So many things, so little time (as always)

 Well, it's been almost a year since my last entry. It's going to be the same sad excuse as always: just never enough time. We have had a great year, though, and maybe at some point you can take over make this blog for yourself, your memories. You are surely old enough now :)

Anyway, since last time, let's see...you are now almost 5'9", you have your 1st degree black belt in karate and working on your second, you are still into washing machines, you love all things mechanical...yeah, this list would be 7 miles long if I kept up like that lol. 

Recently, we just spent mother's day weekend in Eau Claire, WI. It was such a great time! We ate lots of great food (you had ice cream from Olson's while dad and I had Thai food, we had Cast Iron Pizza Co for dinner, awesome pastries in the morning from The Nostalgic Bean, and Culver's), played frisbee golf twice, shopped a great game store in a nice mall, and walked around town a lot. The weather was beautiful, too!

Not sure what all we will do this summer yet. I'm hoping it will be packed with bike/trike rides, camping, road trips, family visits, and more.

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!

And yet ANOTHER tooth gone!

Seriously, kiddo, can't believe you lost another tooth two days ago--crazy!  And speaking of growing, you have been getting taller and taller all the time. You have grown 3/4" in height just since January!! 

Daddy just got his second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine yesterday and I will be getting mine next Friday. Two weeks after the last dose is when we are considered "protected", so then we can visit relatives again! You and dad are going to go visit grandma Judy next month while dad has break between sessions. I can't go :( because I still have that French class to teach for Elevate, and grandma's Internet is not good enough to do that. But we'll see her again soon and more frequently!  And we'll see Nana Linda again probably in June right after I finish with the class.

I'm planning to travel with you on a nice road trip this summer, though I'm not sure yet where we will go. It will depend on the Covid numbers for each state--don't want to go anywhere with high numbers. In August, all three of us will go out west to North Dakota and some other places. ND has never had bad numbers the whole time of the pandemic, and isn't a super popular destination, thus I think it will be a great choice this year. 

And ANOTHER tooth gone!

 Just wanted to record that you lost yet ANOTHER tooth yesterday! Just under two months since you lost the last one, jeez! Second molar, tooth #12. You received $12 from the tooth fairy for this one :) 

In other news, you got a letter from a new pen pal in Japan. Her name is Miran, she is 7 years old. You wrote her back today and we will send the letter tomorrow or next day. 

You got a new nerdy toy, too: the Turing Tumble. This is a kit to make Turing-style "computers", which you have been doing enthusiastically ever since it arrived. It's a great brainy toy, happy to see you playing with it and creating amazing things.

Interview questions

 A popular thing on social media is to do a 'kid interview' and record the answers, so I thought we'd do one for you today:

1. If you won a million dollars, what would you buy? probably some sort of robot

2. How long does it take to get to the beach? maybe couple of hours

3. What does Mom always say to you? "Bonne nuit!"

4. What job would you like to do when you grow up? I'm going to be making my own robots.

5. Who is the strongest person you know? Kevin, he knows his stuff, he works out

6. Where do babies come from? from their mommies

7. At what age do you become a grownup? 18

8. What wild animal do you like? lions

9. What would you do if you couldn’t find your underwear? I would ask my dad where it is.

10. If you could eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be? Nutella sandwiches

11. How much does it cost to buy a house? around $100k

12. Who do you hang out with all the time? my parents

13. What song makes you want to dance? I'm not sure

14. What are you scared of? washing machines

15. What is your favorite game to play? Minecraft

16. What's your favorite color? green

17. How old is mom? 43

18. How old is granddad (Silly Buddy)? 77

19. Who is the President? Right now it's Joe Biden.

20. What kind of car do you want when you grow up? a normal 4 seat car. blue. electric car.

21. Where do you want to live when you grow up? somewhere a little cooler than here, but not too cold (still has warm summers, not too hot)

22. Who is your best friend? dad (used to be Milo, but we moved, and now Covid)

23. What’s your favorite activity? making domino runs

24. What year is it? 2021

25. What is your favorite sport? bowling

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New year, two more teeth gone

 As usual, time continues to zoom by. I'm thinking maybe I should set a reminder for myself to blog on here, even if it's just for brief updates.

