One of Griffin’s birthday presents was a sushi-making kit. The crowd was unanimous: we must make sushi immediately. Andrew went out to pick up some fresh salmon and tuna while the rest of the family made the rice and prepped the vegetables. The results were delicious!
“I haven’t finished it yet, but it’s like my mind is connected to the bead bars. I Just know what’s going to come next.”
Oliver’s wonderful Kindergarten teacher, Molly, sent us this picture and quote. The “bead bars” represent numbers (by the number of color-coded beads on each bar) and can be used to explore a lot of mathematical operations (including addition and multiplication). It’s amazing to see how these manipulatives give kids real confidence around number manipulation. Oliver regularly stops me from solving math problems so that he can do them himself.
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.
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!
We flew to Bethesda to visit my parents for about a week around Christmas. A major blizzard and arctic chill was kicking off on the day we left, so we were lucky to make it with only a moderate delay. It was cold in the DC area too, but not nearly as bad as places further north. It was a fun trip, overlapping for a few days with Dave, Nancy, Raven, and Max.
After a whirlwind of post-Thanksgiving school, we’re all on break again for the winter holidays. Griffin is at an all-day D&D game with some friends. Maggie and Oliver, meanwhile, are building an epic from-scratch gingerbread house with Sarah.
D&D at Zack’s house.Gingerbread workshop.
Update: See below for a few pictures of the construction process and final product.
Oliver has been working on learning countries around the world. This week he completed a map of Europe. He hasn’t labeled everything yet, but I love the creative spellings (Itle = Italy; youkran = Ukraine, etc.).
