June 28: Camp A and Absolute Amazingness

Last week was simply amazing as the girls attended Camp A in our house and yard. Our sitter A. is super duper amazingly awesome. They ran a camp for the week with different themes and activities. Some of the projects from the week included coloring Camp A bandanas, collecting flowers and other natural items to make prints with paint on blank wrap skirts made by A., scooter trips to the playground, baking bread from scratch, making rainbow cookies to celebrate Pride month, having a lemonade stand to raise money for a good cause, and creating a circus performance that included gymnastics, juggling, hula hooping, and a dice game that helps Sarah practice math. 

During facetime with Sc, the girls directed Sc to draw various pictures. Sc, like A, is an artist, so she can just create amazing things as if it is no big deal. She dropped the drawings off the next day. There are princesses, mice, cats, dogs, plaid, plaid, plaid, and umbrellas made from separate paper glued on top of the original paper so they seem more real. 

During her call with G, Sarah initiated a tour of the patterns she could find in our house. Then she requested that G give her a plaid tour and he discovered some plaid pajamas, one pair of which will make its way here. It is wonderful how these facetime sessions can be so effective and can continue to evolve.

As has happened so often through the years, I am in awe of the people we have as part of our life. They are just so jaw-droppingly amazing as they go through the world being themselves. What an incredible gift to have them as members of our family.

Amy has created an alter-ego named Kayla who comes to babysit Sarah sometimes. They go to “the park” in our family room and ride on see-saws of our folded gymnastics mats. The mats aren’t tilted in anyway so the see-sawing is all imaginative and somehow results in both girls falling off repeatedly.

Sarah borrowed a floral, sparkly shirt from A (thus large for Sarah) and donned her musical note scarf while also wearing some of Carl’s old plaid boxers as pajama bottoms. As Carl said, this was such a common look for her that we neglected to take a picture. And yet. It was such an awesome look and it had me thinking she looked like The Dude from The Big Lebowski. 

Olivia’s birthday was yesterday and Carl’s birthday is tomorrow so this is a birthday weekend. Yesterday Carl and the girls created a cardboard palace for Olivia to explore. Olivia and our Sarah and Amy cats all enjoyed it.

Carl went running with both girls yesterday and they were joined by someone’s cat! The cat ran along next to Sarah for a notable amount of time and when it left Sarah thanked it for running with her.

Sarah has started showering more often, easily, of her own volition! This possibly started after a difficult moment regarding her showering when she was resisting. But then yesterday and today she has said, out of the blue, “ok, I will take my shower now.” We still need to help her shampoo and scrub more thoroughly but she currently doesn’t like any coaching or even just talking about it completely separate from the event. Still, this seems like a huge win. Maybe eventually all strands of her hair will actually get clean.

Yesterday I was despairing somewhat because I felt like I had forgotten my newest revelations and that Sarah and I weren’t connecting as well as we had been. Then something in me shifted and I could see that sometimes it just means reaching out for an extra moment of snuggling or playing. Or deciding we can have a fresh start. It is ok if we aren’t always perfectly nice mice together. It doesn’t negate the good moments. 

June 21: Neck trouble and homage to Pigs Make Me Sneeze

It is hard for me to remember anything from the week, anything beyond my tweaking my neck in some way while I slept last Sunday night. I’ve been in varying degrees of stiff, painful lack-of-easy-movement since then. I’ve tried Alexander Technique, massage, heat, advil, stretching, not stretching, moving, not moving, praying, pretending there was nothing wrong, being very careful not to aggravate anything, and I’m still a mess. I haven’t had this much pain and trouble moving in many years. I will receive two massages this week from people who really know their stuff, so I’m tentatively hopeful. This is not how I wanted to spend my week. 

Sarah’s newest favorite variant of our snuggle time is to quote from Mo Willems’ Pigs Make Me Sneeze at the part where Gerald thinks he cannot have anything to do with his best friend Piggie. She says, “But Gerald,” and he says, “no, do not speak, it is too late.” According to Sarah he then blows his nose. So she wants me to repeatedly pretend to blow my nose on her clothes, arms, hands, and the bed sheet. I make a little “hmm” noise to be my pretend blowing. 

Both girls have been scootering well lately, including scootering to the playground with Carl. The playground is now open! So that is an exciting change.  Sarah scootered with Carl to a local outdoors store to get him a tie for Father’s Day. Somehow she also scored plaid pajama pants for me and for her as our Father’s Day presents. Meanwhile, this morning Amy got dressed up and put fancy dresses on all of her dolls so they were all ready to commemorate the day.  She also made breakfast by toasting frozen waffles.

