Swelling, Schooling, and...sledding?

Here is Miriam on Monday when I woke her up from her post-extraction nap so she could take some pain medication and drink some water and things like that:

And here she is this morning:

She is straight up not having a good time and is so swollen. But she did go to her organ/piano lesson, as well as to mutual, and she plans on attending seminary tomorrow morning. And she's eating more and I really think her recovery is going...okay...so far.

*****

Yesterday morning when I woke up Phoebe was still sleeping in her bed. Zoë came into my room while I was getting ready for the day and showed me a bowl she'd made out of clay that morning. 

"How'd you sleep?" she asked.

"Pretty well!" I said. "Phoebe slept in her own bed!"

"Yeah," she said. "She climbed up into my bed a 4:00 in the morning and asked me to tuck her in, so I did. And then she had some trouble falling back asleep so I read her some stories until she did."

"Wow! Thank you for doing that!"

"It was no problem!" Zoë said. 

I think, secretly, she was delighted. She's been hounding Phoebe to do that for months now and Phoebe finally did it! What good is sharing a room if your roommate ignores the fact that you exist, right? Zoë felt very responsible—and she did behave very responsibly.

And I appreciated not having to get up with Phoebe in the middle of the night. 

I went downstairs and I saw that Zoë had made herself a checklist on the whiteboard.

"Wow!" I said. "You've already done math and Duolingo and..."

I mean...made some pottery...so there was that, too, among other activities.

"Yeah," she said sheepishly. "So...I kind of...just...didn't go back to bed after Phoebe woke me up."

"That explains your productivity..." I mused.

Seriously—that girl accomplished a lot yesterday morning!

*****

This morning Phoebe—and her emotional support pumpkin—woke up in our bed.

I honestly didn't even get to see her yesterday because she was busy sleeping in when I left (due to her middle-of-the-night interlude with Zoë—the full truth of it is that they held a two-hour story time when Phoebe had gotten up), so she was particularly happy and snuggly to see me this morning.

Here she is inviting me to come sit on the chair in my room to...read some stories...together in the morning sunshine (she enjoys stories).

It was a co-op day today and I'm not teaching this semester, which means my kids are off learning Latin and gardening and music appreciation and STEM stuff while I try to get some of my reading and writing out of the way. Phoebe hangs out with me.

And, let me tell you, her idea of pure bliss is being locked in a room alone with Mommy for two hours. In fact, she would be happy if it were to last longer than two hours. She whined when I told her it was time to clean up so we could find the boys (the big girls don't come and Andrew picks Zoë up a little bit early to get her to her music lessons on time), "Can't we stay a little bit longer?!"

Today I only remembered one toy for her (this "mushroom nail puzzle"—I don't know what it's called but if you search for "mushroom nail puzzle" you find things that kind of look like it). And I only remembered that because it was in the trunk. Luckily, one of my fellow co-op moms brought a little set of Harry Potter action figures she was giving away (which I'd mentioned my kids would enjoy), so Phoebe got to play with those, too. Other than that, she set up little obstacle courses for herself using the chairs (she loves jumping from chair to chair, which I'm sure is a perfectly safe game to play...not that a little boy at co-op didn't break his arm today...oh, wait...a little boy did break his arm at co-op today...but not because he was leaping from chair to chair)!

I think she just loves not having to really compete for my attention. Although I'm trying to get my readings done, she gets to be close by and I'm very available to watch and to praise and to snuggle up against. And she just loves it.

And I don't mind it either. 

It's not very often that she's alone at home with me...like she would be if her siblings went to school-school.

Speaking of school! If they were going to school they'd be in a clear backpack pilot program! To keep kids safe from gun violence—because if we know what's in their backpacks they can't shoot anyone. Of course, they're still allowed to carry instrument cases. And are allowed a handbag that is not clear. I don't know much about guns...but I'm just not positive this is the solution we're looking for (though I also think that as far as solutions go, it's a relatively harmless attempt at one). 

I just don't understand how we can market bullet-proof backpacks (to keep kids safe from gun violence) and clear backpacks (to keep kids safe from gun violence). 

Maybe backpacks aren't the solution. 

Maybe we should look at the guns because backpacks don't kill people...guns kill people.

We could also look at the people (because it can be argued that guns don't kill people...people kill people). We could look at whether they're stressed or overworked or...you know...whether they're just okay. I dunno...

It's obviously a complex problem that will have a complex (and multipart) solution. I'm glad they're trying something and thought it was interesting that my kids would have been involved in the pilot program had they been enrolled in our assigned public schools (at least Alexander, Zoë, and Benjamin). I'll have to ask the neighbours how it is!

*****

Speaking of school some more—there's a winter storm coming! It's supposed to hit us on Friday and it's terribly exciting! We're supposed to get multiple inches of snow! Already school districts are announcing that they'll be closed on Friday (like, it's Wednesday! And they're announcing they'll be closed on Friday for this storm)!

We dug out our winter gear this afternoon to see what fit whom, because we haven't really used it since 2022. The four youngest kids are pretty well outfitted (Zoë not pictured because she was at piano lessons):

I only have one pair of snow pants to go between me, Miriam, and Rachel, so we'll have to battle for them on Friday morning...