Thing is, there's not a lot to report these days, as we are still dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. You and I went to visit Nana back in October; that is the last time we've gone anywhere to visit anyone. We also had Suzanne come to visit during that month. The infection numbers were starting to go up a bit, but it wasn't terrible yet. Then the holidays came and the numbers got a bit out of control for a while. There was also the presidential election in November, where we finally voted out T***p (I don't even like to write his name, I always referred to him as "45"). After a tumultuous inauguration a couple of weeks ago (look this up if you don't remember it), we have Joe Biden as president and Kamala Harris as vice-president--first female vice ever in the US! Things are looking up, as there is a vaccine for Covid now, but it's a limited supply. Only frontline workers (people like nurses, doctors, etc) can get it right now, so dad and I are waiting our turn, as are many people.

Events with you: you recently lost your first molar! And it was only a few weeks prior to that when you lost another incisor! You've been doing homeschool as always (and thank goodness we are homeschoolers with the pandemic going on!), making lots of progress. You are also still doing karate, which the classes are online right now. You have a graduation coming up this month, which will mark the end of advanced class...meaning you will start BLACK BELT training in March!! Super exciting :) 

Currently you love your large stuffed animal cats, which you call "boops" and you drag them around with you everywhere in the house. Their names are Tallie and Breadbun. You love to make domino runs and Keva contraptions (Keva blocks are basically the same as Kapla, which you loved playing with when we were in France). Speaking of France, I can hardly believe that it was an entire year ago that we were getting ready to head there. Had no idea that things would go the way they did, and now no idea when we will get to return. I'm fairly certain ti won't be until 2022. I'm hoping we will be able to at least travel domestically this summer, even if we have to camp and/or sleep in the car during the entire trip (I'm not too sure of staying in any hotels for a while, as many of them have been used as temporary Covid-hospitals). I want to do a western trip and and an eastern one. I'm also hoping they might open the border with Canada, but I have very big doubts about that. Want to go see Québec, New Brunswick, and such once it's possible. 

Anyway, that's enough for now. I really do have the goal of posting here more often...we'll see if I can do that! Love you lots ~mom

9 years old!

 You just turned 9 two days ago, can't believe it!  The Covid-19 pandemic is still going on, so we had to just celebrate at home, the three of us (Kevin now lives with Nana).  We started on 'birthday eve', with going to a butcher shop in Elk Grove Village to get steaks for dinner, then stopped at a couple of playgrounds for you to enjoy on the way home.  We also stopped at Barnes and Noble to pick up your birthday treat; you chose a chocolate chunk cookie.  You loved steak dinner that night, sans surprise.

On your actual birthday, you and I went to Mariano's to get donuts first thing in the morning.  After that, we came back, opened your presents, and you played with all of them right away (of course). There were 4: a snap circuits expansion, a gravitrax loop, a 3D cat lamp, and a 1000 piece domino set.  I made you a surprise with the dominoes--spelled out 'happy birthday' in cursive, which you loved.  I baked a cake for you...but when I went to frost it (a two layer round one), the frosting was too thick/heavy and it caused the cake to fall apart at the sides :( I was very upset, but determined to make you a dessert with the cat you had drawn as model for it, so I went for a pizza-sized chocolate chip cookie.  You had never had such, so you were skeptical, but you ended up loving it!  We didn't have that until the end of the day, though.

We went out for lunch at Wendy's, used one of the Frosty coupons Grandma Judy sent you (we got drive thru and ate at home).  You and dad played together while I baked the cookie after lunch. I had a lesson to do at 6pm, then a break at 7-8pm, during which we went to Georgio's to pick up a pizza (your choice for dinner :)). I did another lesson from 8-9; uncle Kevin called you during this time, and I overheard you telling him about how you were having an excellent birthday :D

Then we had your cookie for dessert.  The evening ended with you and dad taking a bath together, then we read some of the books at bedtime ("A Dog Named Grk" and "Two Dogs in a Trenchcoat Go On a Class Trip").  I hope we can make all your birthdays just as happy and great as this one.  Love you lots, mom.

