Thumper would prefer to do all of his work on either iPad or desktop, but… he seriously needs to work on his pencil grip.

So his OT suggested that we get him some pencil finger grips.

Thumper hates them.

He is constantly trying to work around them – either by moving his fingers, or just grabbing the pencil by a different part (say, the eraser), or trying to pull off the grip when I’m not looking.

Sorry, Thumper – your therapist says we have to do this!

Oh, all right, FINE – we went and fed the chickens at the neighbors’ house.  Little Mo and her family have chickens, and they love leftover vegetable and fruit scraps.  So we took some over just to feed them and do some chicken watching.

We also learned of the sad demise of Fred the rooster, who became a meal for a raccoon not too long ago.  However, the flock has a new rooster, so the boys met Buddy – who was more than happy to cock-a-doodle-doo for them.

The chicken visit broke up the day nicely, as it had been an extremely grouchy morning around our house.  Visiting chickens was just what we needed to do.

It was a Monday.  That is the only explanation I have.

Tad: (in morning discussion with Academic Lab class) “Mom, how do I make the world often?”

Me: (raises eyebrow) “How do you make the world often?”

Tad: “Yes.”

Me: “That sentence makes no sense.” 

A long argument ensues over the word “often.”

Tad: (unmutes himself on Zoom, mad at me) “Ms. S, would you PLEASE repeat that for my mom?” (shoots me dirty look)

Ms. S: “I was asking how you would make the world awesome.”

And that concludes this episode of “Online School, starring Tad, who will be in speech therapy forever.” 

I haven’t done a flashback in a while, because… sometimes it’s just depressing to look back at older pictures, and miss the ability to just be around people without words like “pandemic,” “virus,” and “social distancing” in the back of your head.

But these are fun, because watching the kids grow is always fun.  So here are some past Mother’s Day pictures.

Here’s the first one with all four kids, in 2013:

I have to admit that the 2014 picture is one of my favorites, thanks to Thumper and Rerun’s expressions:

The outtakes of 2017 were fun:

2018 was another warm one… and the older two were starting to creep up on me:

By last year, it was all over.  The teenagers were taller (though Tad had passed up Ane, and she was wearing heels):

I am so grateful that I am mom to these four crazy people.