Amy has been braiding my hair lately and I love it. I had been debating cutting my hair short again now that my hairdresser is working again, but I will keep it long for now so that Amy can keep styling it for me.

On Tuesday the girls made chocolate bark and covered animal crackers and apples, sprinkled with Nerds, marshmallows, graham crackers, and coconut shreds. This was all with their sitter A in preparation for their Facetime party with Sc later in the day. We dropped off a care package of treats for Sc so she was ready. 

Starting tomorrow the girls will be attending Camp A., named for our sitter. Camp will be each day this week and will take place at our house. 

I’m writing from what feels like a new desk. Carl put blocks of wood under my desk to make it a tiny bit higher so my thighs don’t touch the desk when I sit. This is lovely and I am stunned that we never thought of doing this earlier.

I hope you are all well and that your necks are moving freely.

June 14: Nice Mice Rolling Dice in a Trice as their only Vice

Hello there!

Sarah’s love of “mice mice mice” snuggles and play has evolved. I enjoy coming up with sentences in which most of the words rhyme with mice. Now Sarah likes to pull the bedsheet over her head to pretend to be mice in a trice rolling dice and eating rice. I repeatedly explain that “in a trice” means doing something quickly rather than being something you can physically be in, but that doesn’t change her sheet “trice.” We also like to talk about nice mice rolling dice; it is their only vice. They are eating rice or ice, sometimes twice. It will suffice. It is amazing how many words rhyme with mice!

In addition to wanting to be “Kiddo,” Sarah now loves it when I say “Hello there!” Both are inspired by the cartoon Caillou. Sarah loves snuggling and saying “hello there” or “hi there” or “hey there” to each other. She requests time with me by asking to do Hello There. Her face lights up, suffused with so much joy you couldn’t squeeze any more joy into her. Sometimes Amy snuggles with us too and then I am the one filled to the brim with joy. There’s nothing better than feeling so loved.

Sarah’s room doesn’t have an official desk, but recently it seemed like Sarah wanted one because she kept going into Amy’s room and sitting at the desk. As a temporary measure I moved a small folding table and a stool into Sarah’s room. She promptly sat down to write as if she was doing school work. At some point we will get her a real desk.

Sarah’s physical abilities seem to be getting stronger across the board. She is swinging higher than she ever has. Carl and Amy have been playing soccer almost every night after dinner and one night Sarah joined them, blocking and kicking with more skill than previously demonstrated. Yesterday we went to a beach in the Laurel Highlands and Sarah asked to play with the frisbee. Carl gave her a few reminders on how to throw and catch it. She and I tossed it back and forth many times and our skill levels are well matched. 

Amy has been swinging on our tree swing, which has a single rope and a flat plastic disc on which to sit. She swings on our regular swing set daily as her ride on the bus to get to and from school. She also cartwheels so often that yesterday she dubbed herself Amy Why-walk-when-you-can-Cartwheel.

I’ve started working in my office, seeing only one client per day if I see anyone. It is easier than I expected to wear a mask the whole time. Sarah continues to miss me when I’m away unless she is with her sitter A or on Facetime with Sc, in which case, “mom who?” It’s not as if we are always together at home, but she likes knowing that I’m around. 

I continue to think about the anti-racist changes that need to be made across the board. I often feel overwhelmed because the changes needed are so massive. What I know from my Hello There snuggle sessions is that sometimes pouring love and time into one area has ripples to other areas that may be unexpected. So maybe if all of us pour our love and energy into the changes that we can see in front of us, into the calls that we can make, then there will be ripples overall.  If we let ourselves be overwhelmed into inaction then that isn’t so useful. Individually, we don’t have to solve everything but collectively we can make some positive changes in a trice.

June 7: Working to change the prevalence of white supremacy and loving each other imperfectly more than cheese

If you have not already read White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo, I highly recommend it. It is one of the clearest explanations of how the system of racism and white supremacy (not the extreme version, but just the way things are) is ingrained in our lives so firmly that it can go unnoticed by those who benefit from it (namely, whites). You never think you have an accent because it is what you are used to hearing. White privilege so permeates everything of life in the US that it is the accent that whites don’t hear. I think finally more and more people are waking up to the accent and I sincerely hope that we are on the cusp of sweeping change. While I thought I knew a lot and understood a lot of what was horrible, I really had no idea. I am ever more horrified the more I learn. The accent that I now hear is how I am able, if I choose, to stop paying attention. I do not want to stop paying attention. 

