The weeks are starting to blend together a bit with all the time at home but everyone is still trucking along.

Every now and then I pop downstairs during class time and love when I get to see the kids participating. It’s going to be weird for all of us when SSA are back at physical school. Some day.

Monday afternoon Steven had a check-in with his eye doctor. He’s still patching up to 4 hours/day in the hope that his right eye can gain enough strength to see 20/20 corrected. When we started patching he could see one letter at 20/40 and now he can see one letter at 20/20! With a row of letters, he can see 20/30. Pretty awesome. We’re going back in 3 months and the hope is that it will be the end of patching. Fingers crossed!

Sammy, experimenting in solidarity.

I got some special bedtime cuddles with by Bubs.

On Tuesday morning we woke up to our first sprinkling of snow. Before breakfast, Steven was outside on the deck shoveling. It was a very small dusting of snow but Steven was able to shovel a pile big enough for Sammy to use the snowball maker that he bought this summer. Gotta be honest – it makes great snowballs!

Very excited! I can only imagine how happy he’ll be when there’s enough snow for actual snowball fights.

Steven really enjoys reading. It’s pretty cool, and I can definitely relate. In 1st grade I read and read and read and read. (Which reminds me that, for school, we tracked the books I read on large index cards. I wonder if SSA would enjoy tracking the books they read.)

Sammy was trying to figure out how to access something on his computer and Steven and Amaya came to help him. They looks so old and competent. 🙂

Tuesday evening Steven was complaining about a stomach ache so he got into bed with some books while I finished up working. “I’m going to read in my mind, not out loud.”

While Steven was reading, Amaya and Sammy were playing in the basement and Amaya hurt her arm. She was babying it all night but was able to move it well so we assumed, at worst, it was a bit bruised. In the morning, however, it was swollen. Amaya wasn’t complaining about it but I decided to take her to the doctor just to be safe.

They were able to see her right away and the doctor agreed it was unusual for her to have that kind of swelling if nothing was wrong and suspected a buckle fracture. They don’t do x-rays at our pediatrician’s office so we headed home with plans to get an x-ray after lunch. We needed to get it done the same day but Amaya wasn’t in much pain so we decided we could wait until after my 11am meeting. (I’m really lucky to have a job where I can jump offline throughout the day for issues like this and the only concern anyone has is whether or not Amaya is ok.)

Pre-X-ray, sorting through ball cards that Jason left for the kids.

Jason left a note for the kids so Steven left one in return for his dad. (There was an interesting debate between the kids about whether or not “share” meant they all had to share every card or if they could share the card in a way that allowed them to pick ones for individual ownership. We settled on the latter.)

X-ray time! In and out, easy peasy. We got to see Amaya’s x-ray and, afterward, looked up images of buckle fractures to see if it looked like she had a fracture or not. We both voted “no” and waited for a call with the results.

I don’t think I mentioned that we had a few more days of amazing November weather this week. Amaya didn’t get to enjoy it quite the way she would have liked but Steven and Sammy made the most of it.

Aaaaaaand, by early afternoon we got the call from Amaya’s doctor’s office to tell us that the x-rays showed a buckle fracture. 🙁 The official report is “acute, transversely oriented, buckle fracture extending through the distal radial metaphysis and a concomitant acute transverse buckle fracture extending through the distal ulnar metaphysis.” It’s a stable fracture and pretty common in young kids but we still had to make an appointment with ortho and get a brace to stabilize it in the interim.

On Wednesday evening we had a school virtual science fair. We picked up science fair kits at the school earlier in the week and, after some technical difficulties, got connected. It was more like a magic show than a science fair. The “tricks” were cool but the guy running the program didn’t actually explain the science behind anything. SSA had fun, though.

Amaya negotiated sleeping with me due to her fracture. Couldn’t argue. <3

Amaya’s Thursday look. This child would have been in heaven in the 80s. (Also, it needs to be said again – thank you to Charlie, Aunt Sara and Uncle Dave for literally keeping Amaya dressed for years. We never have to buy her clothing because she has all of Charlie’s hand-me-downs.)

Penni is very good at pushing the kids outdoors. Amaya’s activities will be somewhat limited for a bit so we’ll have to see if we can still motivate her to get outside. She said she doesn’t want to play outside until she can go on the playset or sled.

Experimenting with writing with her left hand. No go.

Penni taught the kids how to make pom poms with yarn.

My sweet triplet mom friends Karie, Heather and Dianna sent Amaya these awesome flowers on Thursday (from their kids). She was over the moon. It was really special.

On Friday morning we were off to Ortho! I was wondering if they’d consider a splint instead of a cast but he thought her injury needed the plaster immobilization. Amaya was all smiles and a great patient. She picked a hot pink cast to match Charlie who, in some sort of psychic connection, fell and hurt her arm at school on Thursday and is in a hot pink soft cast until her ortho appointment next week. Three days in, her only complaint is the itching.

It’s hard to even see the swelling in this picture but it was pretty obvious when compared to her other arm. She has very dainty wrists.

A pleasant November surprise – lunch outdoors followed by soccer for the boys.

Amaya got such delight out of showing Jason her cast.

First order of business on Saturday morning – names on the cast. And first order of the first order? Writing Charlie’s name.

Steven, Sammy, Jason and I added our names, too. I acted as proxy for Sally cat.

I told Jason that the ball card industry should be very happy that he had kids. SSA are all interested to varying levels but it’s probably no surprise that Steven has an entire ball card organizational system. He was rooting for the Dolphins today because he has the quarterback’s card.

On Saturday morning, in honor of Aunt Ouize’s birthday, we Zoom’d with Grandma Sunshine, Aunt Annette, Aunt Ouize, Uncle Todd, Nancy and Abe. The pandemic totally sucks, but I do like that it’s normalized this type of connection.

Family monopoly! After three wins in a row for Steven, Sammy took the win this time and by a nice margin. Steven came in a very strong second.

Amaya asked me to include this picture. 🙂

This morning was another Sunday school session. Zoom is a rough format but they’re making it work the best they can. Just one more thing that will be better when it’s in person again. We were the first kids to join so Amaya got to give a full report on her cast.

A shot of Steven’s (adorable) name. Sammy wrote below it in yellow so it’s not easy to see but it made them both happy which was the point.

I took on the day with a trip to get the kids snow boots, new sneakers for Amaya and a grocery trip to get our Thanksgiving shopping done. After almost an hour at Dick’s, we were at the register to pay and I realized I left my wallet at home. I am a dedicated online shopper and am almost never in stores. Even this attempt left me finishing my purchases online.

Steven and Amaya are still afraid to use escalators so, before we took the elevator, I let Sammy ride the escalator up and down on his own.

New cast-friendly sneakers arriving by mail this week.

Since we had to come home for my wallet we grabbed lunch before heading out which gave SSA time to read letters from Grandma Sunshine. They love getting mail!

I really dislike grocery shopping but I have a vision for our Thanksgiving dinner and want to fully execute it. I had three great (and patient) helpers for the 90 minute shopping trip. Sammy was excited to pick out the turkey that he’ll stuff later this week.

More snowballs! Since the snow boots are also on the way, we went for rain boots today.

Finally… Amaya may have slowed down her outdoor activities but even a cast can’t stop her crafting. She painted this mug on Saturday and we treated it today. It’s supposed to be dripping pink frosting with sprinkles.

Have a great week!