- Out of the mouth of babes: VOL XI -

Just found a little iPhone note full of Harper's quotes!  Pot of gold on a rainy day! 

**********

While driving through town one night:
"Owww!  That truck just shined his lights RIGHT in my eyes!  That wasn't too nice!"


While watching me do the dishes after dinner:
Harper:  "Mommy, can you come play hide and seek?"
Me:  "Well, hold on.  I have to clean up, we can't just --"
Harper:  "--jack around in this dirty ole' house?"

At the Disney resort last December, after watching a bird swoop in and swipe a bread crust off someone's plate:
Harper:  "What will happen if birds peck us while we're eating our ham-boogers?"
Me:  "Well, it will just hurt our skin a little, I guess..."
Harper:  ".....So we won't die or anything?"
Me:  "No....."
Harper:  "Oh!"


While driving around looking at Christmas decor [also last December]:
"Wow, they have sooo much blow ups!"


At Disney on Ice:
"Does Moana ever see Ariel in the pool?"

Also at Disney on Ice, as Elsa and Anna are furiously skating around in a snow storm:
"Do you think Anna knows all that snow is just coming out of that machine up there on the ceiling?"



After smashing a spider on the wall:
Harper:  "I'm the one that gets spiders ALL the time because I'm brave, but you needa' get brave and get them too, Mommy.  They won't even come alive anymore after you smash them!  They're dead forever!"
Me:  *still scared*


After observing our waitress at a restaurant:
"I like how you make people's orders!"

After taking a drink of hot chocolate fresh off the stove:
Me:  "Oh, be careful, babe!  It's super hot, and I don't want you to burn your mouth!"
Harper:  "It's ok, it only burned my teeth...  Sissy, you're too little for hot chocolate, because it can burn your teeth!" 



While driving home one evening:
Harper:  "There's the moon following us!  Think we can get a moon sometime?"
Me:  "How would we get a moon?"
Harper:  "Jump high!  Or get a ladder!"

After strolling out of bed for the third time with her seventh excuse to get up:
Harper:  "The reason I comed out here is because I'm 'firsty." 
Me:  "No, Harper.  Go back to bed."
Harper:  "Well if you don't give me a drink, I'll cry for a hundred nights!"


While examining a pregnant goat at the petting zoo:
"I think that one's gonna have two babies come out of its tummy because it has two nipples!"



After "babysitting" Scarlett for ten minutes while I took a shower:
"Having a baby is SOOO much work!!!"

After polishing off her Valentine's Day candy stash:
Me:  "Where's all the M&Ms?"
Harper:  "I think they're hiding or something?"


After Scarlett laid down for a nap:
Me:  "Harper, do you want to take a little nap today?"
Harper:  "Ummmm, well, not really.  But thank you, Mommy, for asking!" 

- Easter Weekend 2020: The one where we were quarantined! -

HE IS RISEN!

ALLELUIA, ALLELUIA!!

HAPPY EASTER, FRIENDS!!!  

But goshhhh, what a super weird Lent and Easter this was.  When we first caught wind of the sheltering-in orders mid-March, I remember saying to Brian, "Wouldn't it be soooo insane if this continues through mid-April and we have to watch Easter Sunday Mass from the TV in our living room?!"  We both chuckled, agreeing that that would, indeed, be the most insane thing ever.  Then, fast forward from then to now and -boom!-  Our Paschal Triduum looked a liiiiitle like this:

[Good Friday highlighted over here and here!]

On Holy Saturday, we brewed up an extra large pot of coffee and headed out to the driveway to make some chalk art!

Just as we were finishing, my mom stopped by to give the kids their Easter baskets.  She came by one other time a few weeks ago to chat with us on the driveway while Scarlett was napping, so this was the first time Scarlett had seen her in nearly a month!  She was planning to "drop off the baskets and leave," [hahah] but turns out Scarlett missed her Grammy and neither party could resist a little [non-social-distanced] love! #worthit

After Easter baskets with Grammy, we got a surprise visit from the Easter Bunny himself!!! Weeeee!  Scarlett was terrified of him but eventually worked up the courage to walk up for the reward of a Reese's egg.  As the E.B. walked away, Harper said, "Hey!  That's not the real Easter Bunny, because I see his T-shirt sticking out of the fur costume!  And he just got in the car with Lucy and her mom!  That's Lucy's dad!!!"  She then convinced Scarlett not to be afraid because that wasn't "the real bunny" and was also wondering for several hours if "the real bunny" would know that he had an imposter...

