Fall into September

[duskymonkey]

Cannot believe its already September. This whole year has been both painfully slow and fast...that didn't even make sense but then again 2020 doesn't make sense either. How has everyone been doing with the kiddos going back to school?

[duskymonkey]

doodlemommy Glad to see you popping in. Good luck on your first week back at work and happy to hear you’re feeling confident with your work place. Sounds like CA is doing so much better than us here.
danvers OMG! you’re doing both online and in-person teaching? that’s crazy. I’ve been thinking of you and your H the last couple of weeks. At this moment in time, teachers have the absolute hardest jobs. We’re slowly getting a class schedule together and DS class had their assessment last week I think so his teacher can figure out how to break out the kids into smaller groups to effectively teach. There are 28 in her class and we’ve all been meeting 2x a day and gosh! it’s chaos. Also the kids are all at wildly different levels, from reading very little to DS who can read the encyclopedia *head smack* she has her hands full.
Taitai Thank you. I was just venting and I know every parent is struggling. We are having a better start to our week and as mentioned above, once we actually hit the ground running, I think it’ll be better.

[duskymonkey]

We finally got some rain this past weekend and that helped all the raging wild fires in the area and so glad for that. I feel so bad for all the FF dispatched to fight the fires. It also cooled down the temps a fair bit that we were able to roast marshmallows to the boys delight. We're a month away from our 3rd birthday! Are you all doing anything? Lil fella already requested a Big Boy train, strawberry frog and blueberry frog for his cake oy vay! so I decided to screw around with piping tips and make myself pretty cupcakes for my birthday which was last week.

PSA. I finally got this painting cloth. link Delivery only took like 2 months lol! and it’s kinda awesome. Best $10 I’ve ever spent!
It’s kept lil fella busy during DS’ class meetings. You get 2 pieces too and I just ordered another one for a gift. One piece of the frame cracked but it's so cheap and I've been having fun with it myself. Really everyone should get one!

[danvers]

True story - I wrote 8/32 on the whiteboard yesterday at school before catching myself and fixing it. It’s just been that crazy 😂

duskymonkey I can’t imagine teaching all virtually in the lower grades because kids are all over the place with abilities and levels + no attention spans. Primary grade teachers are special saints. Since I know my students better now if we go full virtual soon than I will do small groups as well because no one is going to learn long division with 26 kids on a Zoom call 🤦‍♀️

[Taitai]

duskymonkey Those cupcakes look AMAZING! You could be a professional baker - I am convinced of that. I am sure the strawberry and blueberry frogs with a train for your little guy’s 3rd birthday will turn out amazing too!

As for us, things are fine over here (covid-wise), which actually makes me feel guilty saying when I see how things are in the USA. No cases of local transmission for 100 days now. Since everything is open like normal and the kids are all in school, we’re debating on having a little party for DS2 birthday. Nothing like the big ordeals they normally do out here, but maybe something with like 10 of his buddies from school. We’ll see - I kind of also just want to use the pandemic as an excuse to not have to plan a party....but the kids do love them.

Also, I can’t believe our babies will be turning 3 soon!

[cythe]

You guys, Ev starts school on the 14th and I am not okay.

Her physical therapist asked if I got her a backpack... why would my 2 year old need a backpack? So, I dealt with it like an adult, I got her a backpack and then cried in my Taco Bell on the way home.

[Taitai]

cythe Hey!!!! So good to see you! It’s is crazy when the kids start getting backpacks and “growing up” with all the school stuff. School will give you some more flexibility though! Exciting times!

[duskymonkey]

danvers,omg! teaching all 26 kids together virtually sounds like a disaster frankly, I feel so bad for DS' teacher. They really haven't begin actual learning yet oy! but they have been broken into smaller groups after initial evals and there's another district diagnostic testing happening and next couple of days hoping our internet will be working tomorrow. How's it been going so far? How are the girls? Our babies are going to be 3 in a few weeks...

