Keeping up with the Kiddos: Mud Season

My favorite time of year has just arrived, mud season! More importantly, the beginning of outdoors season, when it’s warm enough for a jacket and sandals (for a short stint), not a coat and boots. But the kids love mud season possibly more than I do, and for obvious reasons!

All in all a relatively clean afternoon

That means it’s also time to review the less-favorite time of the year, snow season (see also “indoors season”), which has yet its own merriments to credit.

I wanna be a grown-up someday too

First of all, winter is birthday season-- you've got your Ezzie Day, Bay Day, Jesus Day, Daddy Day, and Nugget Day (coming soon!) which more or less bookends the festivity. The Cheese turned 3 this year, celebrated by family, Covid, and this truck cake. Then a big yellow school bus took our boy away...preschool for Ezra! He's loving it, has made many friends, and still gets pumped up about the bus ride even months later.

What Do You Do? when you accidentally order 9 extra princess placemats

Sophers had a pre-virus-themed party with friends and cupcakes and all the colors a 5 year old girl could desire. Following a quick decoration sesh, and request to consume as many cupcakes as adults would allow, was an extended game of Avatar The Last Airbender in the backyard.

Burning their eyes, down on the tree farm

Crafty Christmas: Let's go!

Eeyore, sad about Covid Christmas

For Jesus Day we held our breath and packed our bags and arranged our travel plans and...crashed and burned them all into a hurtling molten fireball of Covidy sadness. Mom got sick for about a week, but so did a quarter of Parkside Green and yet we had many church friends reach out to us in love, bearing presents and warm meals for Dec 24 & 25 (and leftovers for many days after).

Crafty Christmas 2: Quarantine!

Sleeping Queens #christmascoma

We had a full week and half before going just about anywhere in a vehicle, which led to some craziness and some real family fun with board games (Sleeping Queens! Go Nuts for Donuts!) and crafting while reading (Narnia!). We celebrated Nuclear Christmas on the 19th, meaning lots of fun toys and an early start to the season.

Ezra's Happy Snow Dance

Compare that to Ezra's Happy Sunshine Dance

In the meantime, the last number in the calendar year changed one night and that was really something. Then some snow fell, which was much more exciting.

We briefly contemplated a dog door for the children, constantly wanting in and out. It would be of great use to Dimmy, who pined for the matted snow.

Finally, Christmas 2 and 3. We drove the PA circuit with a loaded van and returned with a stuffed van. In the middle we forged quaint if belated holiday memories with family on both sides. And as a gift to Mom and Dad, no vomiting in the new Honda!

Golden Retriever and Golden Doodle

Symmetry!

Mimi the comfy chair

Then Mom and Dad ran away to Florida while no one was looking. Since then a month or flew by--more snow, more books, games, crafts, oh yeah and we found a shark:

The first of many pulled teeth

Elia is a little tired of captivity, but loves the snow, loves being in Sunday school with Mom/Dad/Sophia, and never has to wear a mask. I think she often forgets about the virus since quarantine has been a significant portion of her life. She dazzles our world with her creative arts and propels through homeschooling leaving lots of time for audiobooks, make-believe, and Duplos. She's quickly devouring real reading books too! No rest for the Nugget. She's continuing piano lessons under the new leadership of former student Sadie Schumacher. We parents are thrilled, with the dawn of mud season, that she is now a self-showering firstborn.

That kid could squeeze crafts from a stone

Learning to be a spy

Razzle McDazzle

Sopheria does all the things Elia does and rarely would have it any other way. Next up to bat in a month is softball for the pair, with wild stories to tell I'm sure. So likes homeschooling too and learns twice as fast as we expected, with eyes focused on her work and ears focused on Elia's. She can already read some basic books and solve Sudoku puzzles. Bay loves to watch me woodwork when awake/allowed and is always curious.

Beary Christmas! There I said it

The Return of the Tiara

Ezra Tiger's Neighborhood would be a show all about a little boy Ezra Tiger, the magical School Bus that takes him around the neighborhood, his best friend Dimmy who toddles around and his favorite trucks. He has to watch the same 10 Daniel Tiger episodes on repeat, you know, for creative inspiration. Ez loves wrestling with Dad (as do they all) and playing with trains, trucks, and anything on wheels, even his doll stroller/wheelchair for good measure. He was forlorn to find his Christmas chainsaw an impractical tool for actually slicing through his world--things like the Kauffman's giant tree (20ft from the house) and, you know, our bathroom door. Nevertheless he's settled for 3-year-old friendly toys, and often becomes the eager subject of a dress up sister fairy tale. His speech grows rapidly everyday, as do his bowel movements, two unrelated sagas of progress and promise.

Diver mask? Check!

When your friends become friends

And then there's Summer Sum-Sum Dim-Sum Dimmy, anchoring the team with her fits of cuteness and hanger. Now familiar with her tidal chart of emotions, we know that a pulled-out chair leads to destruction and a graham cracker wins the day. Summer still naps happily each afternoon and awakes often pleasant and eager for more exploration. We owe the toy-littered alleys of our household to her curiosity and 5-second attention span. She knows "Mama", "Dada", "Eya" and "No! Go away!". When prodded, sometimes will eke out "I wuv you!" as well. She's all about the dolls (baby dolls, Duplo dolls, chess dolls) until pre-dinner madness, and then she's all about the plastic toy silverware and carries a fork and bowl all over the place. She'll be 2 before we know it!