Mother's Day 2021

Another year, another Mother's Day :) I got two very different gifts this year. I mean, I have my usual two gifts:

And they gave me colored cards with flowers and "I love you Mommy"s on them and it was great. But what I also got was sitting on the sidelines for 5 hours of sports. Yes yes I did. Starting at 7:30 am with Alex and flag football.

I was not the only mom to receive the precious gift of watching a team of 7 year olds being herded by a bunch of adults hoping that some semblance of a play would emerge. 

This is me, Katie and Corinne. At least it was sunny and we had coffee. 

After lunch the boys had back to back lacrosse games. 

#16 came and gave me a rose at halftime.

And then Alex had a game and *gasp* I got a rose from him too! 

My other gift was a photofacial. The sh*t is going down at age 40 everybody. I had the sun damaged spots zapped off my face and it's more exciting than I can tell you. Jason kind of incredulously couldn't believe that was what I wanted but he is smart and knows he couldn't really argue on Mother's Day. 

So that's post procedure, not too bad. The dark spots get darker initially. 

THEN we came home after lacrosse (the photofacial was actually the previous week) and had a nice  walk/rollerblade, a nice picture, and a nice dinner in front of my lacrosse roses.

And there you have it! Jason is usually not home for Mother's Day so that in and of itself was a huge treat. Well he did go to work in the morning and sent me this gem:

Psssh. Trying to steal my show ;) But he made it to the boys lacrosse games and it was great. I'll say, Ashton and Alex just keep getting bigger and bigger and we are having so much fun. They read me jokes and stories, tell me about what they are learning in school, and can never have too many hugs or kisses. They wear what I ask them to wear to school (this is NOT a small matter) and are kind, respectful boys. I get compliments on them all the time, which of course is the absolutely the biggest Mother's Day gift of all. They are the best yet!! :)

Alex's 7th Birthday - Part 2

Frankly, I don't even know how to begin describing Alex. And it's super funny because I looked up last year's post about what makes the boy and not a lot has changed. I even started that one the same way! Every year that passes he defies explanation a little more haha. He's very smart, cocky and loves attention. He can be a complete PITA, namely because of his aforementioned intelligence. But he's also sweet and very popular. We joke about his fan club - everybody knows him. He is a leader but also the first to high-five friends and teammates for a good game or performance of some kind. Alex laughs a lot - he is a goofball, the life of the party and the dynamic usually looks something like this:

Alex works his best magic on adults, talking and interacting with them by making jokes, telling stories, being sarcastic and a bit of a trickster. At Dick's the other day, he spent a good twenty minutes posing next to the mannequin just to see peoples' reactions.

And he just pulls things out, like blowing soap bubbles through his fingers, claiming he has "duh, always known how and does it all the time" which is like, totally untrue. Wha?

People are constantly laughing at what he says or his mannerisms, like "who is this kid?" and love to tell me all about it. Once he got asked how his trip to the dentist was, and he said "Psssh. It was GREAT. My teeth are so white they make milk jealous." 

Recently at the grocery store, an elderly gentleman came up to me and said, "Are those your sons?" and I said yes. He said "You'll never believe it, I winked at him and guess what he did?" I knew he was talking about Alex and I said "Let me guess, it was this one and he winked back." And the man chuckled, totally delighted by it, and said "YES!". How many times do I find myself smiling, nodding and sighing in response, like, "Mmm hmm, that's Alex." A lot, that's how many. He is a character all his own and frequently a topic of conversation.

I have no stats because his well-visits are now completely off schedule due to COVID, but you might be Alex if:

* Your lovey is STILL Pluto. You think he is "the perfect fit".

But when friends come over, you put him away in a drawer because you don't think he needs to be out ;)

* People touch your hair a lot. 

* You are often heard saying: "Dang it." Alex can be very "Calvin" and tries to get away with things. "Dang it" often follows.

* How your day goes is either a) the best ever or b) the worst you've seen in your lifetime and your mom is scared to find out which. Because if it's b, look out. You can be quite QUITE grumpy.

* You watch other kids your age do things and say "aw, that's cute". 

* The book you write at school is called "How to Annoy Your Mom". It includes leaving all your laundry inside out and not using a towel after washing your hands so water drips all over. There are lots of pages.  

* It's a big worry of yours that your front teeth are not the same length. Will they ever be? Will they?

* You regularly play football or lacrosse with 11 and 12 year olds. And win.

* You regularly play chess against adults. And win. 

* Games are very serious business and you are compelled to supervise, scrutinize and offer advice to others on what their moves should be. And people listen because dammit, you're actually right.

* No matter what you do, you think it's awesome and you will nod at yourself as you describe it to others. Your self-approval is high.

(Editor's note: the reflection of the deck flower pots in Alex's glasses look like his eyeballs LOL - anyone see that? Just me?)

* Like always, you leave selfies and videos on phones and iPads, specifically addressing your "fans" and you know, just checking in with them. I'd link to a video on YouTube but it's so obnoxious that I simply must spare you.

