I promise I won’t post pictures every day of the boys remote learning…this is just all so new and exciting/slightly terrifying…haha!
Xander pretty much hates having his picture taken, so I have to tread lightly and pick and choose my picture taking battles with him (or sneak them when he’s not looking). I did take a few of Jonas and Roman, hard at work, today, though.
Today was the first full day of school (remote learning)!
Here are my three boys hard at work…
The boys had their first (half) day of school today!!! Jonas is starting middle school this year (6th grade), and Xander (5th grade) and Roman (3rd grade) are continuing on in elementary school. Jonas still wants to be an Engineer when he grows up, and Xander still wants to be a Dolphin Trainer. Roman is leaning more towards wanting to be a Professional YouTuber.
Xander and Roman kept getting disconnected from Zoom, so we put in a request with IT for a computer swap for both of them and a hot spot (because we have three on the WiFi at the same time), which we’re hoping for on Monday or soon after. We’re SO grateful for the principals, teachers, staff, and IT department working overtime to get and keep everything up and running in this unprecedented, challenging time. Xander was chatting on Zoom with his friends, which he was schooled on pretty quickly…little stinker…he knows better! Roman, our resident extrovert, had a really hard time waiting to talk and be called on. He made it about an hour and a half (even with breaks) before he started melting down. I just kept trying to remind him that this is new for EVERYBODY (students, teachers, and parents).
We chose the in-person/remote learning option for school this semester. So, I really wanted to set up an at-home learning space that was clean, organized, fun, and comfortable for the boys. I’m still working on it, but they’re already enjoying it!!!
We’re so grateful to be a part of the Nashville Boat Club. It has brought so much fun into our lives (especially this year with COVID-19). We took a wakeboard boat out on Percy Priest Lake this afternoon. Tom wake surfed, the boys and I tubed, Jonas wakeboarded, and Xander and Roman kneeboarded.
We went out on the boat this afternoon. The boys and I rode on the tube, Tom and the boys played King of the Hill on the Lily Pad (a HUGE styrofoam mat that floats on top of the water), and we all swam in the lake. Roman was not into having his picture taken today, but I got some good ones of Jonas and Xander…
I took the boys creek stomping down the Little Harpeth River today. The river was refreshing and cool, the lighting was beautiful, and the boys caught five little fish and a crawdad. The pictures are pretty, but MAN was it a rough time.
Roman’s meltdowns are tough things to navigate. When I’m in a good spot, I can just talk calmly to him, remove him from the situation so he can calm down, try to change up his sensory input in some way, etc. and even try to teach him to do those things for himself. But I just didn’t have it in me yesterday, and it stacked up on me from the morning to the afternoon. It would take pages to explain. Suffice it to say that I lost my temper, ended up cutting our little creek stomping adventure short, and dropped him off at his Daddy’s work with his lunch and instructions for zero screen time. And then Jonas, Xander, and I proceeded to enjoy the picnic I packed for us by ourselves in the shade of a big tree at a nearby park. It took me a while to want to even talk at all…a shower, a nap, and some space helped.
By the time Roman came home with Daddy, he and I both were able to ask for and give forgiveness. And I guess that’s the most important thing. Being a kid is hard. Being an adult is hard. But it’s good to know that we can love each other through it.
Every 4th of July, Tom leads our neighborhood in a small parade, with the fire truck blaring patriotic music and the HOA passing out popsicles for the kids at the end. It’s a short but sweet tradition, and Petra always sports her red, white, and blue.
The boys and I drove out to Jackson Falls this morning, which is just off of the Natchez Trace.
The beginning of the trip was GREAT…the boys were reading on their tablets and I was jamming out to some new Ruston Kelly tunes and enjoying the open road. Then, we hit probably a 10 mile stretch of curvy country roads. About 5 miles in, Jonas started asking to roll the window down and looking pale, and Roman out of nowhere said, “Mom, I don’t feel so good” and then vomited in the back seat. Luckily, there was a place for us to pull over. So, I let them kind of get their bearings while I cleaned up. I made the executive decision to move Roman to Jonas’ seat and Jonas to the passenger seat, put on a movie that Roman could focus on, gave both of them a salty snack to eat, put the air on full blast, rolled down all the windows, and forged ahead through the last 5 mile section of wind-y-ness. It was definitely one of those trapped feelings, probably for all of us. I am the QUEEN of motion sickness, so I totally understand the hell. The only reason I wasn’t feeling that sick was because I was driving.
After making a wrong turn and heading down the Natchez Trace the wrong way, we finally made it. The walk down to the waterfall was not that challenging…it was paved with some stairs and a railing. I’m not sure if it’s always like this, but the waterfall was just barely trickling into a pool that was a few inches deep. So, we ended up climbing up a bit to the “natural waterslide”, and the boys spent the rest of the time there. At that point, I was wishing Tom was with me because they all flipped into daredevil mode, and I’m more anxious/nervous about all of that than Tom is. He would’ve been right in there with them. I was just standing there saying, “Don’t run!”, “Wait your turn!”, “Don’t stand up and try to walk down!”, “Sit down!”, etc. Xander was giving me the big (what I’m assuming is the beginnings of) preteen, “Moooooooom!” which he had to be pulled to the side a few times for…the attitude. He was pretty much just sprinting up the slick rocks and sliding back down, which scared me half to death. And Roman had to sit out a few times as well for being a sassy pants to other kids and to me. Meanwhile, Xander and Roman were alternately begging to go home, saying, “This is boring!”. I mean, seriously. Really?!? I was SO done. Jonas wanted to stay longer to make the good times outweigh the bad (i.e. more time having fun on the natural waterslide than riding in the backseat of a minivan on curvy country roads). But, alas, we had to go with the majority, as I could sense major meltdowns coming on. Help us all.
