2.29.20 - Joy Statuses

2.24.20 - Kid snippets: Morning with the kids

This morning Clara is very open to doing what I ask as long as I call her Cogsworth. Jane is having a little bit of a rough morning but she's not making it any easier by refusing to speak English and choosing to only meow instead. Calvin is doing great. He is eating tons of fruit smoothie and just happily yelling at everybody from his high chair.

That night: everyone glad to have Dad back from a long weekend.

2.23.20 - Hanging out with Calvin at night

Today was the third day since Jack has been in San Francisco and it's getting a little bit difficult for everybody. Place is a mess and I had to repeat things to Clara a lot and I was getting really frustrated. But I got the girls down to bed and then I went and laid on my bed with Calvin sitting up against my side. And he kept slowly stretching back so that his head was resting on my tummy and looking at me and cooing over and over again. It was so adorable. I kept rubbing his fuzzy head and thinking about how some day he will be an ornery teenager and I'll remember nostalgically this little bundle of joy that I have. I cuddled him and kissed him a lot and thought about how much I love babies and whether we should have a fourth kid. It probably lasted about 10 or 15 minutes but I want to remember it because it was such a sweet bonding moment.

Pic taken earlier in the evening.

2.23.20 - Kid snippets: gluten free bath water

Clara and Jane are taking a bath. Jane keeps trying to use her cup to drink the bath water.

Me: Jane! Don't drink the water, it has soap in it!
Clara: But it's gluten-free!

Pic from the following day (2/24) - found these guys around the house

2.22.20 - Kid snippets: Clara as a footstool dog

We've been watching Beauty and the Beast a lot lately and Clara likes the footstool that's a dog. So the last couple mornings when she gets up she comes to the nursery door and says she is the little dog which means she gets down on the floor and covers herself in a blanket and crawls as fast as she can towards us. Really it looks like something out of The Ring or another horror movie. But she's trying.

And once again I have talk to texted this status and Clara has something to say: little dog crawls in I love to do crawl to the bed and so I could love tomorrow on Mama Jane Calvin.

Later the same day the kids watch Erin makea  countwown chain for Clara's birthday celebration.

2.20.20 - Kid snippets: Calvin's pacifier

Calvin keeps pulling his own pacifier out of his mouth, staring at it for a second, and then yelling at it.

Very interested in my water bottle.

2.17.20 - Kid snippets: Teddy bear goes to Starbucks

Clara strapped one of her teddy bears into Calvin's car seat and said she was going to Starbucks. She dragged the car seat across the living room to the couch and then announced that she was at Starbucks. Then she ordered a coffee with no cream (!!) and a hot chocolate for the baby bear whose name is "Mama."

Now she's listening to me talk-to-text this status and she wants to say something too so here it is: I go to say with Starbucks so we can go through there and so I can go if you say to Mama and so not Jane because Jane is listening to me with Mimi gpa so I can go in the house But I believe in you.

Jane & Clara take Baby Rose for a ride

2.15.20 - Starbucks Mama-Clara date

I've switched to working three 11 hour shifts Tues-Thurs at the lab, and so I hardly see the kids in the middle of the week. Even Friday to Monday I leave for hours at a time every day to get work done at Starbucks. I go to Starbucks so often that when Jane is pretending to leave she says "Goo'bye Mom! I go to Sawbucks!" Apparently they also think I'm at Starbucks on lab days when I'm gone before dawn and back in the evening.

Recently Clara has started asking me if she can come to Starbucks with me, but since she always asks moments before I'm leaving to get work done, I keep telling her no. She handles it well but I thought it would be nice to show her what this mysterious Starbucks looks like. Also it would just be nice to have some one-on-one time with her, considering even when I am home she doesn't get a lot of focused attention with the younger two needing more of it.

So yesterday I told her that after ABA therapy we could go to Starbucks, just her and me. She was very focused on what it means to go to Starbucks and "be a grown up." I put a few things in my purse (I rarely use a purse, usually taking my entire backpack) and she insisted on carrying it herself. As we were walking down the stairs in front of our apartment, some neighbors with young children were playing in the apartment parking lot. I've chatted briefly with one of the moms before, so I waved, and she said hi. Clara waved back and said "Hi!" then "We're going to Starbucks!" She repeated that two or three more times, and grinned to herself. Adorable.

