Almost 5'6"

Today we measured you: 5 foot 5 and 3/4"...almost 5'6"!! Hi, it's your mom again, who forgets all the time to write a bit here about your life. At this point, though, you are getting old enough to remember most of what we do. Even so, I still want to leave some notes here for you, as I have from the beginning of your life :)

Part of why I haven't written for a while is that I went to France (and la Réunion) for 7 1/2 weeks recently. Thus, I was not here to observe anything. Now that I am back, am hoping to remember to write some quick updates (at least) more often. 

The biggest news (besides you being taller than me, ugh!) is that you passed your black belt test in karate (the day after I got back from my trip, in fact)! I am so super proud of you, as is everyone else in the family. Next week, Nana is coming to visit so she can attend the ceremony. Grandma Judy will come, too. Kevin wanted to come, but he must stay with Pa-pa to take care of him.

Crazy busy summer and Covid

This has been a really busy...no, make that insanely busy summer for us. You, me, and dad went on a vacay at the end of May through beginning of June to the northeast, including Canada! It was an amazing trip, we had a blast (ask me about my trip journal for details). 

Then it was a short break and time for Mélo and the kids to arrive (on the 21st of June). While we enjoyed having Mélo around and you had a lot of fun times with the kids, it was rather stressful. Not one day during the nearly 7 weeks passed that we didn't hear French cussing, yelling, and running around. We went on a short road trip with them to Casey, IL, Mammoth Cave, and Louisville, KY. We also attended several festivals and fairs in our area. We went on a long road trip out west, where you got more and more confident about swimming. It was a great trip apart from Maty's behavior, which made it seem far longer than it actually was. I don't think we'll be doing any other road trips with them should they visit in the future unless she can get Maty to tolerate the car better (and get his outbursts under control). I doubt they will be back anytime soon, though, as they are moving to La Réunion for the school year as of the 23rd of this month (we'll see how long it actually lasts).

After they departed, I cleaned house A LOT for a couple of days and we planned to head to Nana's. The morning we were to head there, you complained of a sore throat. Even though I though it was unlikely, I tested you for Covid; it came up negative, so we went ahead as planned. You seemed fine...until the next day. You did not want to get out of bed, super tired. We chalked it up to you growing and maybe not having slept so well, etc...but you didn't eat much and stayed in the room most of the day. At bedtime, when Nana gave you a hug, she thought you felt warm. You are generally pretty warm, so it didn't seem extreme to me. We took your temp anyway and it was 101.3. Uh oh. We tested you for Covid and oh crap, you were positive. I was horrified, as I would have never have come to Nana's if I had thought for one second you could be carrying it like that. I didn't sleep well that night, as I felt guilty for bringing it to her house. But, as the CDC has told us, basically everyone will get Covid at some point because the new variants are super contagious. Thankfully, they are not as deadly, and we are vaxxed--Nana and Papa just got their 2nd boosters, but dad and I aren't yet eligible and you still need your first booster.

We tested you again on day 5 of the infection, and you still tested positive, though less so than the first day (it was instant and bright line that day; a bit more delayed and faint the second test). We've been sanitizing and being super cautious, yet yesterday, on the 4th day after your positive test, Pa-pa started coughing a lot and tested positive :( The next day, he met online with his doctor and got prescriptions for medications to help him get better faster. Turns out I counted wrong, so I tested you a day too early, oops. Despite that you were starting to have symptoms on the day we arrived, the day of the positive test is to be day 0, so we tested you on day 4. We tested you again on day 6 (we thought day 7) and still positive. Nana, Kevin, and I all tested that day, too, and we were all negative still. But the next day, Kevin tested positive. So frustrating. We had been being so precautious, yet it still managed to spread.

The day after that was Sunday, which was correctly calculated day 8 for you. You finally tested negative! As it had been another 48 hours, Nana and I both tested again. I turned up positive :( but thankfully, she turned up negative. Since you were negative, I figured we should head back home so that you would be able to correctly attend karate (we tried virtual from Nana's one night and it didn't work), as you had missed a week (11) and really need to attend week 12 in person so you can keep progressing on black belt and pass the test for the quarter. I debated, however, if it was a good idea to return to our house, as I didn't want to expose dad. But if we stayed, I'd be continuing to expose Nana, which would also be bad. Thus, we headed back to our home. To attempt to limit exposure to dad, I plan to stay in the craft/guest room and use the purple bathroom, mask whenever I leave the room and dad to mask if I need to be out of the room.