The natural waterslide was really so cool, though…I’m thankful they got to experience that.
Xander turned 10 today!!! It is so unbelievable to me how quickly they’re all growing up. It was tough this time around for him to figure out how he wanted to celebrate his birthday, but he finally decided on probably our favorite format for birthday parties. He invited his best friend (and next door neighbor), Jeremy, to climb on the outdoor ropes course at Soar with him and Tom, to eat dinner at Cracker Barrel (one of his favorite restaurants), and to have a sleepover (which he’s been asking/wanting to do since school let out for COVID back in March). The bummer was that it started thundering after about 10 minutes of climbing on the ropes course, so they had to forego that plan. (You can see how Xander felt about that in this picture…)
So, they switched gears and ended up playing miniature golf there (and getting vouchers to do the ropes course another day) and doing some geocaching.
Then, Jonas and Roman and I met them at Cracker Barrel for dinner.
The boys ask all the time if we can adopt Jeremy…they just love him. We came home for birthday cake and presents, and the boys cozed up to watch a movie before bed. The next morning we had pancakes, and the boys just hung out and played until lunch time. All in all, it was good (if crazy) times and a happy birthday for Xander.
We took the wakeboard boat out today on Percy Priest Lake. Jonas and Xander enjoyed long rides on the Big Mabel. They had a blast and always wanted to go faster (which Tom put a nix on) and do donuts. Jonas wakeboarded…it’s so amazing and exciting to watch him!!! He got up the first time, after not having wakeboarded since last summer. (Xander and I both tried but were unable to stay up for very long…next time hopefully.) Tom wake surfed like a boss (while I drove the boat…whee!). (Roman wanted to stay at his friend’s house…Jay just got a new puppy…instead of going out on the lake today…so he had a fun afternoon too.)
Roman had his First Communion tonight in a beautiful, socially distant ceremony at church.
Jonas tested for and earned his yellow belt tonight in TaeKwonDo!!! The in-studio audience was limited to only the students who were testing and the instructors, Mr. and Mrs. Mast. But we still got to watch him on Zoom, and Mrs. Mast took pictures for me. Hopefully, we can be there in person to watch him next time. Congratulations, Jonas!!!
Jonas loves hanging out with JJ, the newest addition to our sweet next door neighbor’s family. He’s 9 months now and is crawling, pulling up, clapping, and standing up/balancing hands-free. Jonas enjoys helping out Mrs. Amanda, J.J.’s mom, by playing with him for about 15 – 30 minutes every now and then while she does a workout. Isn’t this the cutest?
Afterwards, the boys and I ran to Birdie’s, one of my favorite new places in town to grab breakfast/lunch and picked up some cupcakes made by the Bearded Baker to share after lunch! Nate Clingman, lives here in Nolensville, and won the Bakeaway Camp with Martha Stewart competition. I saw these cupcakes and was like, “Oh, yes. I need those in my life!” They were so delicious: Oreo, Chocolate Caramel, Lemon Raspberry, and Sour Patch Kids. The boys and I each had different favorites. Yummy!
I’m not really sure why I call “miniature golf”…”put put golf”…I think it’s a leftover saying from childhood.
Anyway, I took the boys out to Grand Ole Golf to play this morning. The weather was perfect. We were doing all right…even Roman, who usually loses it when he’s not doing as well as he wants to, decided he didn’t want us to keep score for him, which I thought was a great call/big guy choice.
Then, Xander came up against this really tough hole, that all of us were totally failing on…and he lost his mind and raged so hard, so quickly that he smacked the putter against a rock…and broke it. Yes. Broke it. So, he and I took a little trip back to the front desk, where he explained to the clerk what he had done and why and asked how much it would cost to replace it. Needless to say, he owes me $11. Not worth the rage, I’d say…especially to a 9 year old.
As we were finishing up our game, this really annoying music started blasting over the loud speakers. I was definitely starting to get agitated by it…then, Roman headed into full on sensory meltdown mode with it. The only thing I could think of to help him out was to bring up his Amazon music playlist on my phone and put some headphones in his ears, so he could be in his own world for a minute. I was afraid he was going to fixate on the fact that the headphones were too big and didn’t fit right, but he was able to get over it and calm down and pretty soon he was back in sync and jamming out to “Hall of Fame” by Script. So proud of him! Then, we took a BREAK. HaHa! Mommy needed one too (that’s who Roman gets his sensory processing issues from).