[duskymonkey]

Taitai you don't have to feel guilty. I am actually very glad to hear that it's possible to gain control of the pandemic and get back to the best of normalcy as society is able to except sadly due to the level of selfishness that exist here, we will be fighting this until ( hopefully ) there is a vaccine or an effective treatment. Until then, the people who have a sense of humanity will be prisoners in their own homes... yes at this point I am bitter.
Also I did consider actually enrolling in a culinary pastry arts school right before DS happened. I still dream of it, maybe when I grow up lol! in the meantime, more trains and frogs.

[duskymonkey]

cythe biggest hugs. How is E doing? Is this through state EI or is she just going to start preschool? NY state is doing really well and stable if that's what you're worried about too. I know they seem so little to be going to school. It will be hard at the start and she will soon love being with other little people. I remember when my nephew started school too and he had to get on the bus all on his own but he loved it and the bus drivers and his teachers and aides took such great care of him and everyone in his class.

[duskymonkey]

So....I really am now going to wait for Whitewalkers to show up. Seriously WTF! 

[duskymonkey]

Oh...here's another WTF to 2020. It actually already started "snowing" yesterday and it was ashes. Pic was from last evening and we're not even that close. It was horrid this morning. I feel so awful for those living close by. Seriously 2020!

[Taitai]

duskymonkey I saw a story on my news feed about winter weather advisories for Denver, and I was like, nooooo....that can’t be? WTF. It is like the end of days! (as my grandma would say). Are you able to pull some of your plants inside??? I just....2020 is just plain awful. And all the ash falling around you on top of it. Hugs - you’ll get through, but what craziness.

[Taitai]

So DH and I decided to book a hotel room in town for 1 night away from the kids to celebrate our anniversary. Our nanny stayed with the kids, and it was supposed to be 24 hours of blissful kid-free enjoyment. (We’ve never spent a night away from the kids...we both have done so separately, but not at the same time)

Well, the first 16 hours was nice, until DH wasn’t paying attention and stepped down one measly little stair the wrong way at breakfast and rolled his ankle badly. He couldn’t put any weight on it, and the hotel had to get him a wheelchair for the remaining 8 hours of our stay. We checked out and went straight the the hospital, where they said DH had torn ligaments on the top of his foot. So they gave him a soft cast and crutches. He is not supposed to put any weight on his foot for a week, and then we will see if it can heal itself.

So, DH is not really able to do much of anything that involves cooking, taking the kids to school, taking the kids anywhere really, or doing much besides observing them from the couch. I’ll be really glad when this week is over.

At least we tried to have a nice weekend getaway...lol. Maybe next year H won’t manage to hurt himself in the most innocuous way possible 😂.

[curmudgeon]

Oh no Taitai! I hope the week helps it heal a lot. How unfortunate for your H, and for your anniversary celebration.

[curmudgeon]

We spent yesterday at my parents and invited MIL and a childhood friend of H’s and had the best time. We spent like 7 hours hanging out. I made a sangria and my mom and H (who NEVER drink) got very giggly tipsy. Lol it was a good weekend.

We have a pre-drywall meeting tomorrow for our house that seems to be taking for. ev. er. I need some personal space ASAP. But in person learning did start today! So I happily dropped DS and his mask off and had a quiet day of work. Lol

Mask pic:

[cythe]

Well, we had our last therapy session with our EI therapists who have been a part of our lives for the last year. It was bitter sweet to say the least, and I only cried a little bit. These women have been a majority of my regular, adult interactions here in NY and its so hard to leave them. Of course we are more connected than ever before, but its not the same. Change is hard and I'm a sad lady these days.

[August Blooms]

cythe Tis the seasons for changes and tears. Sounds like E is doing well!

Taitai That sucks, hopefully he’s back on his feet sooner than later. And by the way you guys are Covid free but not drama free courtesy of the royal family? I’ve been following loosely but trying to stay away from the news a lot lately.

duskymonkey 2020 is really bringing it. Are you near any of the fires for it to affect you? How’s schooling for your boys going?

danvers How are you surviving?