I do not know how to continue to share Sarah-Rise updates as usual. This isn’t a usual time and so it feels disrespectful to share anything not related to racism and fighting it. Yet, I also know it is important to balance the heartbreak with heartmend, the pain with joy. So, with the utmost fervent hope that our country is on the verge of disrupting the status quo hugely, here are the things from this week in my little microcosm where I strive imperfectly, yet successfully, for greater love and connection.

Sarah and I continue to have many “mice mice mice” snuggle sessions where we sing about loving each other more than cheese. She calls us Love Mice and says that we are together in the house. She loves it when I pretend to be a sad mouse and cry on her in such a way that it tickles a bit. The light in her eyes is bright and joyful as she describes being a sad mouse with limp whiskers, a dragging tail, droopy ears, and fur that has lost its shine. We have played rounds of Mouse Match, a memory game involving mice, tunnels, and plastic cheese. We also somehow got into singing “Jenny Jenkins” with adapted lyrics. Instead of singing about Jenny Jenkins we sing of Sarah Kiddo. “Will you wear stripes oh my dear oh my dear, will you wear stripes Sarah Kiddo? No I won’t wear stripes ‘cause they give me the gripes, I’ll buy me a fauldy rauldy tildy tauldy seek a double roll, Sarah Kiddo roll.” We also have verses asking if she will wear dots, plaid, or paisley. Sarah always wants to sing by herself and now the answer to any question is “yes!” of course she will wear whatever pattern is described. After all, plaid makes her glad.

With the Mr. Greg Reads sessions, he always has a piece of striped fabric behind him as he reads. That is, until recently. Careful observers may now notice the absence of the fabric. He has generously let Sarah borrow it. When he dropped the fabric off on Wednesday, Sarah excitedly scooted inside to enjoy it. After many minutes she emerged to say “thank you” all of her own volition. It was heartwarming. 

Sarah has been more self-sufficient in general. Every morning she gets the Claritin from the medicine cabinet and brings it to Carl to remove the tablets. She then returns the remainder to the box. She has been asking me if she can help when I am cleaning so she helped vacuum and helped put away some laundry. Not that this hasn’t happened before, but it still feels noteworthy. She has even attempted to change the sheets on her bed by herself. 

Now that Pittsburgh has gone green in terms of Covid-19, I will be working again starting tomorrow, with many new precautions in place. Thursday night I went to my office to clear out clutter so it will be easier to clean fully between clients. Sarah really didn’t want me to go. While I was gone she was missing me a lot. Carl got out the book with the lyrics to “I love you more than cheese” and played the actual song for Sarah. Instead of helping her feel better, it seemed to trigger her missing me even more. He said she got extra sad and sat listening to the music and looking at the book with tears streaming down her face. She decided to make a Welcome Home sign for me and did so all by herself. When I got home she ran to me and gave me a huge hug. She gives me vitamin K (vitamin Kiddo). This bigger loving connection between us seems to last even when we still have moments of being really mad at each other and yelling. That is what I meant by how I’m imperfectly striving. I think it is important for everyone to know that you don’t have to be perfect to get amazing results.

Last night we went backyard camping. Amy loaded the “trunk” of our pretend car, creating a pile behind our swings. Then I sat on a bucket while the girls sat on their swings and we “drove” to the campground. Amazingly, we found a lovely flat site that was right next to the playground and the bathroom. We roasted hot dogs and had s’mores for dessert. The American Girl dolls went camping with us too, although they had their own tent. 

Lots of love to all of you. Remember you don’t have to do things perfectly to make a positive difference. 

May 31: Improving the world; Amazing changes at home

It is always oddly jarring when one person experiences a tragedy and yet the world continues to move on with many people still living their normal lives. So many people right now are personally reeling from the murder of George Floyd. So many people who aren’t personally effected are also feeling heaviness and rage and fear and heartbreak. I have made calls and read articles and marched in the almost completely peaceful protest yesterday. We have spoken with the girls about what they can do if they see someone being treated unfairly especially if that treatment is related to their skin color. I know some of my friends carry fear for their own children daily and my actions henceforth will be fueled by wanting to make sure the world becomes a safer place for those children. I want it safer for everyone, but it helps make it more tangibly urgent to personalize it in this way. These friends are dear to me and I do not want them to be the next heartbroken parents. Next to this heaviness and heartbreak, life here in our personal family bubble has been even better than usual. Such an odd contrast. I share the love and joy from our family in the hopes that it will help warm hearts and ease tensions at least for a moment. Let us also take a moment to hold the family and friends of George Floyd in love and light and make our phone calls to support appropriate legal action regarding the police involved.