After a nap with Jesus...

...we colored some hard-boiled eggs...

...which started off fine, but then a) Scarlett spilled blue dye all over the counter...

...and b) Harper stickered one of Scarlett's eggs which sent her into an outrage...

...and I'm legitimately just wondering who in the heck actually enjoys dying eggs with their kids, because all the posts on Facebook make it look so glamorous and every year I'm just like:  HALLO 15 MINUTES OF MISERY.  In the end, we made amends...

...and re-directed our energies to making contorted Mr. Potato Heads!  Scarlett is always extra proud of her creations [and the mama heart in me is pretty proud of them, too!].

After dinner [and maybe a few drinks to buy time while the kids fell into a very deep sleep], the Easter Bunny came!!!

Scarlett was up with the sun on Easter morning and enjoyed polishing off the Easter Bunny's leftover, gnawed up carrot stumps [and only had to dance around the hidden eggs and candy trail on the floor for about an hour before we allowed her to wake Harper up, too].  HOPPY EASTER!

After the first hunt, Harper requested that I re-stuff all the eggs and hide them again while the rest of the family sat down to enjoy a luxurious breakfast together...  I happily obliged for round 2, 'cause it's only 8:45am and what else we gonna do?!

While the rain was pouring down, we finished up some Easter artwork...

...and then headed outside to fly the kids' brand new kite.

...And the best part of the day?! A 2-hour afternoon nap for all 4 of us! Bliss!

For dinner, we had scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, and bunny butt pancakes [again, much cuter on Pinterest, but I'll give myself an "A" for effort and the kids thought they were the best ever!].

Womp womp...whattttttt an Easter!  It was so weird to not be at our parish in the morning and not be with our families in the afternoon; heck, the weirdest thing of all was watching Mass from the living room rug whilst wearing our 2-day-old PJs on a day that we usually dress up in our very fanciest clothes!  But, I have to admit that I'm 100% loving this intimate nuclear family time we are unexpectedly having; I think there's something to be said for having the opportunity to step back from all the chaos and truly be able to teach our kiddos the meaning of the holiday and talk about what things may have been like on the very first Easter Sunday! 

We are an Easter people, and "Alleluia!" is our song!

^^ Forever and ever, AMEN!

Love you guys!  

xoxox

- Out of the mouth of babes: Good Friday Edition -

After deciding this was "the year" to dive into the details of Good Friday and explain the events of the day to Harper:
"Did Jesus tell the kings to kill him?  Why did they kill him?"


..."Did it hurt him? Was he yelling?"


..."Why did they strap him up on that cross?"


..."Why did Jesus die if he didn't do anything wrong?"


..."Do you know how they killed him?"


..."Are the mom and dad sad?"


..."Did those thorns hurt his head really bad?"


..."Are the mom and dad never going to have Jesus back?"


..."But how did God get him back alive again?"


..."Was he still bleeding when God brought him back to life?"


..."Did God wipe the blood off when he bringed him to Heaven?"

 
..."Was God nice to Jesus and rude to the people who killed Jesus?"


And finally, while examining at a picture of Jesus on the cross...
Harper:  "Wait...is he bleeding right there too?
Me:  "Yes..."
Harper:  "That scares me."
Me:  "Yes it's very sad.  But now you know why Jesus loves you so much!"

- COVID Diaries: Week 4 -

When typing the title of this post, my first attempt came out "- COVID Diaries:  Weed 4 -" ...so mebbe I'm losing my mother-loving mind or mebbe a little dose of said typo ^^ might actually do my bod some good... ;) :) 

Jayyyy to the kay.

We kicked last weekend [Saturday morning] off with a box of powdered donuts and a box of markers!  Harper loves to color [but always prefers someone to be coloring alongside her]; eating junk food breakfasts + sipping coffee + coloring together is turning into a Saturday morning tradition these days! The stack of "quarantine artwork" has been growing exponentially... 

...so I decided to start mailing some of it out to our friends and families who undoubtedly miss the girls.  We also fired up the Cricut to create some Easter joy that we could mail out along with the girls' artwork.  I hope everyone smiles when opening your happy mail this week; we sure enjoyed putting it together! :)

Saturday afternoon, we broke into a little goodie bag that my mom dropped off at the house late last week.  One of the bags included supplies to make Easter Bunny houses.  They were a little more fragile than I hoped they'd be [after hours of watching and waiting, the icing never really set up well and the roofs kept falling in -- then again, everything always looks much more do-able and glamorous on Pinterest so I suppose I just need to lower my standards!], but finally the kids were able to gently push the M&Ms on before setting the houses aside to permanently dry.

