Hello All!
A Monday edition of this email, and I am going to try hard to pound it out! Even though I wrote just last week, I am going to go person by person...maybe that will be faster! Ha!
Gretchen: Gretchen was much better at going to school last week, so she has finally fully recovered from Spring Break. I got an email last week saying that someone in her class had just tested positive for Covid. My jaw honestly dropped when I read that email...I had all but forgotten about Covid! So far, she continues to appear perfectly healthy. Last Friday they planted some seeds with the kids at school and this morning when I dropped her off, she could not wait to show me where they planted the seeds. On Tuesday Gretchen played at Genevieve's and had so much fun. It is a bummer they will not be going to the same elementary school, they have become such good little buddies. On Wednesday evening Bridget, Gretchen and I took Ziggy on a walk at the Centerville Park while we waited for Marshall to finish soccer practice. Gretchen was the cutest little runner. After we were done walking, Bridget started a game with Gretchen running from tree to tree, and about five minutes later, Bridget was regretting this game because Gretchen was non-stop! A few currently cute things about Gretchen...she has started listening to Queen on our Google. It started with asking Google to play a song from a movie, and then one time Google pulled up the original song by Queen and Gretchen is hooked. The other day Richard came home from work and heard Queen playing in the loft and he looked at me so confused, and then realized it was the five year old up there jamming out to Queen. :) One day last week, Gretchen went into the living room to do her running and I asked her if I could play the piano while she ran. She looked completely offended and in such a serious voice said to me, "But then I cannot hear the voices." I have always wondered what is going through her mind as she is running back and forth! And speaking of imagination...last week I was going through a massive art bin that holds all sorts of creations from our kids and I found a picture of Carla. Carla was one of Rachel's imaginary friends between ages 3 and 5. I am so glad I found it...priceless! I took a picture and sent it to Richard and then later that night Gretchen heard us talking about it. She asked who Carla was and I told her that Rachel used to have an imaginary friend named Carla just like she has an imaginary friend named Little Rosa. Instant offense again! She quickly told us that Little Rosa is not imaginary and spent the next day drawing all sorts of imaginary people, and each time pointing out that not one of them was Little Rosa, who is very much real. :) And lastly, I took my girls to the library Saturday afternoon and Gretchen whispered the entire time and it just about killed me. She was so cute. I could have stayed there all day with her.
Rachel: Rachel had dance pictures on Tuesday and regular dance class on Wednesday. We waved her hair for her dance pictures and it aged her about five years. On Thursday, she had music class, and I was not able to go with her, and my Mom was so kind to take her and stay because it was a parent day. Rachel was sad not to have me there, but I also know she had a great time with my Mom and loved showing her all the things she knows. Her Let's Play Music program is about finished and on Saturday morning she and I went and met with a piano teacher. She comes highly recommended and we have been on the waitlist for months. It was a true payday, for me, and especially for Rachel, as the teacher went through the book she uses for the first two levels and Rachel knew almost every single thing in there. Rachel spoke with confidence and answered all the questions about notes, rhythm, the staff, scales, chords, intervals, dynamics, etc. The teacher was so impressed and we found the perfect level for Rachel to start with in June. This has been such a good program and I am so excited for Gretchen to start it in the fall! Rachel had a late night at Sara's on Friday night and had a great time there, as always. Rachel had her second dance competition on Saturday afternoon and did a good job. It was just at Farmington High School, so I brought Bridget and Gretchen too and I know she felt so loved being cheered on by her sisters. One funny thing about Rachel...back in October while Richard and I were in New York, Rachel cut some of her hair, right in the front. LIke completely cut it down to her forehead. It is slowly growing back. :) A couple of weeks ago, I was pulling her hair back in a bun for ballet and there was a section by her ear that was a few inches shorter than the rest of her hair. I kindly asked her if she had cut her hair again and she exclaimed, "I just can't stop!" Oh, it was hilarious! Impulse control is clearly tricky for her. But, sometimes it comes in handy as she literally ripped a barely loose tooth out of her mouth last night. :)
