Tag Archives: Maggie

A Bit of Culture

We spent a fabulous day exploring the Hirshhorn Museum on the National Mall. We were wowed by sculptures by Simone Leigh, Yayoi Kusama, and Rodin. We also explored other worlds through an exhibit of contemporary Chinese photography, Laurie Anderson’s “Four Talks,” Mark Bradford’s 400-foot long “Picket’s Charge,” and John Akomfrah’s “Purple.” And food trucks. Obviously.

Oliver Flies Up!

Today was Oliver’s “Fly-up” ceremony where he transitions from Children’s House into the elementary school. In Montessori terms, he’s not only moving into a new classroom next year (as a first grader), but he is moving into another developmental stage (or “plane of development”). Here’s how his teacher described it in a recent email:

Fly-up is a celebration to mark the passing from one plane of development to the next. You probably already see signs of your second plane child: abstract thinking, reasoning mind, strong sense of what is just and fair, strong inclination to be with and work alongside peers. The fly-up ceremony is a visual representation of this internal growth. 

At the celebration, each child will run down the hallway from the Children’s House wing, out the door and into the elementary courtyard where they are greeted by the elementary children, teachers and parents.

In honor of the occasion, Oliver decided to wear a festive fancy shirt and a top hat from our costume closet. He looks pretty dashing! (Maggie dressed up for the occasion, too.)

A Doozy of a Valentine’s Day

Tuesday, February 14, began like many other Valentine’s days at the Stocco-Roy household. The table was set with a surprise for the kids. Andrew got up early to make strawberry shortcake.

Griffin awoke and was frustrated that a lingering cold seemed to be getting significantly worse. He was tired and stuffy. We had him do a COVID test just out of habit. Meanwhile, we were all enjoying ourselves.

Valentine’s Day surprises (and Griffin taking a COVID test)

Laughter turned to shock when Griffin’s test came up positive. Panic! Everyone else takes tests. Maggie is positive too. What? How can this be?

First COVID in our house since waaaay back in November of 2020 when Oliver tested positive. That time was far scarier, of course, because it was pre-vaccine and we thought we would all catch it from him and it wasn’t clear how bad it might be. Now, even though COVID is rather hum-drum in the world around us, it was still surprisingly upsetting. No school for the two of them. Testing every day for the rest of us. Worries about sub plans and school.

Most importantly, we had a wild weekend planned for Presidents Day: three nights at a cabin in northern Minnesota, skiing, a sauna with potential icy dip in the lake, and a dog-sledding adventure (Sandy and Stape’s awesome Christmas gift to the family).

At first we duped ourselves into thinking that we could still go as long as the rest of us avoided the COVID. Griffin and Maggie would have to stay masked, but we could avoid others until Sunday when they would be in the clear. The dog sledding was on Monday, so everything would be fine. We had the kids packing on Thursday and were getting ready to load the car on Friday when Sarah realized that she wasn’t feeling well. COVID test was negative, but she was worried.

We sat down to think it through. Instead of focusing on how to preserve our plans, we considered how we would feel if someone else showed up at Du Nord (the place with the cabins) with active COVID cases in their family. We would think they were jerks for putting the rest of the community at risk. Sigh. So, we did the right thing and cancelled the trip. (Darn golden rule…)

This turned out to be a good thing. No further COVID cases that we’ve yet detected, but Sarah definitely had a stomach bug (not fun) and Griffin’s recovery has been slow. We managed to make it feel like a staycation, complete with the kids cooking a surprise feast for us on Friday night. The menu: fresh French fries appetizer (from scratch, hot oil and everything!), pasta with fancy sauce, fresh squeezed orange/mango juice, and butterscotch blondies for dessert. There was an intention to make a salad too, but somehow they forgot that bit.

This set a great tone for the weekend, where we chilled out, played lots of games, watched some movies, and managed to do some epic cleaning of the house.

Table set for the kids’ fancy feast.
The aftermath. Yikes.

Amazing Race

I think I may have the perfect example ever of how parenting is so freaking hard with 3 different ages:

I just got all three of my kids to get ready for an outdoor adventure by pretending I was Phil from the Amazing Race, and the winner of getting totally ready (outdoor clothes, snack, water bottle, sunglasses) would get a $5 snack of their choice purchased at a snack bar. AND GO!

This resulted in oldest child minding his own business and doing the assignment, middle and youngest trying to hurt each other and keep the other from finishing, which resulted in tears and fury. Two out of three children in tears, oldest proclaiming: “THAT WAS SO FUN! WE NEED TO DO THIS MORE OFTEN!” and youngest two arguing about who should have won and gotten “penalties” for being mean and/or already partially ready. OMG.

BUT: all three children are ready, and EVERYONE WINS! THIS IS A NON-ELIMINATION ROUND AND EVERYONE GETS A $5 SNACK!

I cannot stop laughing at myself.