The houses were proudly displayed for 3 full days until Scarlett knocked her plate off the entry way table and demolished the entire thing.  Oops!  Luckily, she didn't seem to mind!

On Sunday morning, the kids finished an entireeee Easter MadLib sticker book that the next-door neighbor boy brought them.  As you can see, Scarlett aced her pages! :)

We also FaceTimed Papa Mark after breakfast and organized a surprise Zoom call for friends/family after dinner, because: HAPPY 60TH BIRTHDAY, Dad!!! Thanks to everyone who tapped in to the Zoom meeting to help us sing "Happy Birthday!" to our old man.  We agreed on a birthday re-do over the summer for all the March/April birthdays that have been celebrated so far via social media only, and I can't wait! [Winery day trip, anyone?! YAS YAS YAS.]

Monday at work was.......interesting.  2 hours before closing for the day, we got word from our office manager that our clinic space would be converted into the "COVID OB clinic" for all COVID-19 positive pregnant patients to come for their routine prenatal appointments.  As this was to happen immediately, we quickly packed up all of our belongings as we had no idea when things would be back to normal and we'd be allowed back in our space.  Weeks?  Months?  A full-blown year?  Hopefulllllly not, but no one knows... The three of us snapped a picture on the way out, deeming this "the end of the beginning."   Seeeee ya later, beautiful work life as we once knew it!  I am sooo hoping to be reunited with these soul sisters sooner than later!  Until then, love and peace and lots of hand washing be with you, girls! :-*

When pulling into the driveway after work, I realized there was more sod laying to be done on Monday night...

...and LOTS MORE [6,000 pounds worth, actually] on Tuesday.  Uncle Blake came back down to help on Tuesday morning/afternoon, and I nearly cheered out loud and did a cartwheel when I saw his Jeep pulling into the subdivision. Thank you soooo much for showing up; you 'da real hero and my biceps and back love you so hard right now.

After being at work all day Monday and helping lay sod all day Tuesday, Harper and I finally got a chance to sit down together and look at some of her home learning assignments on Wednesday!  The morning started off with cinnamon rolls and a Zoom call with her classmates...

...and then we quickly dove into the Easter week lessons.  Admittedly, this was the first year we've really talked about the events that occurred on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and of course, Easter Sunday.  Harper had LOTS of questions, and I did my very best to explain many things that are -- in fact -- quite unexplainable!  I'm so thankful for these little cue words with photos that her teachers sent out; we cut them out and told story of Jesus's death and resurrection that way.  We have a long way to go with grasping Catholicism and why we believe what we believe and do what we do, but at least today I put a scratch in the story's surface.  [A few days later, I was telling my friend at work about this and she introduced me to the Brother Francis videos which are sooooo wonderful! Thanks for the recommendation, Jeanette!  We will be using these frequently going forward, especially because videos of any sort are a fan favorite around here!]

Harper also colored the worksheet that explained the meaning of each color in an Easter egg, and Scarlett worked on tracing the alphabet with a dry erase marker [hehe]. 

Yellow represents God's perfect light. 

Red represents the blood Jesus shed for us. 

White represents the cleansings of our sins. 

Green represents the new life we have in Jesus. 

Blue represents the baptism that identifies us with Jesus. 

Purple represents the crown of life.

In perfect timing with these lessons, we opened these Easter treat bags from our friend Ashley! The kids adored the plastic tomb with a plush Jesus inside, and Scarlett has since taken her plush Jesus and crocheted bunny to bed every night.  Thank you, sweet friend! 

Also!  The Sprout House took off this week and our very hungry caterpillars are still eating nonstop and growing very rapidly.  Exciting times!  We have done a few experiments and, overall, home learning is going a lot better than anticipated [but not without much support and encouragement from the teachers -- so, I really do sound like a broken record, but thanks again for everything!]!

On Wednesday afternoon, Brian ordered the final 3 pallets of sod... WOOT WOOOOOOT, THE FRONT AND BACK YARD IS TOTALLY FINALLY ACTUALLY OFFICIALLY COVERED!  I took the watering job so I didn't have to lift any more sod squares [!!], and the kids splished and splashed around in the water table for the first time this spring!  Hopefully the warm weather sticks around, because we are absolutely loving it + the extra heavy dose of vitamin D is sooo good for the soul rightaboutnow.

