Baby Harry is a SENIOR?!?!?!

 I mean, I know this, really, but sometimes the realization is startling. 

On my birthday, his school had their honors convocation, and I insisted he attend SINCE IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY. It was the best event-- any kid winning a scholarship or a named scholastic honor was awarded a certificate, a packed auditorium's worth of applause, and their senior pic on the big screen; and all the honor roll kids could file across the stage and snag their honors cords for graduation.  I have known some of these kids since KINDERGARTEN, and there they were all grown up and amazing.

Two funny things: 1. these are the most academically successful kids at the school, and alphabetical order was tough all night long. 2. TONS of the girls wore their senior picture outfit at the ceremony, and it was like their picture came to life and started walking across the stage.

Harry was so poised and polished and let me take his picture AND ALSO posed for pictures with his scholarship donor family and made adult-level small talk-- I loved the whole thing.

(Also there were ELEVEN national merit scholars which seems like a whole lot from the same school).

Chance of his honors cords making it to graduation? LOOKS SLIM, GUYS. They are MIA as we speak.

I ordered favors for his family grad lunch, and that task also really made me realize he is leaving. (Will it feel real when I pay fall tuition? WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME) GAH. I realized all the other preparation I have been slacking on (buying a dress and shoes for myself, finalizing the cake and menu) might be because I am in mild denial (that is definitely my MO).

In two weeks, the seniors wear their caps and gowns to walk the halls of their elementary schools, and I am already teary thinking about it. Harry will have Dorothy there, which is adorable. All the other kids will have a mini Minnie to see their walks (she'll be in kindergarten for Jack's, 4th grade for Coop's, and 5th grade for Dorothy's). And, I mean, I will be there sobbing on the school lawn taking pics, natch.

A SENIOR, YOU GUYS. Geez.

That Mom

 I am THAT MOM who accidentally took a sick kid to a b-day party. 

Minnie was FINE Saturday, and the party was at 9am on Sunday, so, honestly, I did not notice that she was not herself until she was complaining about being cold on the way home. 

When we got home? SHE HAD A 102-DEGREE FEVER and has had one ever since, despite Tylenol and Ibuprofen rotating every 3 hours. She slept in my bed (“slept” LOL) and was so warm last night that she melted a granola bar in her palm. We took her to urgent care where she was rapid strep negative, and Ben COVID tested her. Justavirus? Long strep culture positive tomorrow? BUT YIKES. A 7:45am dose of Tylenol saw her drenched in sweat (FINALLY), and her fever broke. **crosses fingers**

SO ANYWAY. I’m the worst. Happy 4th birthday— here is a book, a stuffie, and virus of dooooooom.

(Although. The BEST time to go to a trampoline park is when you are maybe a little sick already)

Deferred **whomp whomp**

 Harry got a deferred decision from UW and has to report his midterm grades for consideration with the students who applied by 1/15. LOL because he has been living the carefree senior life this year and has 2 B+’s that would have been A’s had he known anyone would care.

Soooooo, he is going to choose from his 4 other faves and forget about UW (even though he will turn in the grades— he is not expecting a spot and is proceeding as if defer means no and feeling pretty ok since he knows a ton of kids who got denied yesterday).

I just want him to make a decision so I can buy ALL OF THE MERCH.

And! I actually want him to attend either one of 2 specific UW system schools that I have wanted him to attend all along because they are well ranked and have selective admissions plus also have faculty teaching courses and are small and undergraduate-student-centered. Like a public SLAC. But! He is really into the University of Minnesota, so we shall see.

IT IS NOT MY DECISION even though I have to spend lots of money on it, so I am (TRYING TO) lean out and follow his lead.

Come on, kid! Wisconsin is your oyster!

ALSO! I took Minnie to the library for 20 minutes to kill time between club diving drop off and high school diving pick up, and SHE IS SICK TODAY. It is the first time we have gone to the library since the whole strep/ear infection/RSV/pneumonia routine, and the first time she has been sick since then. Bah humbug.

Snow Day: An Adventure

 To be fair, the adventure started at 5pm the day before the snow day when two things happened at about the same second: 1. School sent an email cancelling Tuesday classes on the basis of weather forecast models alone. 2. Ben had to step out of his car where he was idling on campus for pick up Cooper at diving practice so he could THROW UP. In the street. (When he felt better yesterday afternoon, he brought the scarf he was wearing into the laundry room to wash, carrying it in a plastic bag because he used it to wipe his face. HE WAS SO SICK).

Soooooo. 

We planned on him being at work during our snow day with an overnight bag packed in case he couldn’t make it home and had to stay in a hotel. Instead, he was sequestered in our room doing unspeakable things to the bathroom.

**Yikes face**

I slept on the couch, and Minnie bellowed IT’S WAKED UP TIME at 6:24, the second her ok-to-wake clock turns green. She joined me, and we watch TV and the snow fall on her swing set in the back yard.

I went to the co-op for coffee last week and left with $100-worth of odds and end that fit in one single grocery bag— something the cashier marveled at for its efficiency but I was like dud e that’s not cute at all; inflation is the worst—and one of those things was buttermilk in a huge bottle that’s in date for WEEKS. All this is to say, we started our day with brown sugar buttermilk pancakes, customized to order:

Except for Harry, who just wanted cookie dough in Jack’s mini waffle maker.

Everyone cheerfully trashed the kitchen like it was NBD

Every counter was demolished, plus some of them ate at the table **eye roll** I was kind of grumbly, but they took Minnie downstairs to play, and I cleaned it up and made my own pancakes **chef’s kiss**

Minnie spent a little time drawing. You can see she always makes her tomato people look worried. Also— the scribbles are the letter “M,” and you can see a coupe of randomly placed attempts at “i”s as well.

