2024 is over. 2025 is here. OMG. The kids are too young to do big NYE stuff, and I’m too much of a morning person to even try. During school vacation Moriarty has been up until midnight a few times. Some nights he gets this wave of energy around 9:30 at night and basically runs around the kitchen talking a mile a minute.
The last 2 months have had some very large changes in Lafleurland. Firstly, we changed au pairs. We had loved hosting Paula but her term ended and the State Dept rules forced her to go home. She and Lorelei were bonded very tightly and it’s been really hard. They’ve done several Zoom calls since Paula left and that’s helping. We also have an incredible new au pair, Sanda, from South Africa. The cultural differences are more extreme than our South American au pairs so it’s been a really fun time of showing off American staples like a classic diner, tons of ethnic food, Costco, and mail boxes. She and Lorelei are getting along great and I’m sure we’ll have a wonderful year.
Huge change #2 is school. We are lucky enough to live in a wealthy area with very nice public schools. We’ve had a great experience at our local elementary school but I found out about another option that sounded more interesting. There’s a “community school” that’s part of our district, but requires applications and lottery/wait list. It’s a tiny K-8 school with 200 kids and ~130 families. The classes are mixed age (K/1, 2/3, 4/5,6/7/8). There are two classes of each age group. They do some mixed class work and some single grade work. The school is STEAM focused so everyone studies robotics and art. They have a machine shop full of toys I want to play with! They take the kids for outdoor, overnight, trips at all grade levels. And families are required to participate in some aspect of the school. This is really good for me. I love volunteering with the kids’ classes but struggle to “justify” taking the time off. Which is stupid. Being forced to take more time off to create these memories is good for the over achiever set. This school sounds incredible to us so we applied in mid Nov thinking we’d be lucky to get a spot next year for one kid even. Then the day before the end of 1st semester I got a call that they can take both kids, immediately. They had 1 day to say goodbye to their teachers and friends then left for break. They’ll go to the new school after break. I’m not worried about either kid making friends. They both extremely social. Last year Moriarty was selected for the award of Life Skill of Responsibility. This semester Lorelei was selected for Life Skill of Friendship. No surprises. We will still see their friends from the old school too because they live nearby and we’ve developed relationships with the parents.
I do want to focus on academics for one minute. Lorelei’s class has been using a curriculum where they focus on just one letter at a time, and build up a set of letters to start making words from. It felt like Lorelei struggled to remember the names or shapes of letters, got a little better, then started blending words and reading. It just happened SO fast. There’s a long way to go, but soon that kid will be reading books by herself. I have a sight words game I got for Moriarty during Covid lockdown. I wanted to pull out all the words that use the letters she’s confident with so we could play word search with a much smaller set. So I took out words, one-by-one, facing them toward me while Lorelei was sitting across from me. I intended her to move and look at the words right side up, but she said she preferred upside down and went on decoding word after word upside down. There’s a family story about me reading a book to my Kindergarten class, upside down the way the teacher did. Maybe it’s genetic.
Huge change #3 is pets. Between Pip, myself, and the kids we have good allergy coverage preventing dogs and cats from being a good fit. Dogs and cats can also put their agenda and expectations on people. I don’t want that. I have 2 small humans who put their agenda and expectations on me all the time! Instead, we decided to adopt bunnies. We did some research then picked a group of 3 girls, a mom and her 2 daughters. They’re black with some Lionsmane genes, but not a ton. They’re big. Very big. And they look almost identical. The shelter said they’d lived there most of their lives. People don’t tend to adopt black bunnies and rarely want 3. We’re really happy with our new fat pets, but it takes bunnies months (6+) to get comfortable in a new living situation. They’re prey animals. They constantly think everything is going to eat them. But we will win them over. After 6 weeks they’re already much more comfortable. Last night 2 of them hopped onto a cardboard box which was acting like a house/shelter. But they are so heavy the box buckled and they fell inside then hopped around and played with it. At night the three of them lay around with their heads together and hold the Bunny Council. They groom each other and snuggle. Lorelei and I already do nose snuggies, butterfly kisses (eyelashes), and now just rub our faces on each other for bunny snuggles. The kids don’t have much responsibility for the bunnies yet, but it will come with time. They helped paint the multi-story Bunny Labyrinth I built.
This post is already really long so I’ll be brief about holiday celebrations. We went to the Christmas Market for the first time and had a short meet-up with chosen cousin Cedar (my close friend’s 1.5 year old). The market is a Bavarian themed holiday venue with food, artisans, and a carousel. Pam and the Roberts came for Thanksgiving. Pip made Swedish meatballs and lefsa. Moriarty had an assignment to give a presentation on a family tradition and he picked meatballs and lefsa. So I helped him print out some pictures of Kent, Pip, and him making these. He brought a tupperware full of meatballs to school, microwaved them, and let his classmates try them. Christmas was low key with just the family and Sanda. Moriarty came away with a Leatherman Skeletool, some books, and of course, nerf guns. We gave him a gift certificate to the Army Navy surplus store and he found a vest and belt to hold all the bullets and snacks every Nerf warrior needs. Lorelei’s presents were full of unicorns and sequins. She’s pretty easy to please. We celebrated solstice with a dance party on the bridge. The end of the year was pretty great.
Other Media
Loli doing karaoke, more karaoke. She doesn’t know many of the words and none of the right pitches!
Lorelei at her hip hop dance recital. She is very serious and focused when she dances.
Moriarty battling with his friends in the driveway
Lorelei basting the cheddar biscuits
Moriarty trying Thai iced tea. He’s an adventurous eater!
New Photos password “mal”