Father's Day

On Monday, the neighbor friend was at camp.  He got home late afternoon and immediately came knocking on our door.  Josiah hugged him as if he hadn't just seen him 24 hours before.  So it was the rest of the week.  He came over nearly every afternoon to hang out with the boys.  He brought a project with him which kept them busy for a few days.  They made a giant rubber band ball.  Then he didn't go to camp on Friday solely so he could stay home and play with our kids.  Throughout these many weeks of hanging out (nearly daily) Todd and I were sure that they must tire of each other at some point.  That point hit our kids Saturday afternoon.  They were done.  So they stopped playing early Saturday afternoon and then we took all of Sunday as family time.  It was a welcome change for us all.

We got our pool access reactivated so the boys and I were able to go one morning.  Poor Caroline has had a cut on her foot right at the fold where the leg meets the foot.  Several weeks ago it was a fairly large cut, which had been healing well, but then she cut it open again, and it was again healing well.  Then earlier this week she busted open the exact same area for the third time.  It was too fresh to go swimming.  Each instance of sustaining the injury occurred because she was wearing jelly shoes while riding (and ultimately crashing) the scooter.  It had been suggested that she wear tennis shoes when scooting.  Now that she's missed some pool time she's on board with compliance.
The pool felt really nice.  They have COVID restrictions in place which limited the number of residents allowed in at one time.  They also are only open for 90 minutes, then close completely to clean for half an hour.  They reopen again for another 90 minutes and so on all day long.  We did not know this prior to coming, so we only swam for about 45 minutes before they closed.  But it was a nice, refreshing 45 minutes.  Henry practiced swimming and it was a relief to see he remembered his skills.  He has to build up endurance again, but he practiced a lot while we were there.  Josiah remembered some skills, too, but he was more interested in playing.  The pool has also taken away all the chairs, so we had to sit on the cement.  It wasn't a big deal, but it was sort of strange to have no chairs anywhere.

The kids spent one entire morning being shop owners.  Josiah created Noodle Burgers, Caroline spun shakes at Caroline's Smoothies, and Henry had a full menu restaurant which specialized in Mexacen torteas and tacos.  They put a lot of time into it, but Caroline did note that business was slow.  It's tough when I was the only paying customer.  I can only buy so many smoothies.

Henry's Menu

You couldn't ask what the flavors were.  You had to order by color only.

We've made the decision to get a dog. (Ahhhh.)  The kids are very excited.  Todd wants to get a puppy so it knows us as its only owner.  The process to get a dog has been a bit different that we anticipated.  Todd has been researching all the local rescues and pounds and SPCAs.  They all have different rules and expectations, especially with COVID.  Some rescues say they will not house any pets with families that have children.  So we crossed off some places right away.  Another place had a litter of five very cute German Shepherd puppies.  We loved two in particular.  Todd inquired with them about adoption and they sort of interviewed him over the phone about his prior pet history.  Todd told them that he had a dog as an adult and how long that dog lived and so on.  Because that dog died quite a number of years ago they asked Todd to call a vet so they could explain to him about how to take care of a dog.  (Really?!!)  Then the vet had to contact the shelter to say they had spoken to Todd.  Todd actually called a vet but the phone just rang and rang.  By the next day the two dogs we liked were already adopted.  A different facility we contacted this weekend said that they wanted us to take pictures of the interior of our house as well as our fence and backyard.  Their application had many questions which included their desire to come and do a home visit.  It really has been eye-opening.  All I could think of was when Josiah was born and the hospital just let us bring him home.  They just let me out of the hospital with a baby and I have no idea what to do.  But apparently not the same with dogs...  Finally Todd found the Houston SPCA which seems much easier to work with.  We've done the application and are just waiting for a call back.  Since it is COVID times, you cannot go into the facility to look at all the puppies.  You have to sit in your car and they bring the dogs out to you.  So it's a little different, but hopefully it'll all work out.  We check the website daily since dogs appear and disappear on it all the time.  I am really eager to adopt a dog NOW because Todd is working from home and can help train it.  I'm not too keen to do the whole potty training again, so the more hands we have helping the better.

Today was Father's Day.  The kids all made Todd really nice cards.  Josiah's was quite impressive.  He put a lot of work into it and had the whole Muppet theme going.  (For a while after he got his puppet Al Dente, he watched a bit of Sesame Street and the Muppets to see how they handled their puppets.)  The kids masked up because they all wanted to go get Todd's breakfast.  We got a box of breakfast tacos which were really good.  This is the first time the kids have been out in a store so they were excited to wear the masks.  Of course, Al came, too.  We had a nice lazy, quiet day which was really nice.  Henry helped to make pumpkin bread for Todd this afternoon and since I didn't get the planned dinner on early enough (crockpot mac and cheese), we had pumpkin bread for dinner (and salad so it was a legit meal).  And since it was Father's Day, I didn't even say anything to Todd when he defiled the bread by putting butter on it.

Front [Five minutes, Mr. Cockrell, to curtain.  Nice hair Mr. Cockrell.]

Middle

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