Six!

 Today Maren turned six years old.

We had a small party for her. Four of her friends from school were supposed to come and because of a miscommunication we ended up having only three. It was a lot of cake for such a small number of people, but it was definitely a fun time.

It was beautiful weather today, so we were able to have our party outside. It is hard for me to believe that my baby is six years old!

Busy and tired

 I am busy and tired. So today you get a few cute photos 😊❤️

Giraffe Daddy

 Maren is really starting to get creative with her drawings. 

A self-portrait from today:

And an absolutely amazing picture from about a week ago called “Giraffe Daddy”:

It’s my new contact photo for Jeff on my phone, so I see it every time he calls 😄

Firsts

My mom was able to visit for the first time in two years. The last time we saw her was when we were in Oregon in January 2020. Linden was still a baby then and Maren was still a preschooler. My mom was only able to come visit for about a week, but it was so so great for all of us to see her. 

The day that she left (Wednesday) was Maren‘s first day of first grade and Linden‘s first day of day care. After three days of daycare Linden has her first daycare cold, and as of this afternoon has had her first Covid test. 

Jeff and I just finished the first week of fall semester. I am sick with a weird ear thing - my ear is not infected, but there is fluid buildup that isn’t improving and now I have a semi-urgent ENT referral. 

With all this going on we are pretty exhausted. Here’s hoping for the second and third weeks to settle down 🤞🏼

Dancing to saw music

 After our basement flooded a couple of months ago, we filed an insurance claim and were approved for restoration work. It took a long time, but this week it was finally finished. 

Just before the last bit of work was done, we all went down to the basement to play on the new carpet while Jeff did some sawing. The new carpet is thicker than the old carpet was, so he was sawing a bit off the bottom of a door so that it would close. Maren and Linden “danced to the saw music.”

I feel like there is nothing more quintessential to childhood than moments like this ❤️