[August Blooms]

DD1 starts back 3 days in person next week. It seems they have everything sorted out, hopefully things go smoothly next week. Cases are up in the province but not in our area yet. I think I’m going to go back to being more restricted. That being said I did sign up DD1 for socially distance tutoring and ballet class. In for a penny in for a pound I guess?

Other than that not much going on here. I’m looking forward to and dreading next week.

[duskymonkey]

Taitai Noooo! well that will be an anniversary to remember. Gosh! I hope he'll heal up quick. You guys do crack me up and seems like there's always something happening at the most inopportune time. I recall you sharing that once he managed to burn his hands? Sounds like you had at least a good chunk of time before the accident. 

[duskymonkey]

cythe sounds like E is doing well then. I may have missed your update. Didn't you go see your mom not too long ago?
August Blooms I hope school doesn't get interrupted for you. I would be nervous too and I didn't know until recently that US Labour day actually was sparked by Canadians Labour day recognition of workers.
curmudgeon update us on your house! I dunno what pre-dry wall mtg means but I would highly recommend to stay away from textured walls of any type. Patching for any reason is a nightmare. Hoping school will work out for you. Your DS seems like a big kid! He's in 2nd or 1st? I bet he's probably happy to go back.
Schools in the district here are getting ready to return to in-person by the first week of October. There's been closures here and there in the surrounding districts so we shall see. We can put DS back at the start of the next trimester however even if there aren't closures until then, I think we'll wait until the next trimester which I think is in February next year just to be extra safe. So crazy! Fortunately aren't close to any wildfires unless it decides to spread over the Rockies. They commonly occur in the foothills and mountains and we're a few miles from the foothills. Hubs and I often talk about moving to the foothills but then with all the fires, we're like NTY, we'll stay down at the bottom lol! We're also rethinking about our dream mountain cabin.

[duskymonkey]

So it's literally snow and fire  out here. Complete craziness and the end of the world analogy seems about right. It snowed all day Tuesday and not terribly heavy, the AQI improved significantly though but sadly the fire is still raging, hasn't spread much but it hasn't been contained either. It's so so sad that they're speculating it was started by human activity. We were just hiking in the area a month ago and as we were driving through the canyon, I recall hubs and I talking about how all the dead pine trees from pine beetle is like a tinder box and would ignite at a spark of lightning. Here's a pic of the glacial tarn in the never summer mountains we hiked up to with the boys.

[danvers]

Sept 11, 2020 14:05:44 GMT -6 August Blooms said:

danvers How are you surviving?

As of Friday our county has the the highest 7-day average positivity rate in the state - and we are still open for in person schooling. H and I can’t quite figure out what the heck the superintendent or health dept is thinking allowing the district to remain open.... they keep claiming to do “what is best for kids” but at some point surely what is best for The health and safety of teachers, aides, bus drivers, etc needs to be considered too?!?

[danvers]

cythe E will do great in preschool and I bet she looks so cute with her backpack! We had the same speech therapist for DD1 and DD2 and she felt like family when our time in early intervention was over!

duskymonkey I hope the AQI continues to improve!

Taitai sorry to read about your Hs accident! I hope he’s feeling better and able to move around more! Just means you’ll have to try for another overnight trip again though!

August Blooms my early post was not meant to be a vent at you 😂 it’s just crazy we are open for in-person teaching here. DD1 really does love Kindergarten in-person but I am very worried about H catching it at the high school and bringing it home to us. I can distance myself from 4th graders pretty well but high school kids are a different beast 😳 I hope the cases in your providence start to trend downward quick and soon!

[Taitai]

duskymonkey Oh my gosh - I totally forgot about H cooking his finger on the grill last year! Or maybe it was a few years ago. He is extremely accident prone, and his accidents are often a result of him not paying attention. DS1 takes after him that way 🤣😂.

