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.