February 3

Amy didn’t have school Monday and Tuesday for teacher in-service days. Wednesday and Thursday both girls had off from school due to the extreme cold. Friday they had snow days, though the announcements arrive until I already woke everyone at our usual early time. 

Amy got a palate expander Wednesday morning and was very much a poor sweet baby for a few days. Her mouth hurt and she felt like she could hardly eat anything because all food gets caught between the roof of her mouth and the expander. It is better now, though her eating is still limited in range. She was also sick with a cough. For Sarah’s birthday dinner at a restaurant, Amy spent almost the whole time just trying to fold herself into my side. Sarah had a great time and was in sparklier, happier energy than she had been for a few hours leading up to the dinner.

One day Sarah was determined to go on a trip. She started making a pile of things to take on the trip. When it seemed like she was done, I put those things away. She got them out again. Then she took my purse down, found my keys, and put her backpack in the trunk of the car! Another time she wanted to go outside and said she would look both ways. This was a warning flag about her intended activity because the normal limits for playing out front do not involve crossing any streets. I asked if she could stay in the normal limits. She wouldn’t guarantee it. So I blocked the door and wouldn’t let her out. She is really into pretending to go places with her great aunt and uncle (J. and T.), especially going to church with them. I’m not sure where this came from except that in one of our photo books there is a picture of her great aunt wearing a leopard print dress and Sarah loves this dress. She now almost always addresses Carl as J. or T. because she wants him to pretend to be one of these people. Sometimes she pretends to be the other. She put on one of Carl’s button-down work shirts and pretended to be T. This is all fine unless it means she will leave the house on her own and try to walk to a church! 

Sarah is now 12. It hasn’t been the smoothest week. Not the roughest. About normal. But I have been in a mode where I felt annoyed by many of her routine things that she says or does. Then I felt bad for being annoyed. Then I felt more annoyed. So while the week has been generally easy, cozy, and slow, it has also been a bit difficult.

Yesterday we went to a party to celebrate Imbolc, the day in the middle of the winter solstice and the spring equinox. The party involved a bonfire and good food. We all loved it. Sarah loved tossing little bits of wood into the fire. 

Since Sarah seems to continue to handle baked dairy, she is keen on getting to Dunkin’ Donuts. We passed one on the way to the party. She wanted to go. I said no, but that at some point we could go. Since we usually go to Starbucks for snacks after they get their hair cut, I said that maybe the next time they got hair cuts we could go to Dunkin’ Donuts. She promptly said, “Oh! My hair is getting long!” It actually is, so we may go for a bang trim today. On the drive home from the party the girls sang a duet about getting donuts: “We’re going to donut land, we’re going to donut land, we’re going to donut land tomorrow!”

Wishing you easy and delicious eating.