I was sad and frustrated the night of arrival, as I wanted to be with dad. Normally I'm okay being alone, but somehow it's different when it's forced. I wrapped my already masked face in a scarf so I could at least hug him. I sprayed everywhere I went as I gathered the necessary items for my isolation. So far, it's just been like having a bit of a head cold. I hope it stays that way. It's now towards the end of day 3 for me. Today is day 11 for you, so you went in person to karate tonight (where you are right now). Love you lots, as always.

Quick hello

Hi there! Just wanted to stop by and enter a quick hello, remind you that I love you lots. I know I tell you everyday in person, but one day (hopefully not any time soon, yet one never knows) I won't be around any longer to do so. When that day comes, know that I love you forever and carry it with you always :) ~mom

Happy 2022!

It's new year's day 2022 and we are staying inside, as we are expecting about 6" of snow today! We were supposed to go to grandma Judy's today, but with the weather, we opted to wait for tomorrow after the roads are cleared :)

News since last post is that we came back from our France trip 6 days early due to a Covid scare. Long story short is that Aurore's daughter (Selène) tested positive (but had not been at the house for 3 days), so we all got tested, came back negative, so I decided to try to change our flight to depart the next day (since we already had the negative test and didn't want to risk that we might be positive 6 days later), it succeeded at the last minute, we had to pack our bags the fastest I ever have in my life (and never want to do again), and we did indeed leave the next day. It was very sad and difficult to do it this way for both you and I, so I don't plan to go back to France until Covid is under better control. This was a very stressful experience to say the least. It was still a great trip anyway and I hope we can go back soon, or that they can come visit us.

You got a ton of stuff from Santa for Christmas; we spent it at Nana's and had a lovely time, as we always do. It was unseasonably warm there, even for Missouri (the high was like 70 on Christmas day, ugh). We barely needed our jackets the whole visit. We made lots of tasty treats and foods and had a great visit.

Grandma Judy sold her country house about 2 weeks ago, so when we go tomorrow, we get to see her new house, which is in Keokuk. This will make it easier to visit her, as she will have reliable internet and cell service, as well as not living so far away from everything. We are all excited to see her new place! I'll post about it after we return :)

Your 3rd trip to France!

Hello again :) That's right, you and I are in France once again to visit my best French friend Mélo and her kids/your friends, Maty and Lou. We arrived a few days ago (Wed 17th Nov) and are staying until 21 Dec. I'll do my best to write updates here about how things go. So far, you are having a great time playing with the kids. It was Maty's birthday yesterday, which was fun. There is also Mélo's friend Aurore staying here with her kid, Selène. Thus, you get to interact with a lot of kids these days! It's been noisy, so I'm hanging out in our room today. Mélo is gone all day for some event, so I have no idea what we'll be doing rest of the day. We've had a bit of difficulty with jet lag this time. Both of us were unable to sleep very well night before last, but last night we slept hard and very long. I'm still tired today, hoping it will pass soon. Ready to be adapted to these hours! Tomorrow Maty is having his big birthday party, so hopefully you'll enjoy that, too.

Cookies...by yourself!

 Just a quick entry to note that yesterday, you made peanut butter kiss cookies (including retrieving them from the oven!) all on your own! These cookies, which you like to call "spikey Saturns", are one of your very favorite cookies. Super proud of you for making them pretty much with no help from me (you had to ask me some things, but that was about it).

Mowing the Lawn...or not

Yesterday, I had the idea to have you try helping me mow the lawn. We currently have a gas mower that is fairly noisy, so at first you were afraid of it. I convinced you that you would be fine and safe so long as you didn't go darting in front of it or sticking your hand where the blade was, so you cautiously joined me as we mowed a row together. I showed you how to pivot, and all was going well until we crossed an area with a dirt patch that kicked up into the air. You ran off due to this, but I called you back after the dust cleared and you tried again. All was fine until the wind blew the dandelion seedling bits back at you, and you wanted to get away again, telling me that you were worried it would get in your eyes. Understandable, guess I should have given you some glasses to wear (though I somehow managed just fine without). 

You then joined me in the backyard and rather than asking you to mow more, I gave you trimming duty with the big shears. You did a great job, got about half of the trimming done before you were too tired and wanted to go inside to have a Bomb Pop :) Love when you help me like this, thank you!