Back home...after 10 weeks in France

We finally left France on Monday, which made 1 day shy of 10 full weeks there.  I think it's the longest I've ever stayed in a row, but not totally sure (been too many times now lol).  We started the day by waking up at 5:30am (well, I got up at 5:25 and let you sleep until 5:40), got everything prepped and Damien took us to the bus depot.  We arrived at 7:05am, so we had 25 min until bus departure.  The security people came over and gave Damien a mask, and we put on our cloth ones.  The bus arrived about 10 min later, and the driver was saying that the airport was closed...um, no, I argued with him, telling him that just a few days ago a friend of ours (Talia, the girl we had lunch with one day) took her flight from there.  He seemed to think I was lying and said there were no flights out of there right now.  Damien tried to find out in the train station, but they didn't know anything.  I looked it up on my phone and confirmed that our flight was listed on departures and we also had our boarding passes. 

I wrote the rest of the story in my record of the trip, which I will happily share with you when you are older and want to read about this.  I hope you remember this day, it was an historic one, and I hope we never have to repeat such craziness to get back home again!  It was not terribly difficult, just weird and unusual.

In France, in confinement

Yes, you read that right, we are in confinement.  Not prison, just confined to staying at the house.  The entire country of France is in lockdown due to the Covid-19 coronavirus, and since we are here, we are part of that lockdown.  This was the week that we should have been traveling to visit Marion and JT, but we had to cancel it, as it's not allowed now.  Even if it were, I would have canceled, as I don't want to catch the virus nor spread it (you can have it and not know it, but still spread it).  I've been writing all about this in my personal journal of the trip, which I will share with you when and if you want to read it :)
Currently, we think you have bronchitis, brought on by a flu-like thing you were having a few days ago.  It's likely due to you having had a runny nose for over a week and you kept sucking the snot back up in your sinuses rather than blowing out.  I hope next time you get a runny nose you'll be more apt to blow your nose!  Either way, you are getting better each day, but haven't had a lot of energy, so you aren't playing with Maty and Loulou these days.  That part is a bummer, but I'm sure you'll be better enough soon to get back to playing with them.  You've been learning a lot of French from being here and Maty has learned a few English words, too.  Even Mélo has been making efforts!
You also recently decided to start learning Japanese, which I think is awesome.  You are using Duolingo for this and doing quite well.  I've been trying to do it as well, but I'm not as far along as you.  That's about it for current updates, will try to keep you posted again soon.  Love, mom.

Going to France soon

Hard to believe it, but our trip to France is just 2 weeks away!  You're excited, yet a bit apprehensive about the flight because you have a bit of wax build up they were unable to dislodge at your recent checkup at the doctor.  I'm pretty sure you'll be fine, as you have had this problem pretty much your whole life and have flown successfully a couple of times without incident.  Fingers crossed that this will continue to be the trend.  If not, we will have you seen at an ENT.
Next Friday, you will have to be seen by a different specialist, though: an ophthalmologist.  At the checkup, we discovered that you are not seeing very well at all out of one of your eyes!  It seems quite likely that you will need glasses.  Bad timing, though, since we'll be heading to France 6 days after your appointment.  We'll have to pick up your glasses after we return, as I'm also pretty sure they will want to check to make sure the glasses are correct once you get them.  Either way, I'll just be happy to get you taken care of :) 
Well, I'm going to go get started on some of the packing!  Love you lots and will do my best to write again soon!

Happy 2020!

