The age old story, from enemy to beloved friend...

A pre-corona virus story for today to remind everyone there was life before social isolation, there will be life afterwards...

Last Wednesday was a busy day.  Tuesday afternoon, my amazing friend Ann had passed.  I was in a strange head space.

After running around all morning, I raced into the house, preparing for a double playdate that afternoon.  As I raced around, suddenly a small mouse came sauntering out into the middle of the floor.  Being startled, I screamed.  To which the mouse responded by continuing to slowly walk the room.  I was just feeling like UGH!! I do not even have TIME for this nonsense right now.

I immediately texted Thom, "Mouse stand off in the kitchen".  "Middle of the day too."  "That's not a good rodent."  "Oh my god I just stepped onto a mouse."  "It's in the middle of the hallway."  Then I texted a string of explicatives and OMGs...I then tried to do the emergency measure of phoning Thom.  He did not pick up.

So I knew that I could not allow 4 small girls to come into my home with a dead stepped on mouse in the middle of the freaking hallway.  So using as little of my body as I possibly could, I carefully used the entire hallway rug to roll up the mouse and shove it into the basement stairwell.  You know like a mob boss.  (I did not have time to take the extra precaution of dumping the body in the lake.)  As I was leaving, another mouse walked "happy as you please across the dining room floor" as I texted Thom.

I then traversed to school for pick up.  Of course when I arrived, I announced to my fellow pick up parents my mouse delimma.  When all the girls arrived home, I did not catch any sightings of the rather bold mouse.  It was LOUD.  I breathed a sigh of relief.  Maybe all would be well during the playdate.  Maybe the mouse would behave and we could put off dealing with any of this..

The girls were all upstairs happily playing, as I worked on a workshop at the dining room table.  In a previous year, a chipmunk had gotten into our house.  It took YEARS for Lotta to be able to use the bathroom by herself after that.  I was not sure we could go through a setback on that front.  When, once again, the mouse walked out to see what was happening.  There was a birthday box Zibbi had packed for her upcoming birthday (in MAY).  The mouse could not seem to figure out how to get around this huge obstacle.  Then, Lotta came down.  As she was also about to step on the mouse, I was forced to tell her.  To which she screamed and ran upstairs.

The girls spent the rest of the afternoon playing away from the mice situation downstairs.  When Benja learned of the mice debacle, he refused to go upstairs by himself.

When Thom arrived home early, he immediately picked up the mouse and placed it in a large bucket with a lid.  I suggested that if our home was being overtaken by mice, perhaps we should have a policy that he takes my calls.  He then informed me that all of my texts had been shared with his entire team and had provided much needed comedic relief on a stressful day.  (I guess my hopes of gaining any respect from the tech team died that day.)

The girls then became enamored of the mouse, wanting to keep it as a pet.  They built furniture for it and placed fruit beside it.  The took the bucket outside to free the mouse, where the mouse breathed its last breath.  (I suspect the mouse felt as if death was better than the life it was currently leading with so very much attention from two large mammals.)  Zibbi was heartbroken and had trouble eating dinner.  Benja suggested we bury the mouse with the headstone, "From Enemy to Friend in a matter of minutes..."

One of the moms at pick-up thought that maybe it was my friend Ann, playing a posthumous joke...

The Troublesome Tooth Fairy

So the Tooth Fairy has had a challenging time lately delivering the goods in a timely manner.  The first time, the speculated cause was that the tooth was not extracted until well into the evening, near bedtime.  It was assumed that the tooth fairy was unable to get our home on the schedule for that evening.  When she did deliver, she included a small "late fee".

Next time, TF again did not arrive the following morning.  Zibbi descended the stairs, head down, tears in her eyes as she explained that the Tooth Fairy didn't come. 

Again, TF delivered late with a "late fee" included with the usual dollar. 

(Just as an aside, there is an epic tale floating around both Marquette and Lapham Elementary Schools about a student who received $10 from the Tooth Fairy!!  Even the school nurse had heard the tale...)

Then this week, when Lotta lost a tooth, TF left money, but did not in fact take the tooth.  We suggested Lotta write a "Yelp review" for the tooth fairy.  Here's what she wrote...

Lotta obviously did not want to discourage TF, still giving her 4/5 stars (!!?!)

Then, Zibbi joined in, being a bit more direct...

While the girls were in school, the Tooth Fairy responded...

Zibbi came to me last week excitedly (with a bit a of bloodiness), telling me how she had banged her tooth into something and she was sure it would come out soon.  Who knew something so very tiny could create so many stories?

When the Woolly Mammoth Roamed...

We ventured to Horicon Marsh on Sunday for some labor day weekend fun.  (I suddenly realized it was the end of May and we needed to make the trek before the mosquitoes descend on Wisconsin.)  There is a large Woolly Mammoth statue near the education center.  As we were walking away from Mammoth, I heard Zibbi mumbling to herself grumpily, "It's Woolly MamooSS, not Woolly MamoTH.  Woolly Mammoth doesn't even make sense."  I just adore her confidence.  Even when she is so wrong.

Spelling tests, Sports and Final Concerts

Spelling Tests

One of Lotta's least favorite parts of 3rd grade are the spelling tests.  A few weeks ago, she came home with the word "wide " misspelled, as "whyed ".  I explained to her teacher that Lotta was spelling the word correctly.  As in, my little sister just about "whyed" me to death.  Why did that ambulance race by?  Why is the grass green?  Why are we going home?  