* There's nothing quite as exciting as Dairy Queen and your usual is vanilla with strawberry topping.

* You are persistent. You will whine and needle and complain and blackmail and push and bellyache and flop around and bribe and pout and push and push and push once you get it into your head that need something. This week it was a loom because you are learning about weaving in school. You had to have a loom. It was necessary. A square one with plenty of colors. For the love of all that is holy, you would not stop talking about it and I put myself out of my misery and took you to Michael's already.

* St Christopher protects you - you wear his charm on your necklace. But the first day you had it, you got checked in hockey pretty badly and had to sit out the rest of practice. You were quite exasperated about it when you got picked up - "This stupid thing, it doesn't even work!". But you still wear it.

* Socks are a big struggle.

* Your chore chart is empty. You have literally no chores as you've decided the money isn't worth it.  

* Despite being a bit prickly lately, hugs are your favorite.

* The blog post your mom tries to write about you doesn't even do you justice. Per usual I never write down all the funny quips and forget them, but I'll leave you with this last illustrative story.

Jason, at lunchtime: "Who wants a Diet Coke?"
Alex: "Me."
Jason: "Yeah well, no one asked you."
Alex: "I asked myself, and I said yes."

And if you are Alex, that's just all there is to it.

Alex's 7th Birthday - Part 1!

Alexander Michael turned 7 on March 16. He is a big presence in our house which is why it has taken so long to put these posts together. But here we go, part 1: with the vaccinations beginning and all the COVID protocols in place, we were actually able to have a little birthday party for him! If you'll recall last year, he was one of the first birthdays after lockdown went into effect. But this year we were able to rent out Chase Arena and invited his Mite D hockey team and a couple other friends. The ice was ours for a whole hour. Even the dads played! We gave out goodie bags and had cupcakes in the parking lot afterwards and it was perfect. Alex is in the yellow jersey...

What did Alex do for the rest of his day? Played football with the neighborhood crew:

Had McDonald's for dinner (his choice, sigh)

Opened some presents

Played some hockey in his new gear

And had some cake.

All our love to you Alex! 7 looks good on you and can't wait to share all your stats and deets in the next post! xoxoxo

My name is Kristen and this is my vaccination story

So here's how the week started. Last Sunday, February 28, Ashton played in an awesome hockey game against Dedham. It was literally 1-0, 1-1, 2-1, 2-2, 3-2, 3-3, and so on. They ended up winning by one goal and it was epic. Ashton scored a great goal, Grandma was there (vaccinated herself and visiting! Yay!!), GG watched online, and it was just one of those great ones. 

Monday morning they went off to school for the first time in 16 days. After February vacation and then a remote week, boy was everyone ready.

The joy was shortlived. Tuesday morning at 10 am we get the email: a player on the Dedham team had tested positive. Because Ashton's team had played them, according to the strict rules that govern hockey, they had to be quarantined and tested. So we pulled Ashton out of school and he spent the rest of the week bored out of his mind and flopping around the living room. All his hockey practices had been cancelled, he couldn't play football with kids in the neighborhood, and he was unable to attend the first indoor lacrosse clinic. Luckily he tested negative on Friday, as did the rest of his team. But like, UGH. And this upcoming week is remote so by the time he goes back to school in person on March 15, he will have gone 1 full day in 4 weeks. ONE. 

In the middle of all this, one of the neighboring towns announced their plan to bring all kids back to school, in grades K-5, full time, by April 5. Natick is no doubt going to feel tremendous pressure to get all the kids in our district back as well, and in fact there is a huge meeting tomorrow night about it. As of last Friday, the Commissioner was likely to gain a state Board of Education vote mandating it. 

In the meantime, two additional important things are going on. First, they opened vaccination eligibility to all teachers and staff in K-12. Second, Natick launched pooled testing for the district last week. What this is is basically blanket COVID testing for any child whose parents have opted in. Kids are tested in groups of 10, and if a pool comes back positive, then those 10 kids will be individually tested to find out where the positive is. It's faster and cheaper to do it this way and quite effective. There is state funding for the next 6 weeks to do this, but they send minimal staff and they put out a desperate call for volunteers to help keep the program running as long as necessary. I asked my director if she would mind me helping, since it is during work hours, and she said as long as it didn't conflict with anything, I could. I signed up, and feel so good about it. I'll be going into three different elementary schools (starting tomorrow/Monday 3/8) to coordinate nasal swabbing and the general administration/bar coding/etc that goes with all the samples. 

This is from the latest newsletter (3 days ago) from Natick Public Schools about it:

Pooled testing is designed to catch any asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic cases. In that vein, I was talking to my friend about it and she was like Oh my gosh, go get the vaccine. I was like, But I'm not a teacher. She said, you are a volunteer ("staff") and you're going in to test students. Go get it.

I pondered. I didn't want to cut anyone but then realized I could actually justify it. (We had previously joked that I was technically a teacher because of CCD, but classes are virtual right now LOL so of course that didn't feel right.)