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Sarah and I are having a closer connection than we have in ages. It is amazing and wonderful and I attribute the changes to my personal changes after my various Son-Rise recharging methods. Sarah now wants to do “mice, mice mice” with me all the time. She wants me to sit with her when she has her ipod turn. She greets me enthusiastically. Offering “mice mice mice” works to defuse situations when she is clearly a bit overloaded and going into her repertoire of things that we don’t like her to do. 

When we do our tickle, snuggle, hanging out while sometimes saying “mice mice mice” she often holds small stuffed animal mice. I have also added singing a bit of a Sandra Boyton song, “I love you more than cheese.” Sometimes Sarah brings in her newly favorite books, Barnyard Dance and Runaway Bunny. Her favorite page of Barnyard Dance reads “Prance with the horses, skitter with the mice, swing with your partner once or twice.” One day she read it to me and told me it was her favorite page and that she held it in her heart. I’ve been working on encouraging clarity of speech through these books because when she reads out loud she tends to swallow her words in her attempt to speed through them or because she is unsure of them. I don’t ask for clarification of everything, just some words now and then. I also celebrate when she does say things clearly. 

One evening Amy had the idea that we would go to a royal ball. She encouraged us to dress appropriately. Carl and I donned new garb and we all came up with new names. I was Queen Annabelle of Chocolateville, Carl was Sir Frederick III of Fritoshire, Amy was Duchess Violet of Gardenalia, and Sarah was Kiddo Bubbles of Mouseville. I had an enchantingly delightful time! Sarah participated a little. Amy sort of had a good time, but our reality didn’t quite match her dreams. 

Sarah loves nicknames for herself and acquires them at a rapid speed. In addition to being Ms. Mice, this week she also wanted us to call her Kiddo, which is how characters in a Caillou episode refer to him. Once Sarah told us that our teacher would be Kiddo. I love how flexibly we all adapt to her new loves and build upon them. 

We let the girls have playdates with one person in the past couple of weeks and that has gone quite well. After the first one Amy clearly had tons of feelings that had been accumulating. I was glad she could feel them and clear them. Friday the girls went over to this other kid’s house and, very unusually, Sarah got sad and was crying and asking for me to come get her, which I did. I can’t remember this ever happening before. My interpretation of things is that because she and I have bonded so much recently, when her friend drew a picture of a smiling face with the words “Mommy loves you” Sarah remembered me and felt homesick. She missed me! This is actually huge and wonderful and exciting. I know there have certainly been times when she missed me in the past, but this felt more clearly expressed. She cried for a while even after I brought her home. As with Amy’s feelings, I assume that Sarah’s have been accumulating during quarantine. Yesterday morning Sarah started crying again and talking about when she was sad on Friday, saying she missed me but not following me to the kitchen when I invited her to do so. She really didn’t want me to go to the protest march, but I figure it is important to slowly get everyone used to me doing things again. I want her to feel these feelings now so that when school starts in August she will be ready to go.

Sarah is officially done with 5th grade and is a rising 6th grader! Friday evening there was a car parade at her school so we could drive past the teachers who were standing outside. Her main teachers weren’t there, but there were many people who called out “Hi Sarah!,” “It’s Sarah!” I felt more emotional than I had expected. Maybe she did too. 

Although Sarah didn’t want me to leave yesterday, after lunch and some of her favorite music and a Gaby et Jules macaron delivery, she was feeling much better. While I was gone the girls and Carl recorded themselves putting on a play of Mo Willems’ A Big Guy Took My Ball. Carl was the whale, Amy was Piggie, and Sarah was Gerald. Amy made costume headbands so they had the right ears or whale top. Each independently got dressed in the right colors. I got to see the recording when I returned and it was wonderful. It was also Sarah’s idea!! When I was home we did a new recording of Mo Willems’ My New Friend Is So Fun! I was Gerald (being exaggeratedly panicky comes quite naturally), Amy was Snake, Sarah was Piggie, and Carl was Brian Bat. It was so much fun! If you would like to see our unpolished but energetic performance, let me know and I’ll send it to you. 

