June 2020 - just our crazy ramblings as we mostly stay at home

Officially summer break!

The kids have been home for 3 months, so it doesn't feel like we're 3 weeks into summer break, but much farther in. (It's nice to have a long summer break.)

Google likes to make little collages, movies, and animations from my photos. Jacob likes to make memes from my photos. Sometimes, with their powers combined, we get something like this:

I haven't been recording most of the comments I've heard from Gideon this month, but I've got a few. This is the uncensored newsletter!

6/8/20
Gideon: I'm digging in the butt crack
Everyone: Don't do that, it's gross!
Gideon: I have to. I have to dig in the butt crack.

Rob comment: Oh my heavens, this is fantastic. I would NEVER hear anything like this in the office. I love working from home!!!

Oh, there's more!
Beth: Gideon, nobody wants your penis to touch their pillow!
(The backstory is he came out of the bathroom naked, but before he got to me so that I could dress him, he found a pillow in the kitchen laundry, so he stuffed it between his legs and called it a diaper. All his sisters immediately went into proclamations that they would never use that pillow again.)

Despite the numbers in SC becoming worse instead of better, we are continuing our summer social distancing plan. We have in person piano lessons with family. (I only teach family.) 

(My kids are working on their major scales this summer.)

We visit DeeDee once a week, and if the weather is good, we swim at Aunt Libbi's pool while we visit DeeDee. 

Each child has a day to go up to visit Memere with Aunt Bethany and Aleeyah. 

The kids are still not allowed to go out with me in public, except with rare occasion. (Seth did an escape room with Rob's family, the 3 with orthodontist plans have been to appointments, Carolyn went to the bank to open accounts and to buy fabric with me for kitchen curtains, and the oldest 2 have gone to the library to pick up books.) 

We have allowed them to have 1 friend over a week to play for a while. We have also allowed the neighbors that live on the street. (There are only 2 households are allowed to play with other kids so far.) We choose carefully their friends and they don't usually overlap days with friends.

The first week at Libbi's pool, the kids found this rubber snake. Gideon tried to bring it over to me, and as he was telling me that I didn't need to be scared because it was just pretend, it wiggled unexpectedly and seemed so real that Gideon JUMPED back, dropped the snake, and ran! hahaha 

 Gideon is a disaster. He is constantly making mess, destroying things, and having meltdowns. I love him, but can he be a preschooler already? I'm tired of toddler years! When he dumped out the BIG ($7) carton of gold fish on the floor, I had the kids clean them up and suggested we label them "floor fish" so that we would all know those had been on the floor. Seth labeled them "Dirt Fish."

Trying new things:

Kaitlyn wanted to learn to use the lathe, so Rob took some time to help her learn to use it.

 Seth got some minifigures and learned to paint them.

 I tried a veggie pizza sauce recipe. (It needs modification; the veggies were too noticeable!)

 The twins are trying to learn baseball. My brother helped them learn some basics of batting and catching.

 Gideon played with all of Kristen's toys while they played baseball. He learned to use a kaleidoscope.

I wish he would try new foods, but he refuses. (Today he dipped his roll in the ketchup that was supposed to make him want to eat either the beef or the carrots.)

We tried fresh eggs (and fresh green beans) from my ministering sister.

Tried to set up and take dance pictures. (The girls didn't get to finish the year or use their costumes, but we took pictures anyways.)

Things we've learned:
Kaitlyn finished all 3 levels of hymns in piano lessons. Yay! I want to get her her own hymnbook for Christmas. She likes to make medleys and everyone gets frustrated by all her little sticky tabs throughout the hymnbook.

More memes from my brother. (This one came about because a girl texted Seth while we were reading scriptures, and we all got to read the text because his screen was casted to the TV, making any notifications publicly viewable.) Seth learned to beware casting your screen when you expect a text!

Carolyn is learning to sew. She sewed the curtains (back-tab panels) for our kitchen bay windows.

 Alee has recently learned to iron and wanted to help.

 Kaitlyn is learning some hand sewing.

I learned some video editing this summer with some projects for my parents.

Some finished projects:

Carolyn's curtains

 Mom's learning closet organized & face masks
 (homeschool, school/office supplies, school records, learning toys, etc)

 

Kaitlyn's "bat" (turned on Rob's lathe)

Seth painting minifigs

And just some time together:

 

And just some random:
The kids got giant Mylar balloons from Rob's mom. Gideon has been leading his around the house like a puppy. The resided in our stairwell at night so they wouldn't get caught in fans.

 

There was a spider. (No, for real. That's what they tore the room apart to find. I'm not sure if they found it or not.)

Father's Day

 More Memes from Jacob (who calls Seth "The Mayor")

Some more of Gideon 

 

(That's pretty close to what he said when Seth put his foot on Gideon's things. "That's an order" is a direct quote.)

 6/28/20

I'm tired of fighting Gideon to go to the bathroom (and really, tired  of fighting him to do everything he's supposed to be doing in life), so instead of saying, "It's time to go to the bathroom." or "We have to use the potty before naptime." I have been saying, "Do you need to go peepee in the potty so you don't peepee in your bed?" (He's wearing a pull-up.) He has been responding, "I want to peepee in my bed." (Stubborn little snot.) Today, I trimmed his nails before going to put him down and when he went to hug Rob before bed, he says, "Goodnight, I'm going to peepee in my bed." (What a character) 
Comments like these are what lead to memes like these! (Oh, my brothers...)

(I think this meme was made by my other brother.)

Gideon just woke up and came downstairs. Natalie said, "Gideon, say hi to Grandma." (On the phone) Gideon ignores her, looks at me, and says, "Tweet." (Then he tells her, "I can't. I'm going to be busy. I can't say hi to Grandma." Natalie says he's a little turd.)

We are preparing for a Hedgepath family reunion, so we are not allowing friends or family (that we aren't already seeing at the reunion) as we lead up to the reunion. Afterwards, we are keeping to ourselves (or the same family we were around) for the 2 weeks after (in case we pick up something from the large gathering). I hope everything goes well for that.

*Update - family reunion cancelled due to growing COVID-19 numbers and risks.