Super Positive (with COVID, that is)

On this, the 825th day of quasi-isolation, yea, on the very same eve the FDA gave their approval for a vaccine for children under the age of five, Rachel tested positive for COVID. 

Right now I'm mostly resigned, but initially I was so livid I was shaking.

Livid because we have done virtually nothing for such a long period of time, only to have to battle this virus now. Livid because I could have—and may as well have—blown our safety on something frivolous, like Disney World, or a trip out to Utah, or whatever. Livid because I wasn't ready to go back to church. In fact, have not "gone back" to church because mostly I feel that it isn't anyone's business to decide beans about my worthiness or devotion or whatever and I can just do what I want. But still livid because of all the pressure we've felt to return.

Livid for every "We encourage each of you to attend in person..."

Phoebe at 7 months

Phoebe is seven months old, which—if we're rounding (and we did a lot of rounding today since that's what Benjamin's working on in math right now) is a year old! She's 58.3% of a year old. That's past the halfway point! I can't believe how fast her babyhood is flying!

She, of course, is determined to grow up. It seems babies just come that way. 

She's inching around on her belly, pretty much anywhere she wants to go. She can get out of her bed on her own (she's on a floor bed rather than in a crib) and followed me into the bathroom the other day. 

We are the proud new owners of a baby gate, which we smartly installed at the top of the stairs.

Here she is showing off her little army crawl:

Phoebe the door guardian (and brothers with swords)

We had our first day of school today, which went well. Phoebe took a nap while I met with my poetry writing group. And then we went to the pool for a few hours to kind of cool down and kind of feel like we were ingredients in a batch of human soup. It's hot and humid out, that's for sure! Phoebe refused to nap at the pool, which is actually somewhat unusual for her. She was pretty grumpy when we got home, but still refused to nap, so we went outside to play. 

She enjoyed sitting quietly outside with me, but was (grumpily) thrilled when her siblings came out to play (because she's convinced they exist to entertain her at her pleasure). The boys were practicing their swordsmanship and Zoë settled on the grass beside me to read. 

Here she is posing stoically for me, looking pretty to mark seven months:

Benjamin's birthday balloons

Just as we spread the celebration of Benjamin's birthday over a few days (due to shipping times on some presents), so too have I spread out my blogging of his birthday. But Andrew is tidying up the dining room and wanted to take down the birthday sign because we wouldn't be needing it until "the end of July."

"Uhhhh..." I said. 

"Uhhhh..." he said. "Oh, yeah! Your birthday!"

My birthday is also in June. But that's fine. We can put the birthday sign up again. 

At any rate, I'm ready to transcribe Benjamin's birthday balloons. 

Alexander made a valiant effort and wrote:

BEn THE EXTrEmE GOOd A VbEO GMS LEGO

1000 words (or something)

Here are a few pictures of us hanging out in the yard last night..

No time for shoes!!!

This morning the children helped me clean the garage, something that was long overdue. Rachel also mowed the lawn, something that was also long overdue. And then we headed to the pool to cool off. 

After a couple of hours I noticed some clouds congregating in the sky. Frothing and billowing on the horizon, they seemed hesitant to break up our fun. I was, likewise, hesitant to call it a day and figured I nurse Phoebe (because that's what she wanted to do) before calling the kids out to head home. But then the sky stopped prevaricating and pounced with unexpected ferocity.

One clap of thunder and the ever-diligent lifeguard blew his whistle to clear the pool. 

No one needed to be told twice. 

The wind—gusting at 40–50 mph, according to the weather statement—did its best to hurry us along. 

The shade umbrellas yelped and started leaping off the tables and over the fences. A few "big boys" let themselves out of the pool enclosure to chase down the stampeding umbrellas while more docile pool-goers (us) scrambled to crank closed any ones we were near. 

A few sun-loungers and patio chairs executed less-than-graceful swan dives into the pool while several tables practiced their back-handsprings on the deck. 

"Help me gather our things!" I commanded everyone. 