On Thursday evening after I got home from work, we transformed our brown bananas into banana bread! Well, muffins, actually -- but what are details amongst friends?!

They are were SO DELISH!

[Good] Friday was another 12-hour shift at the hospital.  Information and recommendations are still changing daily -- even hourly sometimes.  The newest update is that currently, we are required to wear hospital-issued surgical masks from the moment we enter the hospital doors until the moment we exit to go home [no homemade cloth masks allowed until the hospital's stash has been depleted].  This doesn't sound too bad, but inhaling/exhaling x ~16 times per minute x ~750 minutes per shift behind a mask that doesn't breathe too well is quite unpleasant and actually kind of a challenge!  [If you're not a mathematician, that's about 12,000 miserable breaths over the course of the day.....]  To take a drink or eat our lunch which requires removing the mask, we have to leave the team and go into the patient food pantries which are currently closed off to patients/visitors OR go to the staff break room which has several tables set 3-4 feet apart with one chair at each table.  They are not allowing extra staff to stay home for a low patient census so that there is always extra staff to cover drinking/eating breaks and do lunch relief [dang, my hopes of staying home with PTO through some of this pandemic just got shot and buried]!  I have to say, it was VERY strange to take a "real lunch break" and I honestly think this was the first time I've gotten to have my lunch in the break room in nearly 9 years of being an RN!!!  What is this life?!

After stripping down and showering and starting the potentially-germy laundry on extra hot mode, I collapsed into the couch wondering how many more weeks we'll have to go about our days like this...

But anyway!  There's plenty more to come!  Scarlett has perfected "burst mode" whilst taking selfies, so I'm off to delete 200+ photos of her nostrils!  

Ciao for now!

To be continued... 

- COVID Diaries: Week 3 -

Deep in thought re: where should we go this weekend??!...

The options are limitless!!!

I had to work a 12-hour shift at the hospital on Saturday, and admittedly, I was NOT excited to go in.  The updates are incessant as the COVID-19 information is ever-changing, and there are so many new protocols and recommendations going in to place that are totally foreign to women's health nursing as I've known it for the last ~9 years.  Our hospital's PPE usage has increased by 400% during the last couple of weeks, and there are many conversations going on about how to conserve/reuse PPE and discussions happening about which areas of the hospital will use which items, etc.  ACOG has posted a different opinion than the CDC and WHO when it comes to the usage of full PPE during the second stage of labor, and gosh -- without getting into all of it here -- I'll admit that it's infuriating to realize that we are currently "going to war" with COVID-19 in a T-shirt and shorts because the country is grossly under-prepared for this pandemic and therefore the hospital is up a creek without a paddle.  [Here is an article that explains it better from an L&D viewpoint.]  I wholeheartedly love taking care of pregnant mommas and being there for them in the most vulnerable yet best moments of their lives, but never did I think I'd have to do my job in the context of putting myself -- and therefore my family -- at a huge health risk.  I just wish the hospital could help us cover our @$$es a little better [figuratively and literally] since we have no other choice right now than to show up to the frontlines of the fight day in and day out.  

Nevertheless, I've been trying really hard to use my 45-minute commute home from the hospital to decompress and diffuse so I don't bring all the stress and anxiety inside to my husband and kids who have been waiting to see me all day.  Immediately after pulling in the garage, I step inside, strip down naked in the hallway, and toss everything straight into the washing machine.  Brian fills the machine with detergent and starts the cycle on extra-hot as I make a beeline to the shower [where my kids usually appear moments later and observe the rest of my shower through the glass doors, LOL].  They don't understand why they don't get the hugs and kisses they're accustomed to the minute I get home from work; all they see is me sprinting away from them and afraid to touch them.  When I get out, I Clorox wipe the car steering wheel and door handles and anything else I touched in the 13 seconds it took to undress and run inside.   These are CRAZY times, my friends!!! If you're the praying type, please keep all healthcare personnel your prayers as we're trying to effectively take care of affected patients but also keep our family's exposure as limited as possible!

Phew!  It felt good to get all that off my chest.

On Sunday, the kids wanted to do some painting after breakfast...

