Yesterday, we went to Scootney Elementary to play on the playground while David played basketball outside with some friends. Technically, the playgrounds are closed due to Covid-19. But school has been cancelled since the middle of March. So we decided it was safe enough. We invited Lindsey and Jasmine and we all had a great time. It's so good to be outside and feel like life is normal for a few hours during this pandemic. Annika ended up making 9 clover necklaces, one for each of the men playing bball. I was so touched that she wanted to spend the time to make them for strangers. She is a special girl. She has been so dedicated to her distance learning on her chromebook during the last 6 weeks. She has been reading like crazy over the last two months. Some days she reads 3-4 hours. She's read the first three Harry Potter books and is over halfway through the fourth one. She read the first one about 3 times in a row before we borrowed the Percy Jackson series. She read those 5 in two weeks. It's been fun to watch her fall in love with these series.
There are 4 more weeks until school is out for the summer. I'm looking forward to not having any pressure to do the weekly zoom meetings with the kids' classes. I really have put in minimal effort with Annika's school work. She is self motivated. And I haven't done much with Benson either. We read 9/10 days and I'm having him work on sight words and math. We look up answers and find movies to answer his intriguing questions. Lately, he's been curious about the steps and time it takes to build a house. And he asks moral questions too. Like a few few weeks ago when he asked "Does every person in the world make mistakes sometimes?" He's really into the animated Star Wars series of Clone Wars. He watches a few episodes every afternoon. And he's been building AT-ATs and TIE fighters out of k'nex. He loves to have me print out coloring pages of clone troopers and then I pencil in a camo design so he can make them a certain kind of his favorite clone characters. He also loves setting up battles with his army guys. We brought a card table in his bedroom and he sets up intricate battles daily. He called me in there last week to show me the 70 guys he had laying down on the back of a game board. They were in the hospital. 50 of them were American. The Americans always win the battle against the Germans. His passion for setting up and carrying out the battles just makes my heart smile. He is such a fun and creative boy. He likes to set up battles in our master shower while he's showering. That really makes me smile. One night, David had just tucked him in and was heading into the shower when Benson burst through the bathroom door, covered his eyes (David was naked), and said "Dad if you need to use the shampoo, please just take the army guy off the top and put him back when you're done." :) During this pandemic, with extra time on his hands, Benson has asked me if he could vacuum out the Sequoia twice. I love his work ethic and de
Esther has enjoyed having Benson and Annika home. She and Annika do a lot of imaginative play with their dolls and stuffed animals. She loves collecting worms and rolly polies outside. She turns all of the bricks over around the fire pit and fills her jar. One night, she came upstairs around 9, crying and said "I forgot to put dirt in the jar and my worms will die!" So David went outside, found her jar in the garden and added a scoop of dirt. I adore her passion for bugs. She also has graduated from her balance bike to a pedal bike. We were amazed by how easily she made the transition. Tyson is now riding the the balance bike. We love watching him cruise around on it. Around Easter, Esther had big plans to catch the Easter Bunny. I asked her what she was going to do with him and she said "I'm going to ask him to help me take care of you." Melt my heart. A few months ago, she set up some traps on the main floor to stop bad guys. But she told me "If the bad guys go into your room at night, they'll see your baby bump and they won't take you." I love her imagination and nurturing nature. She will do anything to try to make Tyson happy. That is getting harder as he has started pulling her hair and hitting her, often for no reason.
Tyson is definitely two. I love him to pieces. He is so sweet. But he is sure a handful. He can open most of the doors in the house now. He can open the fridges (they now have locks). He climbs up on the counter and gets candy from the top of the fridge. He can open the latches on the toolbox in the garage and often gets tools out. He pushes a stool over to the key rack and turns the car alarm on. I sure am glad that he will grow out of this part of two year old-ness some day. He jumps up and down every time David comes home. His favorite way to greet dad is outside and with the request of a "ride" around our driveway and then to "see sprayer" in the back of his truck. He could easily spend an hour walking around in the back of David's truck, talking about the sprayer, the blower, the dippers, and the fogger. He's a somewhat picky eater these days. He loves every kind of fruit, oatmeal, milk, juice, and scrambled eggs with broccoli. Any other foods, he usually will only take a few bites before he turns his plate over or just gets down from the table. I hope he's getting enough calories. I really try but he's just not a big quantity eater. He is a great snuggler. I love holding him close for a few minutes. He's also really expanding his vocabulary and stringing more words together the last month or so. We love his cute voice. "Yes" is one of our favorite words he says. It's very clear and he usually does a quick nod simultaneously. Such a babe. We love this little guy!
I am a little over 6 months pregnant! We're excited to meet our baby girl in less than 3 months! I think her name will be Macy Olive. But we're not decided for sure yet. I'm feeling great. It's been kind of nice not to have to go in for my last two Dr appointments because of coronavirus. I skipped the first one and did a phone call for the second. I've been walking 2-3 mornings a week at 6:30 with Candice Walker and Nikki Freeman. I've enjoyed it so much! They're both pregnant too. So I bet we're quite a sight coming down Taylor Rd. :) David will start working at 7 am in a few weeks and I'm not sure if they (or I) will be willing to walk at 6 to get it in before David has to leave. David is glad to have work be business as usual during this pandemic when work is so different or nonexistent for many people.
