It is not to be sneezed at that both children easily opted for showers of their own volition last Sunday when we returned from our week away. Sarah used to resist showers at all costs, but somehow over the past year she shifted into (mostly) easily taking showers at home. She still won’t shower elsewhere, but that is ok. She also shifted from morning showers to taking afternoon showers, which is what we need for the upcoming school year. I’m expecting that she will have to wake at 5:45 to be ready for the bus in time, if it is as early as it was in past non-pandemic years.
This past week was Camp Anna. For Nice-to-Meet-You-Monday they made t-shirts with custom-made prints and then tie-dyed the shirts. They also traced each other outside with sidewalk chalk and then filled in the outlines. They made macarons for the Musical Note Gala day and made tents for House day. For the tents the girls even sawed the lumber themselves, with supervision and help. On Big Cat and Baby Panda day they went to the zoo and the pool. Friday was Hearts and Superstars as a theme. It was a packed and wonderful week, as always when Anna runs a camp. I’m already feeling sad about the summer ending and school starting. It has been such a tremendous year having Anna here almost daily. It is hard to think about that shifting to only occasional babysitting times as school life returns to some semblance of normal. I guess I can just focus on what an amazing thing it is to have had such a richly wonderful pandemic experience.
Sarah has started wearing her fleecy winter boots, delighting in the concept of being so silly as to wear boots in the summer. She also enjoys pretending to be Daddy Pig from a Peppa the Pig episode. Her favorite moment is when he tries to mow the overgrown lawn with an old, rusty lawn mower that breaks spectacularly when he pushes it into the tall grass. She and Amy play together with copying Daddy Pig, pretending to push mowers while saying, “Trying… trying…trying… BOING!” The boing is when the mower breaks. Given the moments of intense fighting that can occur between Amy and Sarah, it always warms my heart when they are playing harmoniously and joyfully together.
Last night we were going to watch a movie, but there was much fighting at the outset. Amy wanted to have the remote to get the volume at a good level so they could hear the movie. Sarah really wanted to put the remote back in the holder, as she always does. In my mind this defeats the purpose of it being a remote, if you still have to get up and walk across the room to make a change, but it is how she wants it. I was fixing dinner so wasn’t aware of the problem until it reached top scream volume, with both wrestling for the remote. I don’t know who spoke through me to order them both to their rooms for 5 minutes to cool off, but that is what I yelled (yelling so I could be heard). It worked. Five minutes later, they started harmoniously watching the movie and all was well until Sarah wanted to help me in the kitchen but didn’t follow my requests as to what not to do. I get fairly anxious about such things because I’m concerned about safety, and Sarah goes from zero to sixty on her upset scale instantly and that makes everything worse. So then she had a few minutes of slamming the bathroom door repeatedly before calming and joining us for the movie. We watched “Enchanted” and it is now one of Amy’s favorite movies. Sarah left half-way through to go listen to Adele songs in the family room, which is one of her favorite things to do daily.
This week when I’ve been giving massages I’ve been more aware of keeping the integrity and support of my back as I work, refusing to compromise for the sake of whatever I think I need to do to get results. It has been a good reminder that taking care of my own self is actually the way to do my best work. I felt like I could find the key spots for people more effectively. I could see better what needed to happen, seeing things that I somehow missed in years or months of working with certain people. My epiphany is that possibly I could have the same attitude toward parenting, refusing to compromise my support and ease. I don’t know how this will work, but for the most part yesterday I did feel more easily solid in my parenting, even when I sent them to their rooms.
Yesterday Carl rode his mountain bike in a race in honor of his friend who passed away. The race was not one that Carl had been planning on, but he was able to sign up and even to have both his number and his friend’s number. He also got a Sunkist orange soda to have after the race, since that was his friend’s favorite drink. The race was 75 miles on a ridge in central PA. Unfortunately after mile 24 his bike lost the ability to shift gears. It is a mystery as to why, and the way the bike is built makes it so he can’t just pull off to the side and tinker with it. He persevered. He is my hero and I get teary every time I think about this tremendous commitment of love for his friend. I was teary just at the thought of him doing the race to begin with, but to persevere with a partially non-functional bike is even more poignant.
May you feel the easy support of your whole beautiful back.
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