Caos e complimenti

Until it came time to get on our jammies, today was the polar opposite of yesterday. 

When it was time to get on our jammies, Alexander needed help unbuttoning his shirt, so Andrew called to him to come down the stairs for some help. Alexander had lifted his shirt up over his head (bottom up, so his belly was exposed and his head was covered because the button by his neck was still done up) but decided to make his way down the stairs anyway. 

When he was about three-quarters of the way down the stairs he peeked out at Andrew and then—just as Andrew said, "Alexander, that's a really dumb way to come down the stairs..."—launched himself at down the stairs full of hope that Andrew would catch him. 

Andrew did, more or less. By the time Alexander reached a decent-but-still-make-sure-your-catcher-is-ready spot to jump from, he was already upside down. Andrew managed to prevent him from landing completely on his head and then they tumbled down the rest of the way together, landing on a heap at the bottom of the stairs and exacerbating Andrew's surgery site. 

Because—fun story—Andrew had surgery last week.

Ben is ten!

It's hard to believe Benjamin has reached the double digits, the big one-oh, an entire decade.

Ideal Advice

Sometimes advice meted out is so obvious that it's useless.

For example, every evening at the beach house while I would read to and/or feed the littles before putting them to bed, Grandpa and Andrew spent time teaching Rachel and Miriam the game of "Hearts." Once I was finished putting children down and they had finished their round of "Hearts," we'd move on to "Hand and Foot" since "Hearts" is only a four-player game and I make five players.

Frequently I would end up watching them finish their games. 

One particular night, Andrew was coaching one of the girls on their winning strategy and he said, "Okay, on this round, ideally, you want to either get no points or shoot the moon."

This made us laugh because—indeed—those are the two best options. 

*****

Phoebe at 6 months

Phoebe had her 6 month well-child check today, where it was pronounced that she's doing well. She's gained 3 lbs. since her last visit!! She's now 17 lbs. 8 oz, which is about how much Rachel weighed at her 6 month check up. For some reason Phoebe feels ginormous, but she's not really. Here's where she fits in amongst her siblings:

Rachel: 17 lbs. 8 oz.
Miriam: 16 lbs. even
Benjamin: 14 lbs. 13 oz.
Zoë: 16 lbs 13.8 oz
Alexander: 17 lbs. 1 oz.
Phoebe: 17 lbs. 8 oz.

Phoebe quite enjoys eating. She's currently eating the information sheets for the vaccines that she just got—that the clinic simply expected that she would get. And I'm all for that. No one needs (checks chewed up notes) polio, tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis, Haemophilus influenzae type B, or pneumococcal diseases! I just wish that if we're being forced to "live with" COVID in this "new normal" (or is it that we've gone "back to normal"?) that the COVID vaccine would be as easy to get. But our pediatrician's office is no longer carrying it so we have to go to the Covid Vaccine Store (the CVS). 

Anyway, Phoebe is happy and healthy and nothing exciting really happened at her visit. 

She's a baby who enjoys her sleep, so as we approached her two-hour window of being awake and found ourselves still waiting for the nurse to come in with her green plastic tray of needles (and oral drops), Phoebe fell asleep, despite my best efforts tp keep her awake a little while longer. 

It was a pretty rude awakening to be roused for that! 

The nurse decided to do the drops first and Phoebe wasn't quite awake when she was offered the tube. Having fallen asleep without nursing (though not for lack of trying to convince me to nurse her), she was rather eager to suck anything that entered her mouth...but her eyes flew open with suspicion when she realized it was a vial being put in her mouth rather than warm, yummy milk. Still, the contents of the vial were evidently not vile because she greedily slurped her vaccine down without spilling a drop.

She was less enthusiastic about the needles. 

But she survived (most children do) and took a three-hour stress nap this afternoon (punctuated by a couple of brief nursing sessions). 

Let's see. She was 26 inches tall and her head is 16.63 inches around. She's growing well and meeting all her milestones so...we'll just keep keeping on.