Saying goodbye to Auntie K

At the risk of getting political...or sharing, like, my immediate lived experience and point of view on a personal mommy blog with low readership...

My sister's visit did have to end at some point...apparently...and it did on Saturday evening.

Research across the aisle indicated that while my sister had ample free time while she was between positions, she did have to return home in time to honour the contracted "start date" of her new position. 

Miraculously, Phoebe agreed to sit on Auntie K's lap for a picture prior to going to bed. Sources say this sudden display of affection could have been bought with the gift of a Bluey blanket. There is photographic evidence of the alleged gift, and our gift unit is still investigating this exchange to determine whether or not it violates our household emoluments clause.

I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?

The news is always bad, but the last few days have felt overwhelming.

• A gunman (claimed by Hamas) killed 6 at a bus stop in Jerusalem.
• Netanyahu pledged retaliation against Gaza for this because...whatever else has happened in Gaza should not be considered retaliatory enough as it is?? Or because Gaza isn't suppose to retaliate?? Or some other reasoning I don't understand... I mean, they also killed the shooter, so...I dunno.
• Also Israel bombed a residential area in Doha, targeting—and killing—5 Hamas leaders, and 1 security guard (so, like, wasn't that retaliation?...I guess I don't understand the word very well).
• Russia continues to bomb Ukraine, the bullies.
• Russia also has sent drones into Polish airspace, setting a large portion of Europe on edge. 
• NEPAL, friends. What? They overthrew their government, burnt down their parliament building. Props—you do you, boo. But then they also, like, burned the ex-first lady alive and did a bunch of super violent stuff? Less cool—exceedingly uncool.
• There was a school shooting in Colorado. Nice. Neat. Great. Seems we can't get enough of those. Hope and prayers. Pop some popcorn. 

Little and Big Kids

A picture of Miriam lives on our fridge. She's four years old, pigtails flying, bandaid on one knee, pink helmet on head, lugging her bike behind her. In this picture she is the most darling four-year-old in the whole entire world. 

*****

Today Phoebe was wearing the same helmet (which is now 12 years old...which is old for a helmet), which she calls her unicorn helmet because back in 2014 I used the helmet to create a unicorn costume for our neighbourhood 4th of July parade, which I honestly did not realize would be 100% patriotically themed. 

Long Hunter State Park

During quiet time/nap time one afternoon, Auntie K took us to Long Hunter State Park so we could do the Storybook Trail. We got off to a bit of a rocky start because we made it to the visitor's center just as it closed for lunch—and they were very serious about closing for their lunch break. We could see them all in there...and they could see us...but there was no way they were going to ask us if we needed help with anything. 

The bathrooms were locked from the outside, only accessible through the main entrance (which was locked). We had a map, but weren't quite sure what we were looking for because the Storybook Trail wasn't on the map. 

So we had our lunch and waited for the doors to open. 

An Amazon delivery person came by with some packages and they opened the door for them and while the door was open I passive-aggressively made a remark about how I couldn't wait for the next five minutes to be up so that we could finally take our toddler to the bathroom...

And the lady working inside must have heard me because after the five minutes were up and she finally unlocked the door for us, I took Phoebe to the bathroom and the lady made a point of finding Kelli to tell her that the bathroom doors were open, should we have needed to go. 

They weren't. 

But that's okay. We went potty and figured out where to go (kind of). When we got to the right parking lot we just had to find the "hidden" trailhead for the Storybook Trail. It, again, wasn't on any of the park maps. But we were pretty intimidated by the bulletin board, so perhaps we didn't look closely enough...

Motherscholaring

The kids and I all have come down with a cold. 

Luckily, that's all it seems to be...because the past few times we've been sick have been...mighty uncomfortable. This really seems mostly to just be the sniffles.

Still, I had to film a ten minute presentation this evening...on motherscholars...and was sniffling all the way through it (poor everybody who has to listen to my *sniff* presentation *sniff*). 

No sooner had I finished filming...at midnight...when Phoebe ran into the hallway crying, her Chummie alarm blaring. She really doesn't like that thing, which is good because when it goes off she typically wakes up pretty fast (she's only slept through it a couple of times), which means she typically stops peeing to...run into the hallway screaming for help. 

And...I couldn't think of anything more motherscholarly than filming a presentation while sick (probably from kids with no boundaries either sneezing in my face or stealing a drink from my water bottle) at midnight (because that's a good quiet time for that activity in this house) and very nearly having it interrupted by a child needing help going potty.

*****

Side story: last night she was having a hard time falling asleep and staying asleep (because of the sniffles, probably). She woke up around midnight and I helped her go potty and get back to bed. And after she had been in bed for a while, her Chummie went off. 

"Shhhh, shhhh, Chummie-buddy!" she said soothingly, groggily patting her Chummie. "I'm just sweaty. I'm not peeing. You can be quiet!"

Had she been asleep when it went off, she would have been in the hallways screaming in a flash, but since she was only in the act of falling asleep...she tried to soothe it into silence. 

It didn't work.

Instead we got up and changed into some cooler pyjamas.

At Rosie's House

One of the best parts about Rosie's house (according to the little kids, at least) is that it is brand new, so brand new that the rest of the neighbourhood is still being put up right in Rosie's backyard!

Why nobody lives here?

Miriam found Cannonsburgh Village while she was researching things to do around Murfreesboro. It has historical buildings that have been moved to the site or replicas of historical buildings (often made of reclaimed materials so they look as if they're from the time period). 

Here are the kids working on some of the "backpack program" materials...

Ruby Falls with Auntie K

Zoë writes: 

My favourite part of Ruby Falls was finally getting to the falls. The falls were beautiful, even more so because of the lights and music put on.

Beautiful Butterflies at Cannonsburgh Village

This morning we took the kids to Cannonsburgh Village, a little tour through history constructed to celebrate the 200th Independence Day back in 1976. It was a pretty neat place to visit, I think! They had all sorts of buildings—a telephone operator's house, a school, a chapel, a blacksmith shop, a mill, and more. They had live chickens. They had checkerboards. They had about a million organs (just about every building had an organ in it, I think). 

For right now, I thought I'd share pictures of the kids by this butterfly wing backdrop:

 

Zoë holding Oaklyn

To Tennessee with Auntie K: In which we explore many playgrounds

While Auntie K is here she wants to take each of the kids on an individual outing. She tried to give Rachel the gift of a mani-pedi when she was out here last time, but Rachel flat-out refused to entertain the thought of allowing a complete stranger to touch her feet. Miriam similarly declined the invitation this trip. But Zoë...is a horse of a different colour. She was quite excited at the prospect of having her nails done. She loved sitting in the massage chairs and being pampered—they even gave her an ice cream cone! 

She came home with lovely sparkly green nails...and a new outfit as well! Auntie K took her on a little shopping spree (and she had the time of her life). They also saw a cute little ghost dress while they were out and picked it up for Phoebe (who won't be going on an individual outing because she's...fussy...but who is very much picking up on the Halloween spirit (something Auntie K also appreciates)). 

Here are those three girls in their new outfits on Sunday (Auntie K found a dress for herself as well):