It almost became a close shave, but Ane’s flight arrived last night, just as Hawaii began to lock down.

But she made it!  And she brought us treats!

It was late and her brothers were already in bed, but they were happy to see her this morning!

And she was happy to see them, even though she wasn’t fully awake yet.

My reign is continuing to be glorious.

Or something.

With no online school and no regular schedule to be had, it is up to me to make sure there is some kind of structure to our lives.  The Webmaster is now officially working from home as well (he got word of that last week, and promptly set up shop in our bedroom with all the stuff he needed from work – which makes him my co-worker now, and I am the official head of HR), and Ane gets back tonight (late), so we have to have some kind of routine so we don’t all go nuts.

I am still pushing outside recess time on the boys, especially while the weather is good, but when recess ends and the assigned school work under Mom is done, there is time for a nap.

If you’re Tad.

Thanks to being a growing teenager, the kid can drop off for a nap anywhere, anytime.

The Webmaster watched him sleep and said, “I swear I can see him growing.”

Thumper’s birthday on Saturday was certainly nothing like I had planned for or imagined.  Not that he really truly noticed that it was his birthday and that something special should have been happening for him.  Poor kid.  How do you celebrate a birthday when you’re supposed to be “socially distancing” during a pandemic?

Solution: order what he would have eaten from Red Robin, let him wear his favorite t-shirt, and let him stand to eat.  And if that means he eats a pound of steak fries with campfire sauce, then he eats a pound of steak fries with campfire sauce.

However, Auntie did come over (because she is young and healthy and we bought her dinner, ha ha ha), and we watched two movies with her.  First, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” (because she and Rerun are reading the books – she finished; Rerun is on book #5), and then she worked with Rerun on his batting stance.

Which led to Auntie saying, “Come on, they are the perfect age to watch ‘The Sandlot!'”

So we watched “The Sandlot,” and the boys loved it, even though it made for a very late night.

It definitely wasn’t the birthday that I had envisioned for Thumper, but under the circumstances, it wasn’t bad and the boys all had a good time!

Sweet little Thumper,

Today you are seven years old, and you are more little boy than baby now.  You are a study in contradictions.  You have the lanky limbs of a boy, but can still snuggle down like a cuddly toddler.  You have an innocent and sweet face, but possess the hacking skills of a tech wizard.  You are charming and use your amazing eyes to get what you want, and then we find you climbing counters to get to cookies.  You struggle with speech, and yet you know exactly every word that is said to you.

All this makes you the most challenging, but in some ways the most rewarding, of little boys.  You are too smart for your own good, and yet not quite where you should be.  But you are absolutely adorable.

And that missing front tooth that we’ve now immortalized in these pictures just adds to your charm, as does the slight lisp you’ve acquired with the extra space in your mouth.

This is a tough time for you, my little Boo.  Your 7th birthday is going to be forever remembered as being in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic shutdown, but you don’t understand that.  All you know is that the adults that are closest to you, outside of our immediate family, have all disappeared for the moment.  No teachers, no paras, no therapists, no behavior techs, no great-grandparents, no grandparents, no people at church, no swim teachers.  For the last several days, the only adults you have seen have been the neighbors (at appropriate social distances) and Auntie (no social distancing there).  And because we could not celebrate today, the best I could do was contact your teachers and invite them to meet us at the park (which has its play equipment wrapped with caution tape now) so you could get the one thing you truly wanted for your birthday – hugs.  And some of them came because they love you, they miss you, and they willingly hugged you.  And you, Mister Sensory, loved every second of it.  So much for social distancing, but I will plead for a special exception for you.

In the meantime, we have tried to provide some stability to your days, even if they contain way too much screen time.  We want you to know that even in the messiness of a historical moment that you can’t fully comprehend, you are loved.

You are our sweet, stubborn, silly, talented, adorable, bouncy, snuggly hacker ninja.  Happy 7th birthday, Thumper – we love you more than we can say!

Love,
Mama