One More Question

I love listening to Adam and Elsa at bedtime. They have this great routine where after books and prayers, Elsa says to Adam, "I have a question for you." Some are funny, some are deep, some are super random. But for every one she asks (and there are a lot!), Adam patiently talks to her about it. And she always ends with "one last question, Dad."

Prayers

Two nights ago Elsa was playing with the neighbor girl, Tia. Shannon, Tia's mom, sent me a note that the girls told her that they saw the Mayo Clinic helicopter fly over and they stopped to pray for it. Oh so sweet!

In the dog house

Kale thought it would be funny to lock Nolan in the kennel with Mazy. Nolan found it funny, but really? In all that dog hair? And Mazy had no reaction at all. Boys will be boys, I guess!

Recycle

Elsa completed an assignment for school on Wednesday, where she had to think and write down all the items we recycle. She drew a picture to go with it. The picture proudly shows me recycling my beer came. Such a proud mom moment!

Easy and hard

 Kale went to a neighbor's house on Sunday afternoon. Shortly after leaving he was back at home again, clearly upset. Adam and I tried to get him to open up about what happened. It turns out, in Kale's words, "Dad happened". Sigh. I'm sure we are not the only parent's who wrestle with screen time, age appropriate video games, etc. As I reminded Adam - we are not here to be a friend to our kids, but to parent (which is a heck of a lot harder!). Luckily Kale bounced back. I'm sure this won't be the last time something like this pops up, especially as we inch closer to the teenage years!

On the other side of the fence sits Elsa. She came home yesterday so excited to share that the school counselor talked to her class about things they love. Elsa shared that she loves "holding hands with mom", "kissing mom goodnight", and "wrestling with dad". I sometimes wish we could bottle her up right now - she is such a bright light!

Old

Elsa asked me if I used candlelight for light when I grew up. Her perception of "long ago" needs a little work!

She's Baaa-aack!

I drove to pick up Elsa from my mom and dad today. She was the first passenger in their new car, which was very exciting. She talked my ear off the entire drive back home, and didn't stop talking until after dinner. She sewed her own pillow and blanket (with help from grandma), baked three small loaves of banana bread for her and her brothers and a large loaf for me and Adam, made magnets, an Easter bunny, and paper Easter eggs. She took a long adventure walk with grandma to the woods, rode her scooter and watched a few movies with grandma and grandpa. She said she had the best time and had the best dream ever, where her hair turned unicorn rainbows. 

We thought all was well until I decided to try a new way to decorate Easter eggs. We put rice in a bag, added food coloring and then shook the egg in it. It worked just fine, but Elsa was extremely disappointed in the whole thing. She told me that I "ruined Easter". Then she started sobbing uncontrollably and stomped to her bedroom. 

Adam tried to talk to her and even tried to make her feel better by fixing Forky (the fork from Toy Story 4). Well, when he tried to glue on Forky's foot the other foot (made of popsicle sticks) fell off, too. More sobbing commenced and we gave up. I just sent Kale in to her bedroom to check on her. I'm going to guess that she worked so hard the last few days and was on her best behavior that she is simply exhausted.

Elsa will be heading back to St. Cloud on Sunday for a few more days of distanc learning with grandma and grandpa. She goes back to school on April 7th. Fingers crossed we can get through the last two months of school with no more quarantines!