...and we also made more name bracelets.  I hope a few of you have received your happy mail by now! ;) :)

Scarlett struggled with threading and keeping the beads on the small, stretchy cord but had a lot better luck putting them onto a pipe cleaner.  I'm really impressed with her fine motor skills and also her attention span; prettttttty sure she's the coolest 2-year-old I know!

After craft time, we had an impromptu airplane-flying-turned-yoga session in the living room and then headed outside for our daily dose of vitamin D! The kids have been riding this Power Wheels EVERYWHERE! 

The girls helped Daddy level out some dirt on Monday afternoon...

...and then we had a movie night [Ice Age!] when I got home from work.  We've never really watched movies with the kids much until the past couple of months, and Harper is really loving everything Disney!

Harper also got some mail on Monday from her teacher, and I successfully blinked back a few crocodile tears that immediately formed up when I saw what was inside the envelope.  Even though we're adapting okay to the home learning, all of this is just such an emotional time; the mutual love between these teachers and the kids is so evident, and I truly hate the thought that they probably won't be able to go back to school this year! 

In best news, both of Harper's teachers are checking in with us frequently and are supporting us in every way possible.  I truly appreciate their guidance and hope they know how much their efforts mean to us.  We heart you so hard, Ms. Leah and Ms. Nicole!!! 

 

Scarlett kicked off Tuesday morning with some guitar playing...

...and then we sat down with bagels as we worked on the letter "J"...

...and learned about pennies... 

...and completed a spring "write the room" activity. 

Scarlett has a little stack of her own papers to color while I work with Harper on her school assignments, but usually she is most entertained with a piece of scrap construction paper and her new pair of scissors... It's the small things in life, #amiright?!

During Scarlett's nap on Tuesday, I busted out the bag of Starburst Jelly Beans that I've been hiding and Harper and I made a Jelly Bean Graph.  She insisted on writing the colors across the axis using her color sight words from last week.  In a random sample of JB's, purple took the cake with 12!  The best part about this was eating the candy afterwards, of courseeee.  Harper plans to pour out another bowl in the next few days and see if purple wins again or if another color will pull ahead. Stay tuned for some [not exciting] results!!!  :D

[^^ PS - I found this idea here, and I plan to do some more of the jelly bean activities next week IF the bag doesn't disappear too quickly!]

On Wednesday, we hopped on a Zoom meeting for the preschool class [which Harper was honestly not interested in at all, haha!]...

...and we alsoooo laid down 8,000 pounds of sod! More more more to come on this in a separate post!

While I worked again on Thursday, Brian and the kids laid 6 more pallets of sod.  Uncle Blake came down to offer some hours of labor [working from a 6+-foot distance, of course!], and I know Brian appreciated the help so much.  I came home at 8:45pm to this sweet sight:

Then!  TGIF!  Finally!  Friday allowed time for us to review the letter "U" and the numbers 10-20.  Harper is not usually very excited about working with the teen numbers, but after asking, "Did Ms. Leah say to do this?" she always eagerly tries and finishes.  She also finished up her worksheets on parts of a plant and found some YouTube songs explaining how plants grow.  We still have the Sprout House taped to her bedroom window but haven't observed any changes yet.  Meanwhile, Scarlett and Brian were outside literally "helping plants grow" in the form of laying moreeeeee sod!

Scarlett was extraaaaa fussy today, so during her second nap of the day [!!!] Harper and I started an experiment called the "Disappearing Eggshell" that her teacher did at home and recorded on YouTube.  We will be popping the lid and sharing our results tomorrow after lunch!

We also knocked out some yoga [finally determined to lose the rest of my baby weight/food baby]...

...and then cracked open some DIY pizza kits from Gianni's that my mom dropped off for the kids.  Scarlett was still napping so I made her kit [thank goodness, actually, because it was an intricate process and also I cannot imagine cleaning up the flour mess behind her!]

The weather was so nice this evening that Brian suggested having dinner on the back porch.  He set the card table out and Harper set the dishes on the table and poured everyone a drink!  She also brought out the little basket of Easter eggs that we painted at the pottery place a few weeks ago to use as a centerpiece, haha. #thehostesswiththemostest

Brian and the kids finished the night off with a bike ride around the subdivision; this relaxing activity was soon to be topped with one bloodied up knee as Harper crashed the scooter and one skinned forehead as Scarlett walked straight into a set of bicycle handlebars.

CHEERS TO THE WEEKEND! May it be ever more exciting than the weekdays.....!

To be continued...