Starting school

Jesse's return travel didn't exactly go as planned, but he persevered through delays and great weariness, arriving home just a few hours before his eldest climbed on the school bus Monday morning. The first day of kindergarten—a big day!

The school bus stop is just three houses up from us. Twenty-three children at our stop! And that's not counting the additional dozen kids picked up around the corner (maybe 20 houses down?). We certainly live in a neighborhood of young families.













Josiah didn't seem worried at all. He had done a sample bus ride during his orientation morning a few weeks ago, and he headed off like a champ. Like every parent wearing these shoes, I could hardly believe how big, mature, and ready he was to head off.

Before we knew it, the bus was making its way around the corner and Josiah was climbing on. Waves and grins and...he was gone. Crazy.

As the bus pulled away, all of the parents broke into spontaneous applause and cheers. Ha!  :)

We love you!

Well, I'd hoped I wouldn't still be waiting for you at this point, Jesse. We've had a great Sunday, the boys and I, but the day was supposed to conclude with your very late arrival home! I guess there's nothing one can do about clogged up airports, delays, missed trains, and gobs of traffic. Praying you manage to get home safely sometime in the wee hours...30+ weary hours of travel later...

We sure do love you!

Saturday

Today was long but good. And...we only have to make it through one more day until you're home. Hooray!

We went out for several hours midday. Errand-running, market-visiting, restaurant-lunching, toy-train-riding, window-shopping. One of our errands was to Joann Fabrics, since Josiah and I wanted to buy a couple of colors of fabric paint to decorate the art shirt (an old shirt of mine) he needs to bring to kindergarten on Monday. As we were leaving, I was on the outside sidewalk pulling the boys out of the shopping cart. An elderly woman exited the store doors, waved with a smile, and said, "Hallelujah, boys!" Guess I don't even notice the boys singing half the time anymore.  :)

The lunch part of our outing was spent at Isaac's in Strasburg; we used Josiah's free kids meal coupon from his recent dentist visit. The place was pretty mobbed so we waited nearly an hour to be served! We managed to stay entertained with lots of coloring, eye spy, visits to the restroom, and William occasional tackling his brother. The boys were super excited about their little ice cream sundaes at the end.

Later in the afternoon, while Josiah played with Caden down the street, William and I went on a ramble around the neighborhood finding all of the little water pipes. This activity has become a daily, much desired event for William. He spies them in places I don't even see, and he taps his foot on each one. He has to push the baby stroller around with him. This one here is the favorite since it's "soooooo big Mommy!!!" sticking out of the ground rather than flush to the ground. Crazy boy. 

Josiah's post, who wanted to do more screen time

This post—including title and photos—brought to you by your favorite 5-year-old!

Dear Daddy,

Today Miss Maddi played with us while Mommy went to work. Here are some of the things that we did:


This is when we played trains. William was having fun with the train track that we made! I think I did most of it. It has girders and some books to hold it up, two tunnels or engine sheds, that railroad crossing thing, and up on the hill it's really cool. I think the hill was my favorite part where it's up and not touching the ground. I was thinking that we could turn it around the other way and scrunch it up, but I didn't tell Miss Maddi that part so we didn't do it.






This is the first marble run that we started. It had three loop-de-loops. William calls them yoopy-yoops!









Then we broke it up and made this one instead.












This is when I was riding my bike. Miss Maddi took a picture.






















This is William crying or laughing. I don't know what he's doing. He's probably laughing or maybe squinting his eyes because it's hot and sunny.

















This is William making a funny face for a picture, and this is one of the games Miss Maddi brings. It's a puzzle game where you have to fit all the shapes in the right spaces.













This is William and Miss Maddi playing that puzzle game some more.

This is our huge fort that we made the other day, but not today. It was a reallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreally big great fort. It took from the fireplace all the way over to the kitchen! We  had places to sleep in the fort too.

A few other things we did today: we played baseball outside, we ate mac and cheese for lunch, with applesauce and strawberries while we were waiting. William was sad when Mommy left. He was like, "Waaaaah! I need Mommy!" but then he got better.







And last, here is Mommy typing up what I tell her! It's Friday night.

Daddy, I hope you come home soon. I love you. I hope you have a safe airplane ride. Love, Josiah.

Mummy!

Every other sentence at home seems to begin with "Mummy!" lately. I've been thinking that one day it would be pretty amusing to carry a notepad around with me and document every utterance that followed. They range from the sublime to the ridiculous, that's for sure. Today's sublime definitely was William saying, unsolicited, "Mummy, I yuv you." I don't know that he's said it before without some sort of prompt. Melted me!