Bridget: Sweet Bridget had a very traumatic Wednesday. That girl is so calm, brave and composed in every instance of her life, except when it comes to medical procedures. On Wednesday morning she had to have two baby teeth pulled. They were not loose at all, but instead were sinking! We tried giving her laughing gas, but she did not at all like how that was making her feel. She completely refused to open her mouth up for the numbing jelly, so we opted to just go right to the numbing shots! She was pretty much ballistic at this point and it took the dentist, hygienist and myself to hold her down and keep her still. She was clinging to any part of my body she could get a hold of, all while I was trying to keep her down! Our dentist though, that man is a saint and I actually wrote him a thank you letter the next morning because I was just so impressed. He was SO patient with her. He was calm, but firm, but not in a mean way at all. Empowering is probably a better way to describe it. He just kept telling her, "Look at my nose. You are brave. You are safe. We love you. You can do this. Keep breathing. Feel your breath. Stay with yourself. Feel the air in and out. You can do hard things." Bridget got the two shots in her gums and did not pass out, nothing short of a miracle for her. The hygienist and I spent the next 10 minutes with her keeping her calm and slowing down her breath before the dentist came back in to pull the teeth. Our dentist is a great comedian and came in and got her laughing before he had a serious talk with her about fear and bravery. He told her to let her brave voice be loud in her head, even though her fear voice wanted to be loudest. Can this guy be my therapist??? I was so happy her two teeth came out so quickly, shocked actually, And in the process, he popped out another baby tooth. Bridget, unlike Rachel, hates wiggly teeth and refuses to touch them, so who knows, that extra tooth very well could have saved us another traumatic tooth extraction at the dentist! While he was getting her teeth out, he was saying the exact same things to her as before and she once again made it through without fainting. They were so kind and let us hang out in the room for awhile, gave Bridget an otter pop, and then moved us to a room with a big bean bag where Bridget could lay down and relax until she felt like she could walk to the car. It was an ordeal! But I am SO glad she never fainted, and I really did write the dentist a thank you note, and the next day I had a good follow-up conversation with Bridget about it all. Here's hoping these things can become less scary for her! The happy highlights from Bridget's week included milking at the farm on Thursday with Cambria and a late night at Cambria''s house on Friday.
Marshall: Marshall had a soccer game with his coach's other team last Monday. He played great and after trailing 0-1 most the game, our team finally scored and then won 4-1. Very nice. :) Marshall was supposed to have two games Saturday, but with the near constant rain of the weekend (yay!!!) the first game was cancelled in order to preserve the field! His later game was in Logan, so he and Richard were gone for quite awhile, but came home with a victory. On Sunday morning, Marshall finally learned how to tie a tie! He still needs to perfect it, but hopefully this means he can stop wearing his little boy tie to church every Sunday!
Richard: Richard seems pretty much settled into life with his new job. He was able to work from home on Wednesday and that was really nice. He presented at a conference on Thursday morning and felt good about that. And other than that, he has been my partner in crime as we drive these kids all over the place and figure out who is picking up who when! He did have to work on Sunday too, but he was home as well, so it is always nice to not have that commute!
Me :) I actually had an amazing week last week! One of my highlights, though not the most important one, is that I have been on a mission to de-junk and organize our house in 2022. I have been tackling our big storage room for the month of April and I made so much progress last week! Confession so that you might know how crazy I am...sometimes last week I would just go stand down there and take in all my hard work. Talk about satisfying! It just might be my favorite room now! Ha! Anyway, aside from organizing and taking things to the DI I judged the dance company auditions at the junior high on Thursday and loved it. It took a whole lot of work making sure my kids all got to where they needed to be while I was gone, but I pulled it off and loved stepping back into the dance world for a few hours. On Friday night I went to my Foxboro Book Club and had a great time. We had Toney FHE at my parents' last night and had a great time. It was their 41st wedding anniversary! We had a delicious dinner and while we ate dessert, my parents answered questions from all of us about their dating days and wedding. It was delightful! We also had a photographer come and take an updated grandchild picture. It was chaos, but good things should come of it!
Oh, before I end, one more thing about Bridget. As I mentioned I was gone for a few hours in the afternoon and evening at the junior high on Thursday. I left my kids a list of things they needed to be sure to get done. One thing Bridget needed to do was study for her spelling test the next day. Since she had no parents at home, she decided to make a video of herself on the Gabb phone saying each word with a few seconds of pause in between so she would have time to write the word! Genius! Bless her soul.
That's it! Crazy that it is the last week of April!!!
Love,
Richard, Jenny, Marshall, Bridget, Rachel, and Gretchen :)
P.S. With the grandkid picture, just zoom in on Cal and Gretchen and your heart will melt.
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