William .
On Saturday, Grammy and Papa came over for an Easter visit and we grilled some brats. They ended up coming inside and eating and hanging out and it felt so good to do something remotely normal, but I kind of felt like we needed to hide what we were doing, like people would judge us for seeing someone or getting together. I hugged Grammy good-bye it just felt good to have that hug in time of so much uncertainty.
Sunday was Easter and that bunny was good to you guys. You each got new helmets, bubbles, chalk and loads of candy. William also got a nerf gun and a Osmo coding game for the iPad. Lexi got an LOL pet and an Osmo pizza game for the iPad. Kate got an LOL pet and a bunny shirt and purple bunny dress. We had a nummy breakfast of monkey bread, fruit, breads and pastries from Grammy. Then, Great Grandma came over for dinner and we had Ham, Rolls, Cheesy hash-browns, and green beans.
Technically, this week was spring break, but your mean-old mom made you do school work all week. It is easier to keep you on a schedule and you already missed a lot of school from vacation.
I was much more relaxed with things though. Your school days started later than we had been and I let you play a lot more. I also didn’t prep on Wednesday night, so you guys just had Thursday off.
Lexi, you are starting to push back more on doing assignments and showing some pretty big attitude. We took away you watching Decendents as there is a bit of lip in that show and it seemed to help a little. This week we worked on short and long vowels–specifically long vowels that have words that end in ‘e’. (Cub, Cube, Sam, Same, pin, pine) In math we reviewed some addition and subtraction and worked on key-words like ‘sum’ ‘difference’ ‘total’ ‘in-addition to’ and practiced telling time on a digital and analog clock as well as learned ‘quarter-after’ and ‘quarter-to’. You wrote letters to Grammy and Ivy and the Easter bunny.
William, you were busy re-creating your Big Book of Dinosaurs book all week for your journal and then were working on the letter ‘N’. For math, you’re working on identifying your tricky teens and memorizing daddy’s phone number.
The weather was pretty nice this week so we got some good outside hours logged. Bonus Grammy came over for another drive-way activity and did some Easter activities with you outside, painting rocks, decorating rocks as bunnies, eating some treats, reading books and making some foam bunnies.
Supplies in stores started to regulate a bit. Still no signs of toilet paper, cleaning wipes or hand sanitizer but milk, eggs, bread and canned goods are more accessible.
This Sunday is Easter so we dyed some Eggs this week and are looking forward to seeing Grammy and Papa tomorrow for a little visit and Great Grandma might come over for dinner on Easter (even though it is technically not allowed. She hasn’t been able to see anyone and don’t want her to be alone on Easter.)
Peanut Smiles 