The ridiculous? I'm putting away the breakfast things this morning when Josiah runs into the half bathroom to piddle. William, who had been working at his art easel, trots in after him.

"Mummy!" comes the sharp call. "William just drew chalk on me!!"

There's a pause, and I have my mouth open to dole out some sort of standard reproving comment (e.g., "William, don't draw on your brother"), but Josiah goes on, still yelling. "He drew it ON MY BUNS!"

I stifle my laughter and prep myself to break up the surely-impending fight, but before I get to the bathroom Josiah keeps going. "Well," he says, reflective now rather than incensed—ever my logical, peace-making child—"well, good thing it's a pretty close match to my skin. Okay, William. It's okay. We're not supposed to draw on people, but it's okay. It matches my buns." They emerge as friends from the bathroom without need of mediation...although I note that the two-year-old is definitely smirking with the chalk in his pudgy hand.

I was so amused that I wrote everything down on the spot!

(By the way, today was so nutty-stressful-busy-crazy that taking pictures was the last thing on my mind. Sorry for the photoless post, Jesse. Testing kids, being with my students, fretting over William's horrible separation anxiety, running out of milk, cooking-cleaning-playing-diapering-working, plus dealing with a disastrous hot water heater situation....ahhhhhh!) 

What a day!

By the end of this post, Jesse, you'll practically feel like you were here. I managed to keep a camera close to hand most of the day...and what a full day it was!

A subtitle for today's post should be "Josiah the Great." This morning he got himself dressed then prepared breakfast for himself and William while I got a shower. I didn't do anything but put the dishes in the washer at the end. Very nice indeed. 

 Apparently breakfast was bowl-lickin'-good!

After breakfast there were a few minutes spent in Hallalujah Chorus listening. Naturally.

 Next Josiah stripped his bed and brought everything down for a wash... 

 ...while this one did nothing useful whatsoever.  :)

(I should mention that this exact apparition greeted me the other morning—sunglasses, jammies, fly swatter—as I was emerging from the shower. Josiah had pulled William out of bed so I didn't even know he was up yet, and he came charging in, swatter flailing, wide-eyed, belting out "Where da fly, Mommy? Where da fly? Where da fly!?"  I was helpless with laughter!

Later there was playing...

...and then some SERIOUS fort-making. Josiah started it on his own while I was working in the kitchen, then he and Mama Caz finished it up when she arrived midday so I could get to work for the afternoon. Impressive, no? And I should also mention that while I was at work, Josiah went swimming at the Y with your dad, William went to a playground, and there was much fun had by all. 

In the evening the boys and I met up with Tim, Holly, and Levi at Conestoga House for a picnic and walk around. It was really lovely!

Of course the boys were most interested in the gravel area near the tables. Josiah took great joy in stuffing rocks down his shirt and shorts (??!), William had to be reminded umpteen times NOT TO THROW ROCKS (but was very good about emptying his shoes as needed), and Levi found it all rather hilarious. 

 William looking rather frightened at the top of a stairway.

 He was probably scared of these two weirdos!

 Levi was determined to go down the stairs hands and face first! Livin' on the edge apparently is right up his alley! This photo was just about the bottom step when he finally agreed to try swinging a foot out around in front. 

 Posing. 

More posing.  :)

 Looking for fish and frogs. 

 The never-successful "cousin shot" attempt. 

Levi was in heaven with all of the water features, pools, and ponds. Tim and Holly were less so. Apparently Levi took a straight dive into a pool at an event the other day, and Tim had to go in fully clothed to pluck him out of the water. Far from being frightened, Levi LOVED it! He clearly was geared up for a repeat performance tonight, but alas for him, Mommy and Daddy prevented it. 

I guess he doesn't look too put out here in spite of being thwarted!

Bye Daddy! We missed you and love you lots!!!!!

Tuesday

Dear Jesse,

Another day down! 

I was pretty bleary-eyed this morning since William woke up last night around 10:45 p.m. and didn't go back to sleep until around 2 a.m.  Yikes.  He was remarkably good for most of that time, given that he was a 2-year-old lying in a dark room for hours, but his singing and talking kept me awake even when I wasn't in the room with him. I love him singing the Hallelujah Chorus, but hearing "HA-yay-yu-ya!" belted out at 1 a.m. on the other side of my bedroom wall wasn't quite as delightful as it is under other circumstances...

In spite of his wakeful night, William was still up bright and early along with Josiah (and not surprisingly, his mood gave evidence of his tiredness much of the day). Ah well! Josiah was endlessly patient with him, which helped. 

