One sweet moment that happened this month I never want to forget was after we put Murphy to bed I was laying next to Tenny in his bed and he said, “Mommy, do you hear that? Murphy is singing. I didn’t know she can sing. I like it when Murphy sings.” And he closed his eyes and smiled as he listened to Murphy singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on the other side of the wall they share.
🍑 PEACHES
- Murphy consistently says peas (please), thank you, mine, agua, aqui, ouie, juice, mek (milk), ma (mas), ba (ball), and some repeated gibberish.
- Murphy has started saying, “why?” and it always catches us off guard 😂
- Tennyson has been asking more questions every day.
- Murphy likes to wrestle with Tenny. She’s teaching him how to rough and tumble.
- We went on a lovely winter family walk with friends two weekends in a row. We would have made it 3 but we got covid.
- Lucas and I drove to Mt Hood on a Tuesday after taking the kids to school. He skied for hours. I worked in the car (hot spot worked surprisingly well), then I skied for an hour, and we stopped in a Safeway parking lot half way home to each take a 3 pm call. It was perfect.
- Tenny’s teacher said his Spanish is really good and he is “very intelligent.” But he is starting to cause trouble… specifically during nap time at school he runs around and wakes people up or turns the lights on and off. 🙈
- One of our neighbors stopped by and offered us a huge train table and new train toy set. Also, we found a cheap set of train toys that included some bridge and track accessories that Lucas, I mean Tenny, was really excited about. And before that we found a cheap set of Duplo blocks that can be built into a marble track. So we have LOTS of new toys, plus Christmas gifts, to play with. Murphy loves the Duplo blocks. It’s the cutest watching her play with them.
- The one benefit to getting covid was that Lucas didn’t go on a work trip that would have had him OOO for a few days. He was able to get more work done and be here when Murphy needed to go to the ER (see below).
- Murphy has started dancing! It’s so dang cute. She yells “google!” and starts spinning or moving her feet quickly.
- One great thing! I had stopped taking anxiety medication in November and after struggling through Nov/Dec I decided to take it again. Sure enough, within 3 days of taking the medication I was back to myself again and able to better cope with large and small life stressors.
- While quarantied at home, Lucas and I painted one of the walls in our kitchen white to see if it would look good with the cabinetry and flooring and started daydreaming / planning for some kitchen improvements…. possibly new counter tops. TBD if we end up pursuing those plans.
❌ PITS
- After weeks of looking forward to one golden adult-only day when work was closed for both of us and the kids’ school was open (Jan 3rd) we got a school message 2 days before saying the school would be closed on the 3rd and “sorry about the typo on the calendar.”
- Covid. It finally came to the Brook house. So many covid tests. Tenny got it, we assume from school, and got over it before we knew he had it. Then Murphy got it. It wasn’t until I got it and felt like crap that I took an at home test (positive!) and thought to test the kids (Tenny was negative Murphy positive). They only had runny noses so we sent them to school because we didn’t think they were sick. Lucas got it after spending a work day with Murphy home and sneezing all over him.
- Tennyson swallowed a nut. The metal kind you screw onto bolts. He said he put it in his mouth and it fell into his throat because he was laying down. It was on the floor in our garage before that.
- The day after Tenny swallowed the metal nut Murphy ripped off an entire finger nail at school (got finger stuck in accordion closet doors and the nail came off when she pulled her finger out of the door crease). Lucas took her to the ER because the pediatrician office said it had to be addressed immediately or it wouldn’t heal right (she wouldn’t have a nail on that finger ever again). They gave her a stuffed animal in the ER and although she was up way past bedtime she handled it all fairly well. The dr wrapped it in gauze and told Lucas to keep it on for 5-7 days. Murphy ripped off the gauze in the car on the way home.
- A few days later Tenny threw up all night. Vomit everywhere. We never got a mattress protector cover because he was so good at not having bathroom accidents. We didn’t think about needing a mattress cover for vomit.
- Murphy peed on the bathroom floor (post shower) and then banana-peel-style slipped in it
- Murphy has been doing her cry until she almost passes out thing more often. It’s so hard to watch her face turn purple knowing we can’t do anything about it.
- Lucas had multiple work trips scheduled for January and he had to bail on 2 or 3 of them due to family illness/general stress.
Photo dump from home
Photo dump from school