To back up slightly, when I parked upon arriving home, I was greeted by Carl and the girls, all holding signs and chanting “We Love Mom!” Sarah rushed up to hug me and had sparkly eyes meant for me. I am used to such an outpouring from Amy, but not from Sarah.

Overall I feel like Sarah is more open to my presence and listens more to what I say. She responds more easily to my requests and is overall calmer. This morning she got something on her beloved hedgehog nightgown. Such occurrences in the past have resulted in screaming, whining, and impatience on her part. This morning I told her that I was about to start some laundry, and I noticed a stain on her nightgown, and I could wash it for her if she wanted. She calmly said she would put on her panda nightgown. OH MY GOODNESSS!!!!!! This is seriously an unheard of miracle!

It has been a couple of years since I filled out the ATEC questionnaire that attempts to give some objective qualification regarding autism. The lower the number the less autistic, or something like that. 3 years ago Sarah was at a 36. Now her score is 30. This feels like exciting progress, even though I also take it all with a grain of subjective salt. My perspective on the questions and my answers changes over time as much as Sarah changes.

I am amazed and grateful at the plethora of peaceful changes I am experiencing with Sarah. I am stunned and humbled by how the shifts within me brought this about. I can easily wish I had made the changes sooner, but I will focus on being so glad I am getting the help to make my personal changes now. My goal now is to ask for help often because the resources are available. I need only ask.

May 24: Son-Rise Help and Perfect Days

It is amazing to me how clearly I know I can continue to benefit from Alexander Technique lessons forever and yet somehow I had put the brakes on my Son-Rise continuing education and support. I know that after years of running Sarah-Rise I felt tired and done. The past few years I haven’t really put much energy into my short weekly SR time, which I wouldn’t even really call SR time. It was time that I was with Sarah and hoping we could get along ok but feeling relieved when she wanted to be on her own for a nap so I could fold laundry. This isn’t to say that I haven’t been thinking about how to support her further or that I haven’t continued to be amazed by her in varying ways. I just felt stuck and forgot just how helpful help could be. This past Monday I had another amazingly helpful consultation with Samahria. I felt re-energized and suddenly it was so clear that I wanted to retrain in the Son-Rise Program and to reread Raun Kaufman’s book Autism Breakthrough. Raun is THE son of Son-Rise. I have almost finished reading it and I have just started the online training program. My training the first time around was in person but now it is perfect to have an online option where I can go at my own pace. I have already remembered so many little things that I had forgotten and I am already seeing ripples through to how I am with Sarah and how she is with me. This isn’t to say we don’t have our tough moments, but I’m even holding those more gently. Just because I fall off my bike of how I want to be doesn’t mean I can’t climb right back on. I feel as if I started a marathon strong, ran a powerful first half, got tired and started walking, somehow thought the race was done, and now I have suddenly realized there is more of the course to traverse and that I can get as much help as I need. I absolutely think we can help Sarah more with her social interactions, language clarity, and stress reduction. I also think we can make math really fun. I think we can get past the yelling, screaming, banging, spitting, fake laughing and we can do so in a way that is loving and more fun for all of us.

Yesterday was a perfect day and that was even with some moments when Sarah and I weren’t having a good time together. I didn’t let those moments overshadow the day. I spent some time whenI felt like I was really in my SR energy and creativity in a way that I haven’t been in ages. I had forgotten what that could feel like and that it could be easy and fun and that I am good at playing. Really playing and working on goals through the play. It felt like turning on a light switch inside and everything I thought was out of stock was ready and waiting. Sarah wanted to do more electronics and I said no. She was very upset. I was truly calm. She got past her upset and I helped her set up for Ms. Sarah reads. This meant moving a chair in front of a door and draping a blanket over the door to be her backdrop. It was a plain blanket but she imagined stripes. As she read when she rushed and garbled her words I raised my hand like an eager student. When she called on me I said I hadn’t understood and asked her to read the words again slowly so I could get it. She did. I celebrated. We also did some “mouse mouse mouse” snuggle/tickle time, which has now morphed into “mice mice mice” and also involves me asking her how many rounds we will do, prefaced with an equation for her to solve. She does so with delight and a gleam in her eye. She doesn’t always get the right answer but that doesn’t matter! What matters is that we can have math be part of fun, connected play time. 