Sports

Zibbi Dramatically Dancing

Next week is Zibbi's birthday.  Meaning, she will have the great honor of being "friend of the week" in her class.  One night before sleep, I asked her what this entailed.  She informed me that her teacher would be sending home papers with more information, including a poster we would need to complete.  Then Zibbi paused and said, "I'm going to need you to explain to me what a 'sport' is."  She explained that on the poster, there is a section with "favorite sport" on it.  As a musical theater lover, I felt I had really done my job, particularly while living in the middle of Green Bay Packer country.  I explained to her that sports are things like dancing, ice skating, soccer, swimming, biking, basketball, swimming.  

Final Concerts

Last night was Benja's last orchestra concert of Middle School.  Which we only discovered when his Agogo told him she would love to attend one of his concerts and he suddenly informed her that he actually has his last one on Wednesday, during her visit.  My mom, not knowing our history of waving at each other at concerts decided we should wave and embarrass Benja.  Instead, Benja completely turned the table on us and waved to the point where we couldn't even wave back.  And his BF Kai sat beside him and joined in because of the incredible peer pressure emanating from Benja.  All the other 8th graders made sure to NOT make eye contact with us.  And still Benja continued to excitedly wave.  It was like a comedy routine where the comedians keep going long after the joke is done.  

At one point, the conductor turned to the audience and explained that the next piece had three movements in it.  So, we should hold our applause until the very end of the piece, even though there would be breaks in the music.  Then he turned around to begin conducting and the whole audience erupted into applause.  I said, "Request denied" and then had a hard time not laughing.   Until the principal gave me a look, the look you never want to get from your principal.  

After all this time, noticing more Yellars...

Yesterday was the third grade field trip to a forest.  I volunteered and then immediately worried about it being a FULL day field trip.  Because the last full day school volunteer opportunity I participated in just felt like I was hungry ALL DAY long.  Which reminded me of how that was kind of my experience in school, just feeling a bit hungry all day.  The bus ride turned out to be more tenuous than I thought as the hot stuffy bus bouncy around AND over many large hills did nothing good for my stomach.  As I was attempting to keep everything down and not up, I had the realization that we would have to repeat this all to get home. 

As we hiked through the forest, Lotta became hungrier and hungrier.  (I guess I should have worried more about HER hunger levels...next time.)  As we explored the forest, we looked down to notice the bugs or plants growing down there.  Near the end, I looked down and there on the forest floor was a tiny piece of yellow crayon paper.  I was shocked.  As you may or may not recall, Ellie LOVED to break and peel crayons.  AND her favorite colors for awhile were orange and yellow.  So I was stunned to see this little reminder right there on this forest floor.  I turned to Lotta to express my amazement.  She just sighed and slumped some more, saying, "I'm just so hungry right now, I can't even..."  One of her classmates asked if she was "hangry", which didn't help the situation much. 

Then today (Saturday) Zibbi and I had  "date" to get

manicures at a local beauty school.  As we were leaving, Zibbi noticed some nail polishes on sale.  She begged me to get a fuschia color.  I was trying to convince her to choose a different color.  Zibbi turned the bottle over and asked me to read what the color was named.  "Ellie" it said.  Of course, we bought it.  How could we not?

I remember after Ellie died how often I would see reminders of her, it's been awhile since I've seen any.  Now, I feel primed for them, sort of like how Ellie started looking for yellow cars (yellars, as she called them) and suddenly they were EVERYWHERE.  During lunch at the field trip, I shared the story with a fellow mom (who just happens to work at Hospice).  She said she thought it was amazing that out of all the forest, I was able to find that little bit of magic.  I think I'll keep on looking for the magic...

13-Year-Old Logic

One morning over breakfast, for some unknown to me now reason, I was explaining to Zibbi my theory on parenting.  I contend that mothers get blamed, while fathers get credit.  Benja then jumped in to say, "No, I am pretty sure DAD came up with that theory..." 

Zibbi then responded, "I think Benja should get blamed and YOU should get credit."  What a little cheerleader she is.  (And poor Benja, he keeps trying to break through the "like" phase of their relationship and move up to "love".)

5- and 8- year-old Logic

On St. Patrick's Day, Lotta (8) insisted she would catch a Leprechan.  (Apparently, that is a "thing" right now).  That afternoon, we had a birthday party to attend.  Before the party, Lotta set a trap.  Around the trap were small houses for figurines, she made sure to put figurines in each of the houses, peering out the windows, so the Leprechan wouldn't be confused that it was a residence for HIM.  (How tall does she think they are??)  Throughout the party, Lotta kept mentioning how excited she was to catch a Leprechan.  It might be in the trap already! I kept cautioning, that Leprechans are extremely mysterious, they are not like Santa. (Zibbi informed me at the party that her thighs were getting bigger, like mine.  I said, you mean, longer?  She said, no, fatter.)  Anyway. 

 When we arrived home, Lotta excitedly ran to the trap.  Low and behold there was a tiny note with tiny writing (that I could not, in fact, read).  Lotta became suspicious however, as Benja (13), put his hands over his mouth and seemed to be smiling and laughing.  At dinner that night, Lotta explained that she thought Benja was involved.  She said that she thought Benja shrank down to Leprechan size and wrote a tiny note for Lotta to find. 

Now on to Zibbi logic...

The afternoons have started warming up a bit around here.  So now when Zibbi departs the bus, she has all of her layers off and tied strategically to her back pack.  A sweater, snow pants, a dress, a scarf, could all be tied on.  It's a good solution.  The only problem being she isn't tall enough for all of the items to not be dragged to through the slush and mud and puddles.