Well, congratulations.

Last week, while C43 was in Arizona, Q6 was sick. Stay at home sick. Sleep all day sick. I think it was Fifth's Disease, or "Slapped Cheek" disease. Also knows as "Butterfly Pox" because of those cute pink butterfly wings on the cheeks. Relatively harmless.

This is her in one of her rare, awake moments:

But by Wednesday she was well enough to start to worry about going back to school. A substitute was slated for Thursday. I could have kept her home one more day, and if she'd had any bit of a fever I would have. But she didn't, and most of her stress was 1) not wanting kids to ask her where she'd been and 2) the dreaded substitute.

The kids, we tried to give her strategies for coping. Don't answer them. Tell them a crazy story, such as "My dog flew to the moon and I had to chase her!" Q6 didn't go for that because we don't have a dog. That's the only reason. OK. She was obsessing over this, but eventually she decided on the "ignore" strategy. But the substitute was still worrying her.

All Thursday morning she yelled, screamed, used passive aggressive tactics to not get dressed, not eat breakfast, not come downstairs,  not put her shoes on, etc. But eventually we got out of the house and started walking the long slow walk to school.

She cried the whole way. She yelled, she moaned, she dawdled. At one point we saw a neighbor, and  Q6 hid behind me.

While walking up we had the following conversation after doing some ranking of people she hated most. I came in a cool third. Until this.

Q6: If you make me go to school I'm going to hate you most of all!
Me: You can't hate me most, you said I was in third place. So you hate two people more than me.
Q6: Well, congratulations. Now you're in first.

Excellent use of sarcasm.

Later that night I was snuggling her to sleep and she said to me, "Mumma, I think we are too close." I, thinking she meant I was physically too close to her, was confused because I wasn't even touching her, and usually she is a snuggler right up on you. So I gestured the space between me and Q6 and said "But, Q, look" and she said "not HERE" pointing to the space, "HERE" pointing to her heart, "I miss you too much when you are gone.I miss you when I'm at school."

Aw, sweet, I'm savoring that moment. As a result of that conversation I set an alarm on my phone to go off when Q6 is in line for lunch. So when the alarm goes off at 10:45 am every day I think of Q6.

Birthday present

We missed S1's first birthday, I'm sorry to say. But we'll be visiting in March/April, and we'll give her her gift then. Random gift! Well, it isn't random, really, but it will FEEL random to her.

We made a cute fabric alphabet with chenille backing. I got a number of fabric scraps from neighbors so I could have a different pattern on each.

First I made drawstring bag to put them in. The body of the bag is the same fabric that the "S" is made out of. The top of the bag is the same fabric as the H, and the inside of the bag is the same fabric as on the letter  X, although you can't really see that.

Then I made the letters.
Even though I came very close to running out of chenille, you can see that ABC were the first I made: not nearly as good as XYZ, which were the last. Trial and error isn't always the best way to work, unless you expect to go back and fix A, B, and C. It is a thought, and I might do that. But, by the time I got to D I had my system down. One hint for anybody wanting to do this: Don't zig-zag stitch over paper. Really difficult to get out. S1 will be chewing on paper pulp on the letter B for a few weeks.

 

And M & N are just good looking.

Everything is completely washable and chewable. Now, please don't tell S1.

Tramp tramp trampoline

I looked out the window and saw Q6 do a flip. I asked her how she learned to do that, did somebody teach her? Nope, she said she just did it.

So I pulled out the camera to get a video ... and when it got to C8s turn I was a little worried, but phew, so was she!

All the news that is fit to print

C8 has been making newsletters. Here is the most recent one.

I personally think the weather doesn't deserve the whole first page, but this is what is important to C8.

But the editorial is amazing.

thinking

Returning from swim lessons today Q6 asked me why we could see into the past, but we couldn't see into the future. I gave some lines about choices made, and the choices for the future still being wide open ... like we had the choice right now to go to Franklin's Restaurant for lunch & the fundraiser, go home, or take off and head somewhere entirely new, like West Virginia, so we couldn't see the future yet because the choices haven't been solidified.

Minutes later in the Q6 was crying/whining/moaning and she said it was my fault that she was doing that because of something I'd done. Somehow I was able to bring her right back to her question and tell her that she was making the decision about the future right now, and she had a choice about if she was going to cry, or yell, or read, or sit quietly and be happy for the next 6 minutes. Amazingly, she stopped the fuss and thought about it and decided to be happy and change her future for the better.

Since this all started after swimming ... Swimming video! Q is a great backstroker.

Box

Boxes, still the most favorite thing of them all. Toys. Bah. Send us a box. This box has been rescued from the trash multiple times and I've just about given up trying to recycle it, since it seems to be so special.

Photo and below a video

They did this for 5-10 minutes.