Mid-morning I took the boys to the New School. Josiah was pleased to be a tour guide for William, and I think it may have helped allay some of Will's fears. We found his room, played and looked around for quite a while, and spent time outside on the school grounds. He actually said, "I like my school!" when I asked him a little later in the day. That's progress. :) After that, we headed to Central Market where we got sandwiches for lunch—poorly pictured here—and then your parents had the boys for the afternoon while I put a half day in at the office. In the evening we went to Strasburg Library to get some books and videos. 

The weather has been gorgeous these last couple of days, by the way. Not as humid, not too hot, and you know that does wonders for my mental well-being. (Here's where I interject my own little HA-yay-yu-ya!) And now I'm looking forward to a better night of sleep—fingers crossed, anyway—and waking up one day closer to having you home again!

Turkey Hill and Sweet (smelling) William

Two days down, six to go. We're thankful this isn't a terribly long trip, Jesse! And I should immediately say that so far we're all still healthy, yesterday's events notwithstanding.

William, as has become usual over the past couple of weeks, had a terrible time with me leaving him this morning. He sobbed. (I wonder if it's a side effect of how much more time I've had with the boys most of the summer? How we're going to get him to start preschool next week is beyond me right now; if he suddenly can barely manage staying with your parents, who've watched him most days of his little life, going to school is going to be a stretch.)

Your dad is a champ, in any case, and worked hard to keep him distracted while I got out of the house. Sadly, I had no one to distract me from hearing William's wails and seeing his outstretched arms while I pulled out of the driveway and headed off. Ouch. The consolation was knowing Jim had tickets today for the Turkey Hill Experience and would soon be heading out with both boys for a fun morning. To my great delight, this popped into my email after lunch:

I was home by 3:00, and the boys were full of stories about a ball pit, ice cream samples, and all sorts of fun activities. William, who as you know is in love with "capkick," was especially thrilled to tell me that he'd gotten a chapstick of his very own that morning in a grab bag of treats and samples. Ah, yes—that explained the sweet, fruity smell emanating from his wee personage! He had applied it liberally as usual...including heavily slicking portions of his hair. 

After dinner, both boys protested the thought of a bath, so I proposed at least washing William's hair in the kitchen sink. That idea was met with such approval that Josiah found a camera to document the event and also demanded his own hair wash and head massage! Seeing as I made mountains of pancakes for breakfast followed by warm foot baths this morning (I hadn't noticed the grubbiness of their little boy feet before bed last night!), their day was bookended by some serious pampering. 

All that to say, I guess the kids aren't hurting too much for love and care despite being down a parent...but that hasn't stopped us from talking about you lots and missing you, Daddy. Josiah was wondering today if Ukraine was a country with malaria, by the way, so I reassured him on that front. Stay safe and come home soon, okay?

Far, far away

Dear Jesse,

We've worked hard to keep busy and distracted for this first day of your absence. The day involved lots of time outside, lots of playing in the house, and of course several viewings of various Hallelujah Chorus renditions on YouTube. The usual! 

Josiah wanted to ride William's tricycle rather than his bike. 

William had lots of fun off-roading with this baby stroller. 

Notice his bare feet and whisper a prayer we're not all felled with a stomach bug this week, would you please? There's a story here, naturally. As we were leaving church this morning, there was a biggish puddle of water by the side entrance walkway. Before I could stop him, William charged right through it joyously—right at the same time a mom was exiting the building with a bucket of water saying that her son had just vomited all over the sidewalk. She was dumping buckets of water on it to wash it away. Ack! I grabbed William (who protested with ear piercing gusto and kicking) and could see that the puddle was indeed rather, umm, chunky.

It gets worse: Unfortunately, the sick child had been Josiah's playmate in Sunday School for the previous 90 minutes, and the mom had been their teacher.

It gets yet worse: As I stuffed William into the car, I pulled off his yucky shoes (Crocs, thankfully), put them on the floor of the front seat, and left William barefooted for the ride home. It wasn't until we pulled into the driveway and I turned around that it occurred to me what a stupid idea that was. Even harnessed up in his car seat, that nail biting child had his toes in his mouth!!!! Grossest 2-year-old habit ever turns manages to be even grosser.

If we aren't sick by tomorrow night it'll be a miracle.

So back to the picture above: William was barefooted through our afternoon playtime since his Crocs went through the dishwasher on a sanitization cycle!

Parting shot: William wore no diaper from the time we got home from church until bedtime. Only one accident, which I'll call success! Mostly he wore undies, but for a while he had nudie buns. I couldn't resist a pic of the pianist's little cheeks...ha!