Super Glue

I stepped out to water some newly planted grass along front of the house the other evening. A couple of minutes later, K-teen stepped out holding a whimpering A-tot. K-teen said she didn't know why A-tot was crying. A-tot held out her hand and I saw something shiny on the palm of her hand. I reached out to hold her hand from the back to get a closer look at it and realized her hand was completely rigid and her pinky and ring finger were glued together with something very stiff. 

I realized Bryson had been working on fixing his speedometer on his VW van and had left a bottle of super adhesive on the table. I yelled for him to come help. I took A-tot into my bathroom to try to get her fingers apart. When we got to the bathroom I realized her other hand was in the same stiff position with her pinky and ring finger stuck together. Bryson started googling how to get the glue off. He was yelling ideas to me from the dining room where he was surveying the damage there. Soap and warm water. Nope, too late for that. Finger nail polish remover. That seemed to start to soften the thin spots a little. So I filled a cup with finger nail polish remover and put both her hands in to soak. I would alternate between hands rubbing and peeling the glue trying to get her fingers apart and remove at least some of the glue. It was a long process, but I was thrilled when I got her fingers apart. I continued working to get as much glue off as I safely could. When I was satisfied that she could at least move her hands freely with some spots of glue still there I was happy. 

She was very patient during the whole process, which I am very grateful for. I looked her in the eyes and was telling her I was all done when I realized there was a shiny spot on her cheek...and hair was stuck to it. I started feeling around and realized she had gotten it on her cheek and in a couple of locks of hair. Ugh. I got a paper towel soaked in fingernail polish to try to at least get the hair detached from her face. Luckily it was thinner than the stuff on her hands and didn't take as long to get off. I had to cut out all the hair with glue, but, luckily with a head full of curls, you really can't tell much.

In the mean time Bryson was dealing with the damage in the dining room. I heard the sander go on about halfway through cleaning A-tot. Both the wood table and hardwood floors were splattered with the rock-hard adhesive. Bryson did a great job getting the adhesive off with the sander. We have some touch up to do with stain and sealer on both, but it looks like everything (and everyone) will recover from hurricane A-tot's latest exploration. 

Jingle Bells

I haven't had the heart to break the pacifier habit of A-tot. It needs to happen, I know. But this is my parenting weakness. I'll pull teeth, change the most disgusting diapers, clean up vomit all night long, but don't ask me to take a pacifier away from an innocent baby. I do place limits on them,  though. They are only allowed in the crib. They are just for sleep-time comfort (and once they get old enough they ask for pacifier time in their crib for a few minutes). But pulling the plug all together makes me weak in the knees. My reluctance probably had some deep psychological roots in my own finger sticking habit that went on far too long as a child (according to my mom). Too bad for my parents they couldn't take my finger away.

Recently A-tot has tried to sneak pacifiers out of her crib by shoving them down her footie pajamas when we come to get her out of her crib. It's funny when she tries to hide them after her nap and you pick her up and a pacifier falls out the bottom of her shirt.

Yesterday David got her out of her crib in the morning and she came prancing down the hall singing Jingle Bells as her multiple pacifiers mingled in the foot of her pajamas. As hilarious as it was, I had to turn her around and march her back to put the pacifiers back on the dresser.

"2 babas"

I'll muster the courage soon to pull the plug. I have to. I just don't want to.

Update

We have been surviving. Some days it feels like just that. We have been fortunate to have already been working from home when the pandemic started. I run our real estate investment business and am the Stake Young Women's President (youth leader over 12 congregations) and David works for a spin-off of XOS called ZSpec and is in charge of keeping up on politics and covid vaccine technology for the family. David usually goes in once a week, but it depends how high the local covid numbers are. He is prone to bronchitis and pneumonia and likely already has some lung damage, so we have have to err on the side of caution during the pandemic.

Last weekend we took the kids skiing for the first time this year after sending Bryson out to see what the Covid protocols were like at the resort. They really had things under control and everyone was very good about wearing masks. Plus with skis on you can't get very close to people anyway, so the physical distancing was no problem. The only time you didn't have to wear a mask was when you were skiing down the hill, but most people kept them on even then. We saw very few people without masks even while skiing. For that reason I am grateful to be living in New York during this. Almost everyone knows of someone that died in the first wave that hit New York so hard, so people are very good about obeying the rules. 

Kadence started in-person school for the first time in almost a year yesterday. They're in 5th grade.

Austin has been going since September because he really didn't do well in the remote environment, so we needed him to be in the classroom. Kadence is a great remote learner and she is more cautious and felt more comfortable at home. The Albany County numbers have been coming down and their school tests every person in the school every Tuesday for Covid. They also put up desks in classrooms at the beginning of the year with plexiglass dividers. They are trying to adapt to the safety concerns while maintaining the Montessori environment. One way they do that is that every child brings in a camp chair and the classes spend most of their day outside (weather permitting). It's been too cold lately, so they've been inside for learning. For music, which is primarily singing when there isn't a pandemic, they are all learning the ukulele. That is a great alternative. We were surprised to hear that Austin's class got a new class pet yesterday. It's a chicken! It freely roams around the classroom. Apparently it was pretty exciting. I'm not sure how long that will last. 