So part 2 was getting an appointment. The first few times I tried, nothing. CVS is the only place doing this group until 3/11. They release their appointments very early in the morning and if you don't get in, you are put in a virtual waiting room for hours, it times out, etc. There is widespread frustration about it so I didn't have high hopes. ALL the threads on my local Facebook group are about the impossibility of getting through. 

I tried at several random intervals over a day or two, and nothing. Thursday morning I was up at 4:30 am to go to the bathroom. Not having high hopes but because it was right there, I picked up my phone and hit "Refresh" on the CVS appointments page, expecting to get the same message which was that all appointments (this is state wide, by the way) were booked and to try again later. 

Instead, they said, "Welcome to CVS! Enter your zip code for the closest available appointment."

I think I actually gasped. I punched in 01760 and it said "Why, you can go right across the street to our Wellesley store! How is Saturday? What time would you like?"

I hastily entered all my information and:

I couldn't believe it. I woke Jason up. I was elated and actually had trouble going back to sleep. I got an appointment! And for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine which is just one dose!

I think I double checked the clock a million times yesterday. I didn't want to miss it. Something about the appointment felt so fragile to me, so lucky. Honestly I have been operating under the idea that I would be the last person to get a vaccine and didn't think I would feel so differently about it, but I do. Clearly! This blog post is maybe (er, definitely) longer than it needs to be but it deserves it. The fact that there even is a vaccine for a virus that is ravaging the world and I have joined the small group that is vaccinated for it...I will never forget it. 

Today I've had some small physical symptoms (mainly tiredness and my body having some trouble regulating temperature), but I will happily take it. The vaccine is a privilege that, frankly, changes everything. I was just talking to Jason about it, how different it feels and how I can't explain it, and he said "Well, yeah, because now it's over for you." 

He's 100% right. It's over for me. And thank god, pretty soon it will be for everyone.

A COVID Christmas

Nothing like waiting until nearly Presidents Day to post about Christmas. I have a very well-established pattern at this point of being late to the blog. In trying to figure out why, I realize there are two main reasons: first, it is a huge chore to go through the pictures and pick out the right ones. I have well over 100 to sort through and those don't even include Jason's. Second, everything feels repetitive. I'm about to show you the same pictures as last year, the year before, etc: us getting our tree, the boys leaving cookies for Santa, and all the in-betweens. If you add the constant activity around here and the fact that we don't have an office, there also isn't much quiet time to sit and type. 

But, here we are, and the one main difference this year of course was COVID-19. We knew we would be celebrating just the 4 of us but Jason and I vowed to still make it as special as we could. Miraculously, Ashton still seems to believe in Santa so of course we played that up. Pete came as usual, we did the holiday crafts as usual, and the house looked very festive. We got a great tree and we way overbought on the Christmas presents. Like there was a WALL of gifts, it was actually ridiculous. 

So this was going to be in two parts - most of December and then December 24 and 25th, as those magical days deserve to be on their own. But then I decided, you know what? It's bloody February, let it go Elsa. Blurry photos of opening presents? Gone. Shots of Jason cooking all the things? Gone. There are 12 days of Christmas - can I post about it in 12 photos?! Pssssh. Buckle up ya'll.  

1) Getting our tree obvi. We take the same photo every year (hopefully 2020 will be the first and last one with masks!)

2) Our holiday card. 

I'll admit, I realized the irony after I mailed these out. No one is holding anyone close right now except for those in their immediate household. If you listen to your governor. But anyway, it was super sticky and humid out, we were late for the photo shoot, and we had never used this photographer. All signs pointed to disaster but, I love this photo :)

3 and 4) This is super funny. There's only so many places you can hide presents after your kids learn they can look for them. We actually stuck most of the boys' gifts in the downstairs shower, literally 2 feet from where they go to the bathroom like a thousand times a day. 

Muah haha. They never suspected.

5, 6, 7, 8 and 9) We do try and make things festive in December. This year, with no parties, no special events, etc. it was harder but we did a lot of crafts and made cookies like, uh, many times.

Yes Ashton has his shirt off a lot. Alex does too actually - supposedly they are "SO HOT". 

10) Christmas Eve magic

11) And of course Santa came (see the wall of presents?? I told you, it was beyond). 

See the picture on the table? This is the upclose. 

12a)

So what I did was, the night of December 23rd, I snuck in and took pictures of the boys sleeping, being careful not to show their pj's. THEN, on the 24th, I dropped them into a photo template and sent it to Walmart to get printed. 

12 (b). Santa's note said:

If you're saying to yourself the boys' minds must have been blown, then you would be right.

Here is the video of Christmas morning -> https://youtu.be/AVuQVVcS9jk

And honestly, of course I do have tons of pictures of breakfast, opening presents, stockings, the games we played, the boys riding their hoverboards around and around and around and around the living room, but really the most important thing is that the 4 of us were together, we zoomed our families, and we were healthy and safe. 

Last picture of 2020! Lucky 13 :)

I can't say 2021 has been much more palatable than 2020, but there is lots of time left...fingers and toes crossed! And phew, I'm relieved this post is finally done. Perhaps my new year's resolution will be to keep up!