A week ago Amy had a fun day celebrating the birthday of her bestie. It was chilly and drizzly, but the outdoor mini-golf ice cream party happened anyway with umbrellas and rain boots but no dampened spirits. After that we dyed her hair to be ready for Halloween. While Amy and I were out, Sarah and Carl went to a Steeler’s game, also bundled against the cold and the rain. They enjoyed their time thoroughly.
Last Sunday I wrote about how Sarah wanted to tell her bus driver about the rock hard chocolate that formed when the girls were making cake pops. On Monday afternoon when I picked her up from school I asked, “Did you tell ____ about the rock hard chocolate?” She replied, “Yes! And I want to tell him again tomorrow!” On Tuesday her driver wore a Freddy Krueger mask. He warned me ahead of time, and Sarah was not phased. In fact, now she talks about how she scared Freddy Krueger when she said, “Boo.”
We had a wonderful Halloween. It was cold so Amy wore a teal wool sweater of mine as part of her siren costume so help her be warm. Her winter boots happen to be mermaid-scale print so she was all set. Sarah’s elephant costume was large enough for plenty of bundling. She opted to wear two sweaters rather than a coat. Instead of all of us being part of one theme, we had two thematic groups. Amy was a siren from the ocean and Carl was Odysseus tied to the mast. He maybe took his role as Odysseus a bit too literally, having trouble getting home and encountering various obstacles! Sarah was the elephant from Sandra Boynton’s Blue Hat Green Hat. To accompany her I was the bear in a red hat, Anna was the turkey, and a small stuffed animal moose was the moose. Some houses were so impressed by Sarah’s costume they gave her gigantic chocolate prizes for having the best costume. She got an extremely large Hershey kiss that is as large across the bottom as the palm of my hand. She also got a chocolate bar the size of 3 king-sized bars. Amy was delighted by her haul of multiple Twix bars. Amy went trick or treating with a group of friends, and all of them sorted and traded their candy at the end of the evening. The next day she took in various non-chocolate items to trade with a school friend who doesn’t like chocolate, bringing home peppermint patties to give to Carl since they are one of his favorites.
Amy’s school was having a spirit week with different themes each day. Monday was sports teams, but Amy doesn’t have any non-fictional sports teams that she loves. Instead she opted to wear pink to honor her bff’s birthday. Tuesday was Halloween colors. Wednesday was supposed to be wacky Wednesday and wacky it was, but not as planned. Schooling had to be virtual because of trouble with the sewer system! Thursday was the 80’s, so Amy wore lots of colors, put her hair in a side ponytail, and wore my vintage original plastic charm necklace. She couldn’t understand why anyone would choose the side ponytail look. I wondered why it has fallen out of fashion! Friday was pajama day, so we let Amy go to school for a few hours even though we had to get her early to drive to DC.
We drove to the greater Washington DC area for a rehearsal dinner on Friday and a wedding on Saturday, celebrating the union of my widowed uncle and his new wife. We hadn’t met her before, but we immediately took to her and her whole family. Sarah doesn’t wear dress shoes often and in hindsight we should have had her wear her black school sneakers. Her feet were hurting as we walked into the church for the wedding. Carl and I rubbed her feet during the reception, and I asked, “Sarah, have your heard the phrase that people use sometimes for hurting feet? They say their dogs are barking.” Without missing a beat, she quipped, “My musical notes are singing.”
I don’t know if it was her hurting feet or being hungry or being in a big crowd, but Sarah was very sad for a portion of the reception. Because of her feet, she opted to stay sitting and I got a plate for her at the buffet. What Carl and I didn’t think about was that maybe one of us should have stayed with her for company instead of our whole table being gone except for her. When we got back she was crying and quite sad. We rubbed her back and feet, offered comfort, and suggested food. Carl basically fed her a bite of bagel and that didn’t help. But then he put a bit of salmon in her mouth and suddenly she started eating ravenously. Two portions of salmon later and she was her usual sparkly self. I think she was haaad. That is when you are hungry-sad.
With the stroke of an “I do” our extended family size has increased dramatically. During the relaxed evening hanging out time, I learned that one of my new cousins even knows what the Alexander Technique is and has studied with a teacher in Boston, whose book I am currently reading! We enjoyed our time with other family members that I hadn’t seen in many years, and we got to see Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop. Amy and Mom-Mom had a good time playing as Mom-Mom pretended to steal Amy’s new stuffed animal cat Maple. Maple is orange and white and is a Higgy Animal, meaning it is wearing a scoliosis brace. The brace is exactly the same pattern as Amy’s. Sarah played with her toy piggy bank with Mom-Mom and then had a riotously good time reading Blue Hat Green Hat to Pop-Pop. Earlier she had also shared the book with her great-uncle and new great-aunt.
Our Airbnb is surprising in some ways, as they always tend to be. There is no toaster, no coffee maker, and there are no mugs. Things are dusty and could clearly use some vacuuming. Aside from that, it’s been great. The whole weekend has been heart-filling. And the coffee and donuts Carl has procured at Dunkin’ Donuts have been belly filling.
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