I can hardly believe it's another new year already!  This year, we traveled for the holidays.  We started with going to grandma Judy's for a few days...would have stayed longer, but currently, daddy's brother Shaun is living there with his dog, who pees everywhere, barks a lot, is freaked out by a lot of things, and Shaun doesn't take care of her the way he should, so it's not very pleasant to be there.  Plus, he behaved very strangely at Thanksgiving when he came to our house, so that makes it even more awkward.  We managed to have a good visit at Grandma's anyway--saw Nanny, grandpa Kerry (and Peggy), you got to play with Jonathan, we went out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse, and saw the Christmas lights both at Keokuk and Quincy.
On Christmas Eve morning, we headed to Missouri to Nana's house.  As we always do, Nana and I cooked lots of yummy things (most of which you didn't try, but hoping you will eventually).  Christmas day was great--you were so happy to get a note back from Santa, thanking you for leaving him some cookies :) And of course you loved your presents: Portal board game, expansion set for Gravitrax, marble maze, a letter board, and a few other little things.  We stayed for a week so that we could celebrate Pa-Pa Junior's 76th birthday (on New Year's eve) and ringing in the new year together.  We let you stay up so that you could 'toast' with us (you got Kool-Aid in your flute) and we watched (from inside the house) Pa-Pa shoot his .44 at midnight (this is a tradition of his).
In other news, we haven't had but a couple of "dustings" of snow since the Halloween one--very weird winter so far.  It was the second warmest Christmas on record in a long time (both in Missouri and Chicago area), so it certainly wasn't a white one! 
And the biggest news of all: you and I are going to France again in about 8 weeks from now! My friend Mélo--the one whose apartment we stayed in 2 years ago--invited us to come over and stay as long as we like.  She wants her boys, especially Maty, to practice/improve English with us.  Particularly with you, since you two are almost the same age.  This time, however, we won't have our own place, as the apartment is rented out.  If the strikes aren't too bad, we'll go visit Marion and maybe JT, possibly other friends of mine while we are there.  We're going to stay 8 weeks, which sounds long, but I'm sure it will go by quicker than we think!  I'm only a bit nervous for being able to work while we are there.  When they had their old place, it was easy to close off a room and do my lesson from there; I'm hoping they have doors in place so that I can do this again this time (as I have to do most lessons during the night time).  At any rate, it's an amazing opportunity for you and I both to get to spend time in France like this and I can hardly wait! ~love always, mom

Halloween snow!

Man is time ever flying by!  It's already been a week since Halloween, which seems unreal, to be honest.  This year, we had 4 inches of snow on Halloween eve/into Halloween day--crazy, right?!  Chicago hasn't had measurable snow on the ground on Halloween since 1885.  Some suburbs (not ours) even moved trick-or-treating to a different day, because not only was there snow all over, but it was quite cold, too.  Still, we went out for a bit while it was light out.  We made your costume this year--you were a robot (no surprise!) and looked super cool, got lots of compliments.  We did trick-or-treating at the Ar-BOO-retum just like last year, on the Saturday before Halloween.  On Halloween itself, though, you were complaining of the cold after just an hour of being out.  We tried going to some nursing homes in hopes of indoors trick-or-treating, but that didn't work out, so we just headed over to Anyway's for our traditional Halloween dinner together as a family (they give costumed kids a free meal :))
Now we are ready for Thanksgiving!  Nana is coming a week early (to go to a concert with moi) and grandma Judy will be joining us on Thanksgiving day.

