Tag Archives: Maggie

Andrew, Maggie, Oliver, Photo, Piper

Progress

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Grandma Pam spent the day with us in the new house today. She was a godsend, bringing us some delicious food, helping to unpack boxes in the kitchen, and spending hours rehabilitating our mangy couch.

This might not look like much, but the back of the couch previously featured a large original art piece by Oliver (“Untitled,” Sharpie on Upholstery).
Ok, it’s a work-in-progress, but you can walk to the door now. (You can slide the slider back and forth between yesterday’s picture and today’s.)
We’re spending more time than expected on the front porch; it’s lovely in the morning and evening. (Alas, the green couch in the background doesn’t fit where we were hoping it would go.)
Ice cream brings the smiles.
The water table wasn’t a one-time thing. Piper generally hops up into it anytime I play ball with her and she gets hot.

Maggie is getting rather clever. Conversation this evening, starting with my question:

“Should we go exploring after dinner?”
“No!”
“We can walk down the sidewalk and see where it goes. There are some trails in the park up there.”
“That sounds long.”
“Not too long!”
“What about ticks?”
“The ticks won’t get us.”
“Hmm. But don’t you think mama would want to be with us for our very first hike at the new house? I think we should wait until she gets back on Friday.”

Andrew, Maggie, Oliver, Photo, Piper

Buried in Boxes

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Our first full day in the new house was focused on our movers. They unloaded our 13 crates of stuff and hauled away a moldy piano left by the previous owner. Our spacious, spartan new home has become a cardboard labyrinth. It’s a bit overwhelming.

In the midst of the moving chaos, I found many moments of joy today playing with Piper and the kids in the back yard.

Sunrise over the house.
Enjoying the piles emerging from the truck.
The garage begins to overflow.
Piper doesn’t know what to make of everything.
Somehow we will find a place for everything.
Grandma Pam’s stupendous pasties for dinner.
We began decorating while Sarah is out of town. 😋
After some awesome sprinting, Piper decided to curl up in the water table, happy as can be.
Andrew, Maggie, Oliver, Photo, Piper

First Day Update

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As posted previously, we received the keys and moved into the new house this morning. In short order, Sarah headed up north for her new job. She’ll be back on Friday, returning with Griffin. Until then, Oliver, Maggie, Piper, and I will hold down the fort.

Despite the many tasks we needed to tackle today, we had a lot of fun in the new place. My favorite part was throwing the ball with Piper in the back yard. She loved that she could sprint!

Maggie and Oliver, I suspect, had their best time when our friends came over and they played some epic games of hide-and-seek.

A few more first day pics below.

Andrew, Griffin, Maggie, Oliver, Photo, Piper, Sarah

April Updates

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Life was a whirlwind in April with spring break, the long-awaited start of in-person school for Griffin and Maggie, three birthdays (plus Piper’s), a cabin visit, and much that I’m forgetting. Lacking the time to write everything up in detail, here’s a selection of photos to remind us of these many events.

Bonus! Two videos.

Oliver practicing on his balance bike.

Piper leaping into the very cold lake.
Andrew

Beetling Crags

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A highly unusual event occurred last night while reading Treasure Island aloud with Griffin and Maggie. We came across this passage:

Among the fallen rocks the breakers spouted and bellowed; loud reverberations, heavy sprays flying and falling, succeeded one another from second to second; and I saw myself, if I ventured nearer, dashed to death upon the rough shore or spending my strength in vain to scale the beetling crags.

Like many other passages, there were some words here that the kids didn’t know, but I was also perplexed by the adjective, beetling. We guessed from the context that it might mean steep or slippery or only climbable by beetles. I pulled out my phone and looked it up on my trusty Merriam-Webster app:

The example sentence is the very sentence we had read! We were all quite astonished by the coincidence.

Griffin, Maggie, Oliver, Photo

A Bit of Hope

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As mentioned in prior posts, Oliver was in preschool this year for a few months at the beginning of the year. Now he is back at an outdoor preschool for three mornings a week.

Griffin and Maggie, however, have been in full distance-learning since last March. They’re used to it now, but it has been a major blow. A normal day in their Montessori school would involve 6-7 hours of constant interaction. Working with classmates, moving around the classroom, attending mini-lessons from the teacher, playing at recess, lunch, the school bus, etc.

Now they’ve got Zoom meetings, independent work, and an occasional minecraft game with their friends. I’m not knocking the school; they’re doing a great job. But the social gulf between this year and last is enormous.

It is with joy, therefore, that we dove into a program at their school where individual classes come to campus once-a-week for a few hours of all-outdoor social time. Maggie had her first day yesterday and Griffin went in this morning. (We only have a picture of Griffin at this point.) Hopefully this is the first step on the long road to normalcy.

Griffin with his friends at school together for the first time in 11 months.