We did that whole stereotypical thing where you spend forever getting ready to go sledding and then stay out for mere minutes. I think we went too early— we had really pointy snow and high winds early in the day, but the afternoon was still with the biggest snowflakes you can imagine. I tried to rally the troops to make a snowman, but everyone was over it by then.

We had from-scratch pizza for lunch— a meal and an activity! (I remembered to start the bread machine for dough before we left the house).

The afternoon was lovely and lazy. Harry and some friends went sledding (and a friend went into a newly frozen retention pond on purpose (??) so they all came home to get dry clothes and hang out in Harry’s room while chaos raged.) Dorothy talked to a dance friend on FaceTime for quite awhile. Jack and Minnie watched a bunch of Star Wars (Minnie loves all of the movies) with plenty of light saber fight breaks, and Cooper played Fortnite with hockey friends. Harry was mad briefly because we wouldn’t let him drive to pick up a friend who lives in an adjacent neighborhood, but we pointed out that his other neighborhood friends could not drive either, and neither could the kid he wanted to pick up. Eventually, his friend just walked over. I love that Harry had the confidence to think he could drive in a storm and that we would let him. Then he asked me to help him with the zipper on his jacket. LOL for days. That’s a 17 year-old in a nutshell.

Ben felt well enough to clean the bathroom, air out the bedroom, take a shower, and sit on the couch with Minnie while she played, so I went out to shovel. Jack did the first round, and Cooper and Harry did another, but it had been quite some time in between, so I spent 2 hours listening to a book and clearing the driveway and sidewalk. It was so nice to be outside, be active, and be alone. Ben joined the boys for round 3 with the snowblower after the snow finally stopped at 8pm, and he and Harry have big plans to do an early sweep before Ben leaves for work today. (Harry also went out the night before the storm while Ben was occupied being sick to get gas for the snowblower— he’s such a helper).

I LOVE SNOW DAYS so much.

We’re back to the grind today, and I hate driving on snow. Minnie’s class has been studying hibernation as part of the “cozy home” unit, and I joked with her teacher that we were going to operationalize those lessons. She was like see you in the spring, and I wish I could really just hunker down until it’s warm and green again.

Also! Cozy home! The sensory table has laundry stuff, and there’s a toddler bed with lots of babies in it, and the loft has a hot cocoa bar. It’s adorable and also low-key subversive. Even a couple kids ago, the preschool units were much more stereotypically boy-centered. BUT COZY IS FOR EVERYONE, and all kids should learn how to cultivate a cozy home. Laundry is a  sensory delight, after all. Love it so much. (We actually put several preschool units into practice— pizza, cozy home, teddy bear picnic, etc— yesterday. Minnie has been set up to ace sow days).

Bad shopping, mild stomach bug, lots of hockey: a weekend

 Minnie went to preschool for the first time since NOVEMBER on Wednesday, January 3. She was throwing up by early morning on Saturday, January 6.

(She threw up in my hair. TWICE.)

Let’s see… what else? I am a bad internet shopper. I tried to buy Dorothy a dance bag on Friday, but the company’s website was down. I tried SEVERAL TIMES though because the error message was vague. I found a similar bag at a local store, and Ben bought it (LAST OINE!! NO RETURNS!!) on Saturday on his way to hockey. I thought all was fine.

But then! Last night! We got a charge from the OG company. Just one. SO FAR. I have a message an email, and a voicemail in to their customer service and plan to call the bank or set thing. (No conformation email, no order showing up on my account on the website, etc— nothing to indicate anywhere that I actually ordered a bag, just the charge). I would hate it if all several of my attempts go through and I have to be like oh sorry kids, I am not scheduling our spring break trip until I sell some dance bags on FB marketplace. Kidding. Sort of.

On Saturday, I stayed home with our puker who was confined, like Beatrix used to be, to only wipeable surfaces— NO CARPET, no cloth upholstery. Harry and Jack had a mock speech tournament at their school and then volunteer shifts in the hockey concession stand. Ben, Coop, and Dorothy went to 2 hockey games at 2 different venues.

Minnie thought it would be fun to search the house for all of our Little Golden books and then read them all, and it WAS!!

So cozy!!

She said I remind her of Peter Rabbit’s mom

SO MANY BOOKS

I even got to read a teeny bit of mine

She stopped throwing up before lunch time and felt mostly better by afternoon, as you can tell by the mess. A roll of paper towels bought me at least 30 pages of quiet reading time. And then a few more pages while she picked it all up

No fever. I feel ok so far… **shrug**

I joined Ben and Dorothy for Sunday’s early morning hockey game, and so did Minnie

Then she and I came home to hang out with Jack and Harry, make monster cookies, and clean a little while Ben, Dorothy and Cooper picked up groceries and soldiered on to Coop’s 4th game of the weekend (his team won 3/4, and Cooper scored in every game— so fun to watch him play).

I also freaking forgot all about writing for 24 minutes a day, so I wrote for 4 on Sunday (you can either do 24 or 2-4 for the challenge, so I figured adding 2-minute spurts for any day I miss during the week at the end of the week will satisfy my need to not break the chain). BUT, I think figuring out how to honor myself as a writer is what this challenge is about for me, and I am going to really work on this. I could have written instead of baking, and that’s on me, not my family for needing me, which is the story I usually tell myself.

A few randoms:

Harry at his team’s mock speech meet, as shot by jack, who says Harry’s oratory is so good it is going to win state and that is how you little-brother **heart eyes**

I am ready for valentine colors

I really wanted to go to hockey to use my new blanket! I can’t deal with blanket textures getting dirty or being in dirty places, but this is parka-like and PERFECT!!

She was so happy unless she was puking, when she jumped around in a circle like a little oscillating sprinkler of vomit.

Aaaaaall day

She’s back to kitchen painting. I am here for it.