Vacations

This summer has been quite the busy one so far for you/us!  Back in June, we did a one night stay for a paranormal conference in the Wisconsin Dells.  It was a cute resort where you and daddy got to share bunkbeds, which you loved, of course.
Just after that, Nana & Pa-pa came to visit and help with house projects for a week and a half.  We always love when they come to visit and had a great time.  Then, at the end of June/end of their visit, you and I traveled with them to Niagara Falls!  We stayed in a different place than they did, but we did everything else together.  We also went to a state park in NY called Letchworth--it was outstanding.  You loved the playground most of all, but you also enjoyed the trail with the stairs to see the falls.  On the way back home, we went to Pinery Provincial Park in Ontario; it wasn't all that great, but we still liked it ok.  You were disappointed because we couldn't stay longer at the beach area.  There were also quite a few bugs.
On the 4th of July, you and I and daddy traveled to Sturgis, SD to join Nana & Pa-pa over there, to share an Airbnb house together!  It was a wonderful time, except for a storm that hit while we were attending the Badlands Astronomy Festival on 5th--it did a lot of hail damage to their truck :( Thankfully, we were not there and it did not come through the Badlands; it did, however, cover the sky for the first night of the festival, so we didn't get to see any celestial objects until the following night.  You got to see the moon and Jupiter plus 3 of its moons that night--really liked that :)  We also visited Mt. Rushmore, drove through the Needles area of the Black Hills (where you adored climbing the rocks), had a great meal at Shipwreck's (in Rapid City)--complete with live music, 2nd day visited Dinosaur Park (awesome place), the Reptile Gardens (also awesome), ate at Wall Drug (it was decent), visited Prairie Homestead (pretty cool, very hands-on experience) and saw some buffalo and bighorn sheep in the Badlands.  Quite the vacay for such a short trip!
As if that were not enough, we accepted to host a French group leader a week after we got back--she is still here, in fact, staying through the 30th.  We just did another mini-vacay with her; Grandma Judy came over and we all went to the UP of Michigan--partly for fun, partly to avoid a heat wave here that was bringing heat indices of 115!  We took a boat cruise at Pictured Rocks (you really liked this), ate at a great little restaurant in Grand Marais, came back to our hotel room lacking electric (I had to drive in the crazy storm, it was not very fun) and suffered through 4 hours of a very warm room, 2nd day went to Mackinac Island, had a very nice time even through it rained on us in the afternoon, went to a fish fry/fest in St. Ignace--you did not try any of the very good whitefish, silly boy--but you did enjoy the kids' inflatables play area...until you fell off of a slippery one and scraped your ankle a bit. 
On the way home yesterday, you lost your tablet at Bayshore Mall in Milwaukee.  We tried to find it and the lost and found people have looked for it, too, but it seems to be gone. Google hasn't shown any new sign-ins for it, though, so I hope that maybe it could still turn up...doubt it, though.  You handled it surprisingly well--probably because you have 2 other devices plus a computer.  We told you that if and when you get a new one, it will not be going out in public places like this.  Only in the car and at home/Nana's/grandma's/etc. 
You have also been discouraged about karate lately, particularly the new weapons class we had you try.  We decided today that you could drop the weapons class; hoping that it will help.
Love you lots and lots ~mommy

First horseback ride at Aunt Janet's

Well, technically it's not your very first horseback ride if you count the pony ride at the petting zoo a couple years ago, but it's certainly your first on a full-size horse, and your first at Aunt Janet's (she is actually your great-aunt, but we just call her Aunt Janet anyway).  You had a very nice time, seemed to really enjoy it. 
First, the horses needed brushing, so we all helped with that.  This also gave the horses the chance to get used to being around us.  For the riding, you rode first with Janet, then by yourself while she led the horse on a line.  Then mommy got a turn solo (being led on line) and then you rode again with me (again, horse being led on line).  A great beginning to the first day of spring 2019!
You are still at grandma's now with daddy; mommy had to come back to do work tomorrow (and a lot of it at that!)  You will be returning, along with grandma and Aunt Janet, on Friday, just in time for Karate class.  Then the next day, they will go back home and you will go with just me (mommy) to Nana's house for a few days!
Another thing I want to note in this entry is that we are still having 'story time' at bedtime each night, something I love doing with you.  We've always done this, but far more consistently since we switched to chapter books.  We started with the Little House on the Prairie series--and finished all 9 books just recently!  We are now on the 'great adapted classics' books that Lyn gave you a couple of years ago (long before you were ready for them).  We have completed "A Journey to the Center of the Earth", and currently in the middle of "Heidi".  As I have never read 'Heidi', you decided last night that I should bring it back home with me and wait to read more of it when you return.  For bedtime with daddy these next two nights, you are going to have him read from 'Magic Kitten' (a book we got at the library).