When Lorelei is sad we hug her and pat her back. Sometime last month she started hugging us back, and patting our backs. So she’ll be crying and sad and comforting us at the same time. The empathy pours. She’s doing lots of other cute stuff like clapping, giggling, sitting up and eating solid food. She really enjoys broccoli, sweet potato, eggs, and smashed up avocado. I keep offering banana but she’s not as excited yet.
Moriarty has been getting more into baking. We took another decorating class, this time it was flow cookies. That’s where you take a simple short bread or sugar cookie and then put really runny icing on top so the colors flow into each other and make a shiny solid surface. He did surprisingly well. He’s always the youngest kid by far but he was able to use the piping bags and made some recognizable cookies! Next weekend we’ll be making his birthday cake. He designed it. It’s a giant fire truck. I’ll let you enjoy the anticipation.
The Baltimore Lafleurs visited for a few days. Unfortunately we all got a stomach flu so the big meals and plans got simplified, but it was great to see them. They got to enjoy the kids and that was the point.
Today is Moriarty’s birthday. He’s 5. I have his kindergarten registration paperwork in my backpack. He’s going to be in Kindergarten! It’s a huge cliche that “they grow up so fast”. But 27.8% of his years at home are over. (That assumes he leaves at 18 which I will strongly encourage). He still seems like such a baby, but he’s actually growing up so fast. Excuse me while I wallow in nostalgia cliche land and hide in shame. It’s really exciting though. He tried out roller skating, ice skating, and bowling recently. He got a science set for Christmas and now he asks to “do science”. Every new skill he gets, every new phrase or vocab word, it’s just all exciting. He’s really cool. And he’s so gentle and loving to Lorelei.
For the last few days a young man name Alex has been staying at the house. He’s a Bernie staffer and was reassigned to Washington after the Iowa Caucus. I had put my name down to host, at some point, and got a call at dinner asking if we could host that night. It reminded me of all the times my parents did stuff like that. Person from the church needs a place that night, no problem. Exchange student needs a place, no problem. I’m so hopeful about Bernie’s potential to bring American’s together but my time is limited. I can’t be the one out there organizing and running events with a full time job and 2 small kids. But I can offer my room and model for my kids that this is how I live my life. I believe in this cause, and I will take action to support it. There aren’t a lot of volunteering options for 5 year olds. We’ve taken him to collect donations for the food bank, but that’s infrequent. He watches everything we do. He absorbs who we show our character to be not the things we say we believe. So this week I’m showing my son that when I believe in a cause I’ll go really far to help it out.