We drove over to an empty, expansive church parking lot and picnicked in the quiet, under the shade of a big tree (overlooking the place where Tom proposed to me!). They burned off some post-lunch energy on the playground, and then we picked up the most delicious snow cones from Cotton and Snow (right next to Grand Ole Golf) before heading home.
Tomorrow is going to be a veg day.
I ran 6 miles this morning, and that’s it for my running this week…I’m trying to keep it right at 15 miles a week, a good and maintainable jumping off point in case I want to start training for another half or full marathon in the fall/winter.
Then, Xander, Roman, and I hit up the pool, while Tom and Jonas took advantage of the yellow ocean flag (medium hazard) to swim out to the sand bar and dodge some waves. After lunch, I drove out to Port St. Joe to grab a few things from the grocery store for the trip home and to pick up my book from the post office. I’ve read two books so far this week, and this will be my third…The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (A Hunger Games Novel) by Suzanne Collins. Whee!!! We all took one last dip in the pool before dinner, headed out for one last ice cream cone, and hung out on the beach one last time.
This trip has been such a blessing…Jonas even told Tom, “Dad, I really needed this vacation. I’ve been so stressed.”
Bless his heart…us too. I’m so grateful that we had this time together to relax, restore, and renew.
This morning we went to Happy Ours Kayak and Bike Outpost to do some kayaking and snorkeling in the bay. The boys loved it in the past, but today they were CRABBY. Jonas and Xander both helped paddle and took to it pretty well, which was great…they love to race. But, when it came to snorkeling, none of the boys were into it for some reason and preferred to sit on the boat and whine, which just sort of put a damper on things because they were pouting and asking to go home. I just ignored them and enjoyed snorkeling, but Tom ended up having a Come to Jesus with them. I think it helped a little, as they all ended up getting in for a little bit and checking things out. We saw horseshoe crab shells, scallops, a starfish, several schools of little fish, and lots of interesting coral. After lunch and quiet time, we went out for some ice cream at Cape Coffee and Ice Cream (a small local ice cream shop, where if you don’t time it right…will have you waiting in a line wrapped around the parking lot). So yummy! We swam in the pool until dinner time and then headed down to the beach at sunset for a game of football and one more round of pictures (we needed to get a good one of the whole family).
I went for a 5 mile run this morning. It worked so much better to do a few of the miles in the state park, as it’s shaded a little bit by palm trees…AND I even saw three deer! (I had no idea there were deer in Florida.) Then, Xander and Roman and I hung out the pool, while Tom took Jonas down to the beach. After lunch and quiet time, we went back for another round of the pool and the beach. We relaxed after dinner and got ready for pictures. We ended up taking pictures on the beach ourselves, which was no easy feat given the varying lighting at the different stages of sunset and the varying moods of our boys. But, we did it!!! And I think they turned out really well…
Today was a rainy day. So, we had a leisurely morning and drove out to Port St. Joe for lunch at Sisters. We ate there last year and loved it…the boys were begging to go back. It’s owned by several southern women who call you “honey” and “darlin'”, serve the best home cooked meals and home baked cakes/pies (that you get a slice of for free with your meal!), and make you feel right at home. We stopped at a few souvenir shops on the way back, and then hit up the beach and the pool for the rest of the afternoon. After dinner, the boys cozed up and watched a show while Tom and I took a quick walk on the beach. We even saw a fisherman reel in a huge stingray…Tom helped get him back in the water! We couldn’t wait to tell the boys about it when we got home (especially Xander because he’s such a lover of marine life). Then, Tom rounded them up for an impromptu pool competition (I love his ability to create fun)…he was the judge and I was the audience. The boys competed for Best Jump, Most Creative Underwater Movement, and Most Skilled Swimming Stroke. There are always a few come aparts because our boys are SO competitive, but it was still fun to watch/do.
We are so grateful to be back at the beach in Cape San Blas, FL! We’re staying at the same place we stayed last year, which we love because it’s quiet and close to the pool and the beach. When we arrived yesterday, it was raining. So, it was the perfect time to unpack and unwind after a long drive.
Today, we hit the beach in the morning for some metal detecting, sand castle building, and wave dodging on the shore. Then, we spent some time at the pool (the boys had fun rescuing little frogs!) before heading back in for lunch and quiet time. In the afternoon, Roman and I hung out at the pool while Tom took Jonas and Xander down to the beach. Afterwards, we got cleaned up and went out to dinner in Port St. Joe at Pepper’s, a Mexican restaurant that was packed (which was a little crazy for me, honestly…we’ve definitely not been used to being surrounded by that many people in more than three months). Roman did not make it long, which I was actually grateful for, because it was loud with music and conversations and I was feeling done too. He started covering his ears right after he finished his meal, and I knew the sensory meltdown was coming. Thankfully, he was able to be a big guy and use his words to say, “Mom, can we get out of here? The sound is driving me crazy!” instead of flipping into full meltdown mode. I was so proud of him! We walked down the street and window shopped (Jonas and Xander ended up joining us too) until Tom was able to box up the leftovers and pay the bill. Then, Tom walked with the boys down the street and to the ocean to hang out, while I did the grocery shopping. When we got back home, Tom and I put a movie on for the boys and took a short but wonderful sunset walk on the beach.