After she got buckled in she asked me to keep the purse next to her too. When we got to Starbucks I read the name out loud to her. We got out of the car and then she need to put the purse back on and zip it up so she'd be all ready to go.

I wasn't really sure what I could order for her. I don't know how big of a problem cross contamination is for Starbucks drinks. Most of their ingredients for drinks are gluten free, but not all. Then again they should be steaming only different kinds of milk in their steamers, never anything else, so presumably the steamers are gluten free. Anyway, I asked the barista at the register and we talked awhile about what was celiac safe. He said his girlfriend is gluten intolerant but has successfully tried XYZ drinks without issue, so at least he understood what gluten is. I ended up ordering Clara a kids hot chocolate without whipped cream and a rice krispie treat. I just got a decaf Americano.

We sat in the far corner where a bench lines the wall in front of ~10 ft windows and then curves in front of a wall with a huge Starbucks mermaid painting. There were two other guys in that area studying, and Clara seemed hesitant at first to sit near them but got over it quickly. We sat at our table and I got out the "Eye Spy" Disney cards, which I sorted into movie scenes. Then we put them together one or two scenes at a time and talked about all the characters in the images and what was going on. Clara wanted to share her rice krispie with me, and later wanted me to try her drink, and each time after I tried something she'd look at me and smile and nod knowingly (and ask me to do the same).

She carefully examined our cups to see they both had the Starbucks logo on them, and she liked that the smaller one was for her ("because I'm small") and the larger one was for me. She wanted us to take drinks from our cups at the same time. I showed her how to tap the cups together and say "Cheers!" and she was really excited about that too.

It was just after twilight and she was really noticing all the things she could see outside (outdoor lighting, umbrellas for outdoor tables) but also, even more amazing, the reflections of everything inside, including the baristas ("All our friends!") and her and me and the mermaid painting. She examined reflections vs real objects in the window for a long time.

At one point she wanted to go sit by herself at a table in the center of the store. She said something about how she would be a grown up. There were hardly any people there anyway, so I told her to go ahead and I watched from a distance. She glanced at me a few times to see if I was watching her and then smiled. After maybe 90 seconds she came back to sit with me. One of the guys who had been studying had since left so she wanted us to take his table instead (even more secluded). Once we sat down there she spontaneously said "Mom, I love you." Best date ever?

After that she spent a lot of time scooting around on the long empty bench and trying to move the window blinds up and down without me noticing (failed at that). She also found a penny at one point and proudly showed it to the barista who was nearby sweeping. At first he didn't hear her so I told her to say "Excuse me sir!" and then he noticed. He told her it must be a lucky penny and she could keep it. I told her we could take it home and put it in our penny jar. She was curious what I meant because she never realized we had a penny jar (considering our coin jars are on top of the spice rack, and well above her normal field of view).

I spent a lot of time watching her, thinking about how big she's getting, how fast time is going, and how sweet she is.

When we wrapped up she put the purse on again and wore it in the car on the way home. The whole experience was awesome, and I hope Jack and I find time to do more parent-kid dates from now on.

2.3.20 - Kid snippets: Jane translations

Mama, idea! [acommpanied by thrusting her pointer finger in the air] --> Mama, I have an idea!
Tow-tillas an cweam an shusha --> tortillas and sour cream and salsa
My me mama! ---> Follow me, Mama!
Go go! --> Here you go!
Toast an shuga? --> Can I have brown sugar toast?
Wash voo-oo-oos? --> Can I watch videos?

(From Feb 1 - Folsom Zoo train)

2.2.20 - Kid snippets: going to jail

Jane and Clara are playing together and they started sort of slinking out of the living room.

Both of them: Byeeeee
Me: Where are you going?
Jane: I going to sawbucks!
Clara (forlornly): I'm going to jail.

2.1.20 - Kid snippets: I spy brown house

Jane: I spy with my wittle eye sum-ping....brown house!