Earring

James has been asking for a long time to get his ear pierced. Finally I said yes, but the tattoo places had months-long waitlists and/or more stringent ID requirements than the US passport office. I didn’t really want to give the teenaged workers at Claire’s $60 so with the encouragement of my friend Amanda, I ordered a kit online ($10 for 2 disposable guns) and we just went for it in the kitchen. Sam had to leave the room so there’s no video, but it was quick and painless. Hardest part was pulling the trigger.

It was a little red right after, but he’d also been playing outside in the freezing cold.

I’d forgotten how long it takes to heal up. He requested some peace sign earrings for when he can finally change them in 6 weeks.

Snow

 Right before we got sick, they predicted a big snowfall for Columbia. It got adjusted down and we wound up with just a couple of inches. James was impressed with the snow's sticking ability. 

I'm not 100% sure what they're doing here. 

Up to something, though!

Sam & James took Spark on a walk: 

More of Sam's nature photography. He's got a thing for bridges. 

Our little park - I think that's the sunrise. 

Quarantine

Well, the first week back from break, I got notices from both James and Amelie's schools that they'd been exposed to COVID, from Leah's school that she'd been exposed to lice, and from my work that I'd been scheduled with someone else who tested positive shortly thereafter. It wasn't even a full week! I had a sore throat Saturday & then Sunday, I wasn't able to smell my coffee in the morning, so I went into MU urgent care for a test. The worker told me not to go back to work while waiting on my results. I developed a massive earache after that & had basically convinced myself that it was a bad sinus infection. But I got the positive result Monday afternoon & by Tuesday night the kids all had some symptoms and been warm to the touch off and on. It's Sunday a week later and James and I are still snuffling and flushed. So all in all, worse than a cold but not as bad as strep/flu. 

There has been lots of Nintendo. 

Amelie turning in some assignments: 

School was cancelled Monday for MLK and then 3 additional days due to staffing numbers, so that made it nice not to have to fool with online assignments for several days. 

One of my coworkers gave us a GIANT bag of various craft supplies, which Leah & James have been having a field day with. 

Doesn't James have nice hair? There have been lots of baths - wash away that virus!

Stamps! 

Beads!

Concentration!

I don't know what it is about extra-long paper, but it's appealing. 

I took a bunch of pictures while they (and I) were feeling good. Photos are mostly but not entirely representative. 

Spark came by to investigate. He's pretty well pleased with all of us home all the time again. 

Grandma Mary brought by lots of nice, new books. 

James's teacher has been out with appendicitis (!!) but he's been doing the math app and typing app with lots of free reading and art. Leah's school sent home an iPad and activities.  

James is wearing his baby Yoda Christmas gift t-shirt. Leah's wearing a lot of stripes. 

Not sure if they're irritated with me or the show here. 

Assuming no changes, as long as we're symptom free, we'll go back to work & school on Wednesday.  

1,000 books before Kindergarten

I (finally) signed Leah up for the 1,000 books before Kindergarten program at the library (it'll be a race to see if we get done). 

We read 100 books & made our first trip to the library in quite some time so that she could pick out her free book prize and get her picture made with the 100 book milestone. 

I thought maybe I'd posted this already - but Amelie just stopped right in the stacks and started reading the book she pulled off the shelf (I did scoot her out of the way once I snapped the picture). 

Beyond Van Gogh

On our way down to the bootheel, we visited the Van Gogh immersive exhibit in St Louis. It was in a big tent they'd erected in the mall parking lot, so pretty good ventilation, I'd hope. 

Here's Sam reading in the informative segment -- mostly it was excerpts from his letters to his brother printed over segments of (unidentified) paintings, not much biography. 

I noticed Amelie walk up to one of the hanging frames and stuck her arm through - they did kind of look like mirrors, but they were just open to the other side. 

Leah didn't want to wear her coat anymore. She liked following all of the changing designs across the floor. 

It was very cool!

I especially liked it when the florals transitioned to portraits. 

Here's Leah admiring a portrait. 

Me and the kids: 

Gingerbread Houses

We decorated gingerbread houses (from a kit - the cookie part tasted like a brick) as one of our winter break activities. 

Amelie's was somewhat neater than her siblings. 

I like how Leah's egging him on.