Asthma Cat

 Monday, Todd had his first day back at work.  He missed his 30 second commute that he had for five months.  He has to wear a mask there and when he goes to the gym, he has to wear gloves covering his entire hands.  It takes some getting used to and one morning after leaving for work, he had to turn around and come back for his mask and gloves.  After that he commissioned Caroline to make him a reminder sign on the front door.  It was her idea to write 'Safety first.'  

We had been doing math and reading all summer long, but for the past two weeks we've taken a break from math.  I always appreciated that the two subjects gave us a little bit of structure to our day.  The kids claimed they did not appreciate the structure, yet when we stopped the math they had some days where they were soooooo bored.  So Thursday morning of this week the three of them wrote up their own individual schedules.  They purposefully did not put times in, just activities.  Josiah's was basically play-media-eat-play-media-eat-play-media-eat all day long.  Caroline and Henry's were similar.  The three of them were keen to keep to their schedules that day, but they didn't think to coordinate them.  When Henry reached his time to play in the front yard, he couldn't find anyone to play with.  Caroline was dutifully playing with her Barbies and Josiah was engaged in his drawing time.  Neither would deviate from their assignments.  Henry really worked on Caroline to get her to go out front.  She finally went out with him and they lasted all of five minutes in the heat.  (It has seriously been hot here.  Our power bill sadly reflects it.)  At 8:20 a.m., Caroline exclaimed, "Oh no.  The next thing on my schedule is lunch."  I told her she didn't have to eat lunch at 8:30 a.m., which actually relieved her.  She was going to eat.  The schedules lasted all of a day.  They've been mentioned in the last few days, but I think they all like the freedom to play what they want when they want.  

Henry wanted some individual time with me this week and for that time he chose to teach me how to play Minecraft.  First, Henry gave me a tutorial about the controller.  Henry likes to give every detail for every button.  By the time he was finished I had no idea what button did what.  Having seen the boys' amazing creations in Minecraft, I was looking forward to building myself a cool house.  What I didn't bank on was that I got old and couldn't even figure out how to walk in a straight line.  After 20 minutes I had only built a rectangular outline of a house three 'bricks' high.  I spent half the time falling off my row of bricks and having to jump back on.  Now Caroline wants to play with me.  I think it is a boost to their egos to see me so slow.  

The kids also made marshmallow houses this week.  I think it was really just a ploy to eat marshmallows in the morning.  

Friday, Todd took the day off and came to the pool with us for the first time ever.  The kids were super excited and showed off their swimming skills.  They did somersaults and headstands in the water.  But what they liked best was that Todd could pick them up and toss them in the water.  

Caroline getting tossed.

Henry getting height.

Josiah.  The easiest to flip.

Saturday was an eventful day.  When I took Benson outside in the morning, I heard a cat try to claw it's way up our fence (from the outside, trying to get in our backyard).  It didn't succeed, which was fine by me.  We often have cats in our yard; so much so that our kids have named two of them.  Because of the frequency of cats, I didn't think much of the one trying to gain access.  Then, closer to noon, Todd was outside and noticed the cat squeezed between our fence and our house.  Early afternoon I found said cat in our backyard, lying up against the house.  It was very, very still.  We were worried it was either sick or pregnant.  It didn't move when Benson barked at it or got near to it.  He, of course, discovered the cat before we did.  He was doing the thing where he stretches his body really long when he's sniffing something new.  We were praying the cat was okay and just resting and would leave again.  It didn't.  Henry put out some water for it, but it still didn't look like it was moving at all.  Then after dinner, I went out again with Benson and the cat had moved from it's spot.  We were overjoyed that it had left to go back to it's house.  Then a half hour later, while out with Benson again, he did his stretchy sniffing position.  The cat had merely moved a few feet to very deep grass against the house.  At this point it was getting dark, so we took a picture of it and I posted it on a local neighborhood app.  Almost immediately someone said the cat was theirs.  We were again overjoyed that someone was coming for the cat.  The kids were looking out the window at every car that passed expectantly hoping it was the owner.  They were so, so excited.  In all his excitement Josiah exclaimed, "I'm so glad we're finally making an impact on our community. "  That kid can act like he's five one minute and twenty-five the next.  The cat was scooped up by it's owners.  He said he called it "asthma cat" and that it stays indoors all the time.  It only got out because they were moving that day and it escaped.  

Henry loves to pretend that he is a sniper in the military.  He wears his backpack around and fake shoots his guns all throughout the day.  Recently he ordered a lemon of a gun from Amazon.  I typically look at all purchases, read reviews, look at how many stars they have, but for whatever reason I didn't look at what he wanted at all.  I guess I assumed it was a Nerf gun.  It wasn't.  It was a knockoff and Henry has learned that hard lesson of cheap knockoffs.  Todd has spent his day unjamming the gun over and over again.  

This evening at dinner, we told the kids that we were going to go to a indoor water park in a few months time.  Todd showed the kids the website and all the water features.  Henry and Caroline were talking about what they wanted to do first and were chatty about the slides and the pools.  Josiah, meanwhile, asked, "Will there be hot chocolate?  Do they have a food court?  Do they have a restaurant?  Do they have pastries for breakfast?  Oh, we can go to McDonalds!  If they don't have hot chocolate, I can bring packets with me.  And a mug.  And water.  Do they have a microwave?  Can we bring microwave pizza?  Is there a TV in the hotel room?  Can we hang out there and watch TV?  Do they have a hot tub?"  Water park, child.  We're going to a water park.  

A funny meme from one of my favorite childhood books.