Devonne is working hard at this high school thing. She has in-person school every 3rd day for the whole day. I think she looks forward to those days the most. 

K-teen (foster child who I can't name online) is in the 6th grade and doing well. She likes writing and dancing, but she only talks about celebrities and what they are doing in their lives and talks about it CONSTANTLY. I have to admit, I don't have much patience for it.

A-tot (foster child) turns 2 in a little over a week. She demands to do everything herself and do it her way. She's going to be great at this 2-year-old thing. It's hard to believe we've had them for almost 2 years.

Baby Animal Days

We love our local farm and especially their baby animal days.

 We saw and got to pet chicks, baby turkeys, ducklings, goslings.

 The baby goats running around the barn were a favorite for petting.

 Before we went, Kadence was especially excited to see the pigs.

 

 Kadence loved holding and petting the bunny. It was SO soft and in her words "he really tickled".

 Then we headed outside to feed the regular animals at the farm.  The goats...

 ...and the chickens.

 Austin won't let us visit without spending a lot of time in the sandbox there.

 And no one wants to visit without getting a cider donut.  For years the twins thought cider donuts were the only kind of donuts that existed since Indian Ladder Farms was just around the corner from our old house.

 Austin likes to pretend to drive the tractor.

 One of the perks of having a twin is that you have someone to push the pedals while you steer.

The Preschool Tour of New York City

David was attending a conference down in the city, so we decided to go a day early with him for a fun day.  We parked near the temple and headed into Central Park. First stop, the Carousel.

 We thought ahead and brought the kids scooters, so we scootered through the park to the Central Park Zoo.

 

 Austin insisted on getting his picture taken with this statue in the Zoo.  Then he insisted on hiding behind it and making eagle noises and wanted me to take a picture of that.  I didn't include that picture, but you can imagine it.

 We got a front row seat for the sea lion feeding.

 Then we grabbed some lunch and made it over to the penguins in time for the penguin feeding.

 We saw lots of other animals including the grizzly bears that replaced the polar bear, monkeys, a fox, lots of birds, snakes, bats,and lots of other animals.  Then we went over to the Children's Zoo and saw a few more animals including these really cute bunnies.

 

 I am sure that somewhere I have a picture of Parker, McKay, and Bryson with these same bunny statues when they were little.  

Then we scootered over to a playground to play for a while.

 Austin really loved this slide

 Kadence loved playing in the sand best.

 It was a little weird being at the playground with our own children, most of the kids were there with their nannies.  After the park we were planning to go down to the big branch of the New York City Library. It was about 20 blocks away, so we were planning to take a cab, but the kids were doing so well on their scooters, we decided to go walk until they got tired.

 We stopped for a little meat on a stick to refuel.

 Then we were off to brave the city streets again.  It was rush hour and going down 5th Avenue was really busy.  I was really nervous at first about the twins on scooters in the crowd, but they were fantastic! We had to walk quickly to keep up with them, and they made it all the way to the library.

 This is the library with the lions outside that appears in the beginning of Ghost Busters and in other movies.

 The treasure that we went to find at the library was a display of the original Winnie the Pooh and his friends that were the real Christopher Robin's stuffed animals that his father, A.A. Milne, wrote the original stories about.

 Then we took some time to read a few books before the library closed and we had to drop David off at his hotel and drive home.

 On the way back to the car we went past the temple.

We had so much fun, we might go back again soon. Having the scooters made a huge difference. Not a single, "I'm tired."  I guess if we can make it there....(we'll make it anywhere).

Snow Day!

After our annual Superbowl Party last night, the snow was supposed to start falling.  I kept waking up in the night to see how deep the snow was, but there didn't seem to be anything.  At 5:30 am, I decided to stop hoping for a snow day and face that the storm must have been a bust and it would be a regular Monday.  I was pleasantly surprised to find it snowing when I woke up a few hours later with several inches already accumulated.  Snow Day!

So David started us off with his specialty egg-in-a-hole breakfast.  We have played several rounds of Monopoly Junior, A chutes and ladder kind of game, Spot it, and the twins played with the Uno Attack game flipping cards out at each other.

I did take advantage of the falling snow to take some fun pictures of the kids.

Kadence liked looking at the snowflakes and was trying to look at the ones on her hair and I was attempting to take a picture of them and got that great shot.

She was trying to blow the snow, but her blower isn't very powerful.

She got some well deserved hot chocolate...with lots of marshmallows.

Catching snowflakes!

He hates looking in the camera, so this is his pouty, "I don't want to look at the camera" look.  But I love those big eyes!

 Even Bryson let me take pictures of him.  Yay!

He's getting so handsome and grown up.  I have to keep reminding people that he's still only 15!