1.23.21 - Sweet evening with the kids while Jack is out of town

(Pre-evening kid snippets)

Jane asked to play "Text Me Merry Christmas." I did but I know Clara doesn't like it when we play holiday songs outside of their seasons. Sure enough Clara came up to me and very quietly asked if we could play a January song. I searched the word "January" on Spotify and found "January Wedding" by the Avett Brothers. It's a very laid-back, sweet sounding song. Clara started slowly dancing to it in the living room. When the singer actually sang the word "January," Clara turned to me with a huge open mouth grin.

Jane was sitting on the top bunk holding a long stick and pretending it's a gun. She kept saying "Pew pew!" as a sound effect but also as a verb, as in "I pewed the kitty!" when she pretended to shoot her stuffed cat. She narrated her pretend play to herself, and I was trying not to laugh so I wouldn't distract her. I heard "Yeah now he's dying! Because! I'm a super hero. To the rescue! ... Just kidding he's fine. Pew! I pew the wall!"

(And the evening)

Out of boredom, I rotated the coffee table 90 degrees parallel to the green chair, thinking the kids would get excited about the larger space. Actually it was the minimal space between the table and the chair that caught their attention. Clara wanted to treat the space like a tunnel for a toy train to go through, whereas Calvin just wanted to squeeze into the space and sit there (thus blocking Clara's tunnel). 

In an attempt to distract Calvin, I spread a full size blue blanket over the living room floor, put an empty egg carton on it, and started filling the carton with the Toy Story 4 figurines, saying it was a boat on the ocean. This distraction was way more interesting to Clara, who started playing with the "ocean." Jane joined her. They played happily while Calvin sat in his cozy spot and watched the, occasionally crawling through one of the spaces in the coffee table to stick his head out and shout at them. They all continued to stay busy without fighting while I made dinner.

While I cooked spaghetti, I blended the sauce with a can each of green beans and corn. It still looked reddish, and smooth enough that it wasn't too obvious. When the food was ready, I asked Clara to put three forks and three paper towels on the table. She got really excited about it! (We clearly don't eat meals together very often.) She asked me if she could also get us drinks (yes) and spoons and more forks (no). We moved Calvin's high chair to the table, and I brought their plates of spaghetti. 

I don't know if Clara was hungry because she ate little lunch or if she was just excited to participate in a discrete family meal or both, but she ate all her spaghetti quickly and easily. She asked me if there were meatballs in it. When I said no, she informed me that this is regular spaghetti and real spaghetti has meat balls. At one point I got up to get something for one of the others, and Clara told me that when I'm not eating I need to place my fork next to my plate neatly, not leave it on my plate. She also wanted me to politely wipe off my mouth with a paper towel at the same time as she did. 

Calvin and Jane also finished their dinner pretty easily, so I gave everone miniature Tootsie pops. Clara wanted me to watch as she and Jane "cheers" each other, i.e. gently knocked their Tootsie pops together and said cheers.

After everyone finished their Tootsie pops, we had a bath. Jane was very eager to help rinse soap off everyone else. Clara was happy to let her (Calvin was ambivalent). At one point Jane dumped a cup of water right over Calvin's head, and he didn't freak out. He just kind of squinted and waited for me to offer a towel. (Small example of how the younger children grow up learning to be more flexible.) They started splashing and getting really silly until they were laughing at everything each other was doing. I didn't really want them to soak the bathroom but I also don't like to disrupt them if they are all really enjoying each other's company. They splash each other and say a bunch of gibberish and laugh and laugh (just now as I type this Clara told me to say "blue be binky macka bah bah boo" for example).

As is often the case right now, Calvin was done first. I got him dressed and set him up with some ABC videos while the girls enjoyed really splashing now that the shower curtain was closed. Not long after Jane, then Clara, followed. As I started typing up this post, the three of them were peacefully watching ABC videos together, and for a moment I watched them and thought about how deeply happy I am that they are growing up together, and we're forming a tiny tight knit community.