We’re having a heat wave, like the rest of the world? Here that means temps in the 80s or rarely 90F. But it’s been a chance for the kids to get all the outdoor water toys out. Sometimes we put the sprinkler under the trampoline and they jump splashily. . Our neighbors also gave us an inflatable waterslide. Their kids had outgrown it and my kids are obsessed with it. I’m thrilled they’re outside getting out energy and wiggles. They’ve spent a lot of time in the creek lately, and of course general backyard silliness.
Moriarty has discovered Choose Your Own Adventure books. He’s been devouring audiobooks for a couple months, but I got him a few CYOA books from the library. They’re about one step beyond his reading level so we read as a team. He reads the first few sentences, then I finish the page. Rinse. Repeat. His favorite is called My Parents are Werewolves. When Lorelei listens in she gets upset that she doesn’t get to pick which path the story takes, but she’s the observer and this is something he and I are doing to practice reading, and have quality time. He’s in that extremely literal phase where everything has to be black-and-white and fit in a bin. One day he asked when some activity was happening, and I replied, “it will happen in a week and a half”. He contemplated for a minute and said in a philosophical voice, “what is half a week? There are seven days in a week, and seven is odd…” and he trailed off and walked away.
In the ever-extending era of Covid we’re still doing all we can to keep the family safe, within reason. This month Lorelei was FINALLY eligible for the vaccine. She got her first and second shots. The first one she didn’t cry, but did the second time. She thought that meant she wasn’t brave, but I assured her she is very brave for coming to get the shot and being still and calm when the nurse did it. Crying doesn’t mean she isn’t brave, it means she’s human and hurting. She’s got one more in a couple months.
We are going on adventures out in the world sometimes. One of Moriarty’s friend’s family had tickets to the Frog and Toad musical at a children’s theater and we came along. Lorelei is obsessed with Frog and Toad and picks those stories most nights for months. She thought it was so cool to see them acted out as stories. A little social goes a long way with Moriarty so he’s in good spirits. He is still struggling with explosive outbursts when he gets flooded. The most recent incidents include damaging the hinges on his door and ripping a small hole in the drywall. He was in counseling for a while and that helped (the counselor had to take a leave of absence) and he’s been on the waiting list of physical and occupational therapy since early Covid. He FINALLY got his first appointment. It’s a similar focus on his feelings, self-awareness, and tools for changing behaviors, but it’s in person and very physical. The classroom has hooks all around the ceiling and the counselor connects different climbing/hitting/etc elements into the work. We’ll be included in sessions to help the larger family context. I’m really hopeful this helps him change these patterns. I know he hates getting so overwhelmed. He has consequences, he feels hurt and embarrassed, and he feels bad he’s hurting the rest of us. But he can’t break the pattern despite our substantial efforts. So, we’ll keep helping him with our new support team. Teaching the kids emotional regulation and self-awareness is very high on my list of parenting responsibilities, and sometimes we need external expertise.
On a lighter note, flying has been a big theme for Lorelei lately. She asserted one night, “now that you're a grown up, you can't fly”. I said, “how do you know? Maybe I fly when you're asleep”. She thought then asked, “how do you get into the air?” Another day she asked, “can you buy me wings to fly?”. I said, “I'm sorry baby girl, that doesn't exist”, and she got frustrated and said “but I need to fly!”.
Every night as part of her bedtime routine Lorelei yells to the chickens (who are up in their run) “Goodnight chickens, we love you”. As part of our morning routine, Lorelei and I usually let out the chickens before breakfast, but that day we were hungry so I said, "we'll let them out after breakfast". Lorelei said, "ok, l tell them (opens back door and shouts) bwaaak bwaaak we'll get you out later bwaaak". Moriarty also emulates the chickens. Now that I think about it, she sees the chickens fly around the yard and that might be why she’s so obsessed with flying. Or, just because it would be AWESOME!
New Pictures are HERE, the password is “mal”, same for all the galleries.
REMINDER: we password protect to keep robots and search engines from putting the kids’ pictures on a public website. We are thrilled if you want to share photos w/ friends/family via email, but please don’t put them up on social media or public websites. We don’t think the kids are old enough to decide they want their pictures public, FOREVER.