Pittsburgh and home again!

Jason and I took a record LOW number of photos while our kids were having a lovely time in Pittsburgh with their aunt and uncle! The days we had to savor alone (the most since we had children) went by very fast, but not quite fast enough for our youngest. It wasn't that Terah wasn't having a wonderful time, but she was also contending with fun AND a missing feeling. That seemed to strike most as night or when we were on the phone and she was not interested in ever saying goodbye. One day I got the text first from Kali and later from Mark that he had found the Boggle words "Terah really wants Mommy" on their living room floor. Alida had helped her craft it. And then on the day of our arrival, she was bouncing up and down by the door as she waited for us. I had a little leech hanging on me for some time after we were safely there with them. I don't think she's quite ready for a week of overnight camp! Nor am I!!

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I think Jason and I struck a decent balance of work and play in our days together, feeling the new year looming but trying to soak up this final "slower time." We made good progress in both of the books we are reading together, though the smell of the girls' gingerbread houses in the living room next to us was rather tantalizing. The evergreen tree in "the yard" of our home that Kali constructed fell over partway through the week so we got permission from the girls to eat that tree and the one other yard tree. That tied us over until their return!! One house consumed and two to go.

I was the farm chores person for the week (which I enjoyed since it is fun to get into a rhythm of doing it each morning). It was fun to see various things I often am not out and about enough to notice - like the fact that I think our two ducks raised by mama hens have finally figured out that they are ducks. They have started hanging out by Kali's duck pen joining in with the quacking chorus at times. Jason continued making some headway on the bike shed walls and chipping away at the winter cut back list! He's very cognizant, as I am I, that things are gonna change for him shortly with Sassafras Enterprises work picking back up here in the new year. He's got more than enough work lined up for 2023!

So while our house was much quieter than usual, there was a lot of hubbub happening in Pittsburg. I was not there but I have received multiple reports of the extensive teasing and pranking that was happening. While some might have tried to feign innocence, all contributed to a laundry list of things told to us: bananas in the Christmas tree, wasabi almonds snuck into the plain bowl to wow a kid's palate, slippers in pillow cases, lego food in the fridge, stuffed animals playing Rook and reading an etiquette book, edamame put in Mark's leftover smoothie, cereals swapped around in the boxes and so on. 

A big event before we arrived was their Swedish night where they did their best to dress in traditional Swedish clothing, learned some dances and a few Swedish words, and feasted on split pea soup and plettor. They're 1/8th Swedish, genetically, though culturally it's down to reclamation, not preservation.

The night must have worn them out!!

At one point in the week, Terah was having fun with their small domino set and that led to her and Alida watching videos of dominos, like this one from the Dutch Domino Team. (Yes, I did in fact just get completely derailed from this blog post while the girls introduced me to the wonders of domino teams building scenes with 700,000+ dominos!) Anyway, this led to Mark and Christie ordering a set of 1,100 for the girls to have fun with, and so they did!! Here's Kali's cardinal and there were supposedly many other creations prior to our arrival, and some following as we got to join in the fun. But there wasn't a lot of time for domino building as we arrived with just a bit of time to spare before needing to spiffy up for the fancy tea party we had been invited to join!

Fancy clothes, delicious food and excellent post-tea entertainment. There were linzer cookies with peach and raspberry jam, but I think my favorite item was the cheese coins (Jason the wisecracker suggested that after we start eating them we call them "bitcoins"; a freshly minted joke that got quite a bit of currency, cheesy though it was).

Jason and I were clearly the least prepared in the "fancy realm" but a tie from Mark and some makeup from Christie and we were deemed acceptable. As the "honored guests" we also got the pleasure of serving the tea! Mark had not been informed ahead of time that he would be providing the entertainment. Alida had asked me to bring along The Book With No Pictures, a favorite of theirs to have adults read without knowing what was coming their way. Mark was such an excellent sport, even when he knew that Alida was clearly up to something. The reading was not a disappointment in the least.

We had one full day with them all together and savored a portion of it exploring and old abandoned country club near them that was chock full of trails and other interesting features (random stair cases, cool graffiti, etc...). Now I would not say that Terah initially savored it as "fear of getting lost" creates some big feels for her these days. Thanks to Dr. Becky and the Good Inside podcast, I felt more able to stay in the feels with her for a bit. So after a sort of rocky start, she was ready to take on crossing a log over a stream. My knees were a little week as I came behind her! We all made it across safely! There was stone skipping and rock hurling and I believe I'm the only one that slipped my foot into the stream and got wet! Probably my favorite part was the old tennis courts with some pretty inspiring messages all along the old wall. I think this one was my favorite!

That evening we bundled up in most of the clothes we had along to go enjoy milkshakes outside in freezing temps with Mark's sister and family. It was a memorable experience - our first Jake Shake ever!

And before we knew it, it was Tuesday morning and time to head home. But just the four of us for now, as Kali is remaining for a few more weeks to continue to milk our quarantine time for all it's worth. We aren't hearing much from her, but all the snippets of news have been positive!

We took an alternate route to/fro Pittsburgh in an effort to avoid toll roads, which are quite expensive for those of us without EZPass. We'll be doing that route from now on - taking 30 for a long way was much more pleasant, and included some snow 

We waited an extra day to take down the plastic barrier between us and my parents so that we could connect in person indoors with some dear friends who are being very careful to avoid COVID. We were so grateful for the circumstances lining up to enjoy some "normal" time with them before ending our time staying quarantined. And then it was time to "tear down the wall!" We are happily podded back up with my parents! That said, I would be dishonest if I were to say the "coming out of quarantine" has been smooth on my nerves. Rather the opposite. All the questions and conversations return - the discernment, the logistics, the decisions... Sigh! But there have been some really good things in the last few days, including the flow up and down the stairs between the two households at Tangly Woods. 

Here are three things I'm so glad the last few days included! Jason and I got to go and donate blood together. They gave us snazzy matching long-sleeve T-shirts.

Thursday we got to watch Luca again for the first time in almost a month. I had been dreaming about him so much. I was a little worried he might have forgotten us. He hadn't! I was so glad!! And I think it is safe to say that Luca might be the reason our 2022 blog book had to be split into two books to print. I am having a very hard time not taking a lot of photos of this little guy. He's on the move now, wanting us to walk him around holding his hands. He had a preference for Alida being the one to walk him, but he would often have her bring him to find me. When he's crawling around and I'm not in the room, he'll make a sound and I mimic him and he'll crawl towards my voice until he's not sure which way to go and then he'll call to me again and if I answer he'll continue on his way. He finds me every time and I love it!

The girls never want him to leave, but this Thursday Terah was chomping at the bit to make a cake so she turned her attention to that as soon as he headed home. I did not have to help much with the cake part but the energy was waning by the time the decorating and cleanup rolled around! We are very much enjoying their creations!

Then yesterday the younger gals joined me for our Friday errands around town including a special visit AND a play date! We got to enjoy lunch with our dear friends Don and Margaret and then shared our wooden Christmas puzzle with them. We got it all put together before we needed to keep moving. 

When we got home from town my mom had gotten her Christmas decorations away and all her snowflakes and "let it snow" signs were up. You can try to imagine how pleased she was to wake up today to this. If her decorations are TOO successful, we might have to have a conversation about just how many snow-themed things she can put around her place!!

It was gone by the afternoon! We are being treated to the evening sun shining on the sycamores along the stream once again!