Both Sarah and Amy practiced biking on rough terrain. Sarah is using the bike as a balance bike and is getting pretty good at it. On a side note, Sarah has traveled the length of California on her Zwift stationary bike. Amy is practicing hills and turns. Amy also helped her doll Ella learn to ride. Carl did a long mountain biking ride and I went for a long walk. Then we all (mostly Carl) worked on building a fire pit and enjoyed hot dots and s’mores. The weather was ideal. It was just a perfect day at which to marvel and in which to revel, which we did.

Earlier in the week the girls had wonderful two hour SR/babysitting sessions with two of our amazing people. With Sc there was a time when Amy was playing the ukulele and Sarah was singing into a plastic ice cream scoop microphone. The song was “Shake, shake, shake my piggie bank.” I don’t know who made it up or if it comes from a show. With A. the girls got set up with the sprinkler in the back yard. A. got in their swimsuit too and Carl served as A’s arms to turn on the water. I will always marvel at these amazing people in our lives and how much love and creativity flows into our house, continuing in an unexpectedly effective way during this pandemic quarantine phase.

May 17: Pizza, Math, and a Recipe for my Best Self

Last night we made pizza from kits sold by Enrico’s Biscotti company. We watched part of the Scooby Doo movie and the girls slept on the pull-out sofa bed. When I came downstairs this morning I heard Amy leading them through a conversational play scenario of sorts. She asked Sarah to pick a mode of transportation. Sarah chose a boat. Then Amy said they would travel in their big boat to pick up all of their friends. I forget the rest of the details except for being in awe of how present and involved both of them were. Amy would ask Sarah for input after each thing that Amy added. It was heartwarming.

We have decided to back the heck up in terms of helping Sarah with math. She struggles so much with it that often she protests as soon as we even look at some of her homework. Even knowing that Amy and I will help her count for addition or subtraction, Sarah has a knee-jerk response that it is too hard. So now our aim is to build her confidence and use her strengths for remembering things. For many things, she has the best memory of anyone in the house. We just need to start small, start at the beginning, and move on only when she is ready. For a couple of days we added 1+1=2 to our interactions. I taped signs on the wall with the equation written numerically and with words. We have now moved on to 1+2=3 and 2+1=3. She is pretty solid on those too, but sometimes answers 2. As with other math moments, she seems to go too quickly in supplying an answer, just saying something and hoping it is right. I have also started helping her when she practices online with Splashlearn. It is helping her slow down to actually count dots. We had half an hour of working together and it felt fun and companionable. For some problems I just told her the answer and she seemed relieved. As with many other moments of late, I feel like we are getting back to being on the same team with each other instead of being in opposition. 

For almost 2 solid weeks I have been peacefully parenting and having a joyful time. The hiccups were more notable as hiccups, but I was still distraught because I really hoped I would never again lose my cool. The best part of losing my equilibrium this time around was realizing that I had just forgotten my recipe. I had started assuming that calm was my new norm, instead of remembering the thoughts and actions that lead me to the calm. When I lose my physical ease I know I have to go through a process of thoughts to help me regain where I want to be. Somehow in other realms of life I can forget that it is a process and that there are thoughts to think and things to do. So for parenting peace I need 1 part exercise, 1 part time to read and write, 1 part crossword puzzle, and many parts greeting the difficult moments with a delighted “Yes! This is great! This will help me be who I want to be and practice new responses!” Those last words could certainly be read with acerbic irony, but they have to be meant for real for the recipe to work. 

Grammy sent masks for the girls and their dolls so they can match. Amy is slowly accepting the idea of wearing a mask when she really wants to do something, such as visiting the book table our neighbor set up yesterday. Amy is also re-excited about biking. Last Sunday she and Carl biked 4 miles to Sonia’s house to see a tiny kitten. That kitten visit was the first moment for which Amy wore a mask.

Meanwhile, Sarah has added paper guitars to her favorite musical note scarf so that she can match the scarf of our sitter A. Sarah had been pining for a scarf with guitars so A drew some that Sarah could cut out and put them through our mail slot. Sarah is also into bocce ball and yesterday was a perfect day for some backyard bocce.

This past week I taught a short online Alexander class and tomorrow I have another call with Samahria. What amazes me about both of these moments is that I can actually book a sitter just like the old days. The sitter happens to work via Facetime, but it is just as effective and reliable. Certainly I have been enjoying the time off granted by such calls thus far, but this is the first time I really saw it as booking a sitter.

Remember your recipes for your favorite self.