August Blooms Thanks for thinking of us over here. Yeah, we are in interesting times in this country. I can’t make any comments about it, however, as the laws here have consequences for discussing certain topics 🤷‍♀️

Thanks everyone for wishing H a quick recovery! He is out of the soft cast and doing better - he can walk around now, but has to be very careful. I think he should be back to normal in a week or two. We’ll see! At least he can do cooking and watch the kids more now - thank goodness!

[cythe]

Sept 11, 2020 23:46:35 GMT -6 duskymonkey said:

cythe sounds like E is doing well then. I may have missed your update. Didn't you go see your mom not too long ago?

Apologies! I hadn't really gotten around to doing an update, there isn't really much to update on (minus school haha). And of course any time I sit down at the computer to do anything, she thinks she needs to sit on my lap and watch youtube on my pc. Drives me bananas.

Anyway, E is doing well. She just finished her EI therapy and is getting ready to start preschool/special education classes. The school she will be at is classified as an integrated preschool, and specifically the class that she is in is an integrated class as well (as opposed to self contained which they also have). So she will be with other special needs kids as well as kids who do not receive services. She will be getting 2x/week speech, 2x/week PT, 2x/week OT with the option to increase speech to 3x a week. Lately her language has really ... blossomed? Maybe? Its hard to call it that just yet, but her ability to copy what she hears has skyrocketed. Before I would say something and she would hear me/see me and then just laugh and continue doing whatever she wanted. Now she can count (verbally) to 3 without prompting, has a word for just about every animal under the sun, will take a stab at a new word just by me asking her to and still has never said mama lmao.

So, ultimately school will be so great for her. When we go to the park, she learns so much from just watching other kids to see what they do. She couldn't care less what I think or do, but if another child does it suddenly its the coolest thing she's ever seen.

And yes, we did go see my mom a while back. We also just recently met up with her, about half way between the two of us and went to the zoo. Ev loved it!

[curmudgeon]

cythe it’s great to hear that E is doing well. My niece started special ed/pre-k at 3 because of hearing loss and the teachers were great and she did really well. Hoping for the same for E!

duskymonkey Pre-drywall is where they walk us around to show us that they put in any special wiring requests we made, gas lines, extra water lines like to outside, etc. before they close it all in and Sheetrock/paint. It took all of 15 minutes. Lol And unfortunately this isn’t a custom build so we are limited in requests we can make, like I asked for the pantry shelves to be spaced further apart or left off and I’d do my own and they said they couldn’t. So I imagine the walls are the same. But it’s a flat texture that we’ve had in all our other houses so no surprises with it. They were bricking the exterior over the weekend which is exciting. Move in has been pushed to Dec and I am really hoping we get to spend Christmas in it.

[August Blooms]

Taitai I figured there were laws so I’m trying to keep things vague. I definitely don’t want to get you into to trouble, 2020 has already been enough of a year!

danvers Definitely did not think you were venting at me! Hopefully you are able to make choices for your family that will keep you guys safe and sane. It’s a lot of stress to be under.

[August Blooms]

Ugh DD2 got sick this weekend, so Covid tests for all tomorrow! Rest of the family is ok but has seasonal allergies so we can go about our lives. She’s doing better this morning and DD1 finally starts Senior Kindergarten and was so excited!

I’m just waiting to hear back from school and daycare and everywhere about what the protocols are for siblings. There’s all kids of contractions and it’s very confusing. I need a flow chart not vague statements. So frustrating and this is just the first week of school so I’m not looking forward to the rest of the year.

[danvers]

August Blooms have you heard anything about the covid test? We go through the same things with every single one of us before school and daycare on a regular basis. Sniffles? Upset tummy? Random dry cough? We haven’t gotten and tests yet though trust if we had two or more symptoms or a fever we would be careful. It’s just so hard to know with littles! I hope for minimal sickness and a speedy recovery for your DD2!