Week 12 & 13: The more things change, the more things change

I've honestly had to move to posting every second week in this season for a number of reasons:

• Emotionally draining few weeks
• A lot of computer work in organizing Vacation Bible School (at-home edition)
• More doctors appointments/errands which take a lot longer than they did pre-COVID

Click on any photo to ENLARGE.

Sunday May 31st

Today was E's online 7th birthday party. He had a great time and I found this format for a party to be a fair amount of work a few days before the party, but day-of it was very smooth and required almost zero preparation. E also played with some new birthday gifts.

We did some gardening for ourselves and had some friends stop by to take away some hostas. E and I had some special time going on a walk with a wagon being used half like a skateboard!?!

Monday June 1st

Today I had an explicit talk with E about the death of George Floyd. We've had plenty of inclusion conversations (how do you choose friends - based on who they are and not what they look like etc) and we've talked about how sometimes to do the right thing, people have to break the rules/laws because the government or police are doing the wrong thing (the People Awards book about Nobel Prize winners brought this up a lot) and he does already have an understanding of historic slavery. Today we talked pretty straightforwardly about this situation. I wanted him to have a chance to digest and process what had happened before we went to the protest on Wednesday.

I also ran a ton of errands to get things moving on our cottage purchase. It took me 3-4 hours to do what would have taken about an hour pre-COVID. Things are just moving slowly out there in the world - and that's okay, just tiring.

Tuesday June 2nd

Andrew took off for the whole day up to the cottage for the inspection so the boys and I had a full day together. We did some water colour painting which was a first for T.

I love how birthday celebrations last for days as a kid. Erick Traplin, a local kids artist has been putting on bi-weekly performances online and doing song requests and birthday messages. So today we watched him and E got to hear his happy birthday shout-out for Erick Traplin. It was a fun little (free) surprise.

E worked on his school work outside (learning about 3D shapes in French and verbs in English) and we played with his giant bubble wand for our one-on-one time.

E had a distanced visit being his chatty self with our retired next door neighbours while I got some computer work done and had a couple phone calls. The boys and I then had some outside water play and kinetic sand time before Andrew was back from the cottage inspection.

Wednesday June 3rd

Today was an important day in our community. Our local Black Lives Matter chapter held a protest (along with other individuals and community groups) in downtown Kitchener and over 20,000 people came, many more watched live or watched the recording after the fact. This topic is too important to try to condense into a bi-weekly blog update so I have a blog here about it. Please donate to the Black Community Solidarity Fund (CAD).

Before the 5pm protest, the boys and I played outside (it was a hot day!) and I picked up a couple more reusable masks for Andrew and I so we'd have what we needed for the protest. 

E and I worked on painting some signs and a teeny bit of school work before we biked over for the BLM protest - which I should say was a very powerful and important beginning (continuation, really) for change in our region.

Thursday June 4th

Another friend came by for some hostas (we are working on getting rid of quite a few) this morning and I had to do some online admin work for a psychologist so the boys did a lot of independent playing. E did quite a bit of online schoolwork today including a Google Meet whole class lesson and then while he was having quiet time, I recorded a quick VBS announcement and kids prayer for our church's upcoming Sunday church service. 

Friday June 5th

So the kids did a lot of independent play today, both inside and outside. I took E to our family doctor for a treatment of a really minor thing and then I took T to pick up his belongings from preschool and to receive his little diploma and graduation hat and take some pictures. If you're looking for a pre-school we can't recommend St. John's enough!

Sometimes they look very similar.

Saturday June 6th

HAIRCUT DAY!

We also did a ton of gardening on another really hot day and T broke a garden sprinkler he thought was just a random pole sticking in the garden. Turns out it wasn't.

Sunday June 7th

So that broken sprinkler head necessitated a visit to Andrew's parents (who have spare sprinkler parts for their business). We also went for a quick swim in their cold pool and had another birthday celebration for E - they got him roller blades! 

Monday June 8th

In the morning, we built a fort and read lots of books. It was a pretty low-key day activity-wise because we were experiencing a tough behaviour day all around.

E and I did get some one-on-one time in with him rollerblading along and we spent much of the afternoon outside while I worked on a ton of VBS work.

Tuesday June 9th

So T had tubes put in his ears last August because he was failing hearing tests and used only a few words reliably. Since then, his vocabulary has skyrocketed and we've seen improvements in his speech as well (milk now sounds like "milk", and not like "no"). However, with him supposed to be starting JK in the fall and the uncertainty around if it will be in person or online again, I wanted to have his speech assessed to see if there was anything more we could do to improve his enunciation so that his new teachers and classmates could understand him and limit the amount of repeating and frustrating T experienced. So that speech assessment was today (online)! 

He did very well in terms of engaging with the speech pathologist and participating and I think they were able to get a good sense of his speech abilities. We have scheduled just a couple sessions of therapy for this month to work on practicing some longer words and joining speech sounds together (since his vocabulary outpaces his speech ability) and also signed him up for a Kindergarten phonics camp which will help him start to listen for letter sounds, clap on syllables, slow down while talking and sound out words etc. which will also improve his speech skills. 

Looking forward to his development in this area, but already anticipating mourning his sweet pronunciation of some words (especially his brother's name).

Wednesday June 10th

We realized a problem with E's roller blades - he had two LEFT skates and because of that didn't have a brake. I was able to return his new blades and find similar ones (adjustable size 1-4). It was a bit of a run around but we've solved the problem!

We had a few random people connections today - a driveway visit with some friends so I could get some whiteout; Andrew's dad popped over for 10 minutes to measure a couple windows; and we virtually attended my niece's piano recital.

Thursday June 11th

E's English teacher is quite ill (and would welcome prayers of healing). E and I wanted to make her a lap quilt that she could use in the hospital and at home. I had a quilt top made and we brought it to my parents so my mom could use her large quilting machine to quilt it beautifully in a couple hours.

Friday June 12th

I took T in for a follow-up appointment with our family doctor about his medical concern that will need surgical intervention at some point. We were able to get an earlier appointment at the hospital for our consult with the general surgeon, so I'm really relieved! Worth the trip in to the family doctor for sure!

E led the way for us to plant some veggies. We planted (really old) seeds and a few actually germinated and the ones that we then didn't kill are looking ready-ish for bigger pots and the outside! We just have cherry tomatoes and cucumbers, we'll see how the harvest later. 

Saturday June 13th

A bit of a break in the crazy heat, today is really perfect weather. Andrew and the boys went on an adventure with E roller blading and T biking (with training wheels). I ran 3 errands which took 1.5 hours, things are still moving very slowly. Andrew did some bike repair work while E and T played VBS and just generally played outside.

In the afternoon, Andrew and E went on a bike ride to our local forest trails while I video recorded a friend doing some VBS clips. They also worked on tidying up the play room a bit and then the boys had a movie night and watched Franklin and the Green Knight.