April 2022

A snapshot in our lives right now: We wake up around 6:30 on weekdays. Mat is the family alarm clock. The boys eat (nothing inspired--cereal and fruit or toast) and then we drive Pete to school. Hank always comes. Once he was asleep and we didn't wake him and he was not pleased. Then Hank comes back and eats some more, dawdles, and he's out the door by 8:10ish for Indian Pines. We pick him up first, at 2, and then Mat walks to pick up Pete at 2:20ish. Hank likes to come to that, too, in his stroller. Mat balances Pete's bike on said stroller. Pete (he's a North Walker, which always sounds like a Game of Thrones designation to me) barely greets either party and then zooms home. We have snack, do art, watch cartoons, play outside, etc. We don't have any after school activities right now except tutoring for Pete, on Wednesdays. We eat around 5:30, then bath, then chill, then bed, which is usually wrapped up around 7:30ish. It's a long routine, involving a lot of Mat. They brush their teeth, then Hank stays upstairs with me and we work on his letters and snuggle and Facetime Lulu and Poppy. He hasn't been able to do it this week because they're out of town and he is, again, not pleased. Then Mat comes up, gets Hank, follows me downstairs and Hank says goodnight to both of us and I sit with Pete for a while (Mat reads to him while I'm upstairs--they're reading Hatchet right now) and he puts Hank down. He recently told me that routine and it involves a lot of reciting the same things and taking sips of drink, etc. Mat is very patient. Oh, everyday we work in either handwriting or reading with Pete and piano practice.

Hank likes to wear his raincoat to school on rainy days, which seems like it makes sense but they don't go outside.

Nothing they love more than a sucker

Pete was an artist for career day. He LOVES art--spends hours on elaborate creations.

Tim visited! We ate Korean food

Pete, who loved him, kept calling him Davis

At Acre for lunch

Pete's band

Easter!

And, on Easter, one of the luna moths we'd raised from eggs emerged from its cocoon!

They wouldn't really smile and then I said "poop"

At Saugahatchee for brunch

Hank with his bestie Davis

With his Indian Pines class for his Easter celebration

Mat took the boys to the park while I was teaching (they were off the day after Easter) and Pete knelt in an ant pile to catch a frog and got bitten over 200 times (we stopped counting at 200). They weren't fire ants, luckily.

We took him to the after-hours clinic, which was useless, but he developed a fever and we were worried.

Hank DID NOT like the fact that we were gone. Mat sent this pic, where he looks so worried.

Healing

We went to this little restaurant, Hunter's Pub, in the middle of Georgia for Mat's birthday. We had fried lobster tails for an appetizer and steak for dinner! It was delicious and weird. We got there at 5 PM (4 PM Alabama time) and got seated right away, but by the time we left the wait was hours.

This is Margot, named after his friend JJ's dog (also named Margot). Margot is a male anole, which is a little confusing. Anyway, Pete really wanted a lizard and so for his birthday we got a terrarium and let him put an anole he caught in it. Then we embarked upon a month long quest of trying to find a female anole, so they could breed and we could watch the eggs hatch and raise baby anoles. And then let them all go! It seemed like the perfect plan, but we couldn't find a female anole. I even tried to buy one from Petsmart, where they sell them, but they're all males. Then I tried to order one from a reptile store, and two males arrived (I learned how to sex them). So in the end we got a bearded dragon (next month's post!) and let Margot go.

With a baby turtle he found at my parents' house. Their house backs up to a creek and a lot of land, so he finds tons of animals there.

At Sheila's! The best burger in Auburn.

One of our afterschool activities has been finding carpenter bees and freezing them. It's morbid, I know, but they are destroying the wood outside. It's funny to watch sweet Hankie trap one and say "I need to freeze him."