March in photos

Leah and Rinnah's good friends from church (two sisters) moved up north!!! Way up north! But they got to come back for a sleepover, and neighborhood friend Hope joined them. Fun kids!

Ebenezer has discovered the joy of playing outdoors

Mira continues to do what she does best:

Matt saw an EAGLE in the tree above him while he was boiling off maple sap one day!

Because the first one is hard to see, here's a zoomed in version:

Mom and Reuben back at Gillette, this time to initiate the full ketogenic diet. This was a much easier stay than the first because it didn't involve surgery, and he handled the transition to ketosis quite well.

The child-life specialist was able to find a marble run for Reuben to have! It's not nearly as nice as the one that we already have at home, but it was a definite hit for keeping the long hours full. It was during this stay that the COVID-19 virus made its presence known in MN, and each day that we were there, new policies were being implemented to the point that on the last day only caregivers were allowed to visit, and we had to be screened and badged before we'd be allowed into the inpatient wings.

The marble run was equally enjoyed at home

March 14th, Pi(e) day, is always a hit at our house. We had pheasant pot pie and spaghetti pie for supper, followed by cherry pie and lemon meringue pie for dessert.

Silly climber

Evania's first "quilt." The back is from a piece of leftover fleece...

...and the front is pieced from something she cross-stitched and then some soft fluffy red stuff left over from Owen's Christmas quilt. She's really enjoying learning how to use the machine.

And there's Bobbi's sweet boy cat sleeping on top of her new shelf.

Eben thinks he should get to learn to use the sewing machine!

Sugarin' time again! Reuben still loves it. I got a chance to spend a few minutes outside with him, but usually it's Dad.

More cute photos of Tsvetan.

Leah's exploding in her braiding abilities this month! She does these to herself and other amazing things to mom and her sisters.

Owen's been home more, so spending more time around, which we love! Here Eben was tickled to have him nearby...

...and so Gloria was inspired to climb next to him, too!

This is a red fuzzy caterpillar-camel

Evania's putting her sewing to good use - we're making face masks!

A number of things I've read say that if you're making home made ones, making them out of patterned or colorful fabric makes it easy to see at a glance that they are not medical-grade masks, which lowers confusion!

Rinnah has put in quite a bit of time, too.

Boys reading together.

Going for a ride in Owen's truck, even if they can't get out of the truck, is still more exciting than just staying home all the time! I almost always have takers to ride along in the back.

 

The swing is something Ebenezer loves.

A read-aloud by the author of the Wingfeather Saga was recommended to us by a friend, so every night we've been settling down in the living room to watch/listen. Neat story!

I love watching these girls sleep. They are so funny!

And this was where Gloria was that night! She's been sleeping in Mira's old space in our bedroom.

And the a super sad one - one morning in late March Dad and Bobbi went outside to walk on the path and found that her sweet little black and white kitty had been hit by a car. Poor baby was lying on the grass next to the path, so whoever hit him must have gotten out to check on him and moved him over to the side so we could find him. It was also pretty obvious that he was hit in the head, which means it was over quickly for him. But still, very very sad. He wasn't even a year old yet!! We buried him up near Bobbi's tree, under which we had buried Bridget last summer.

This one is zoomed in a lot, so not a great shot, but it shows the two marbles that Reuben dropped in to the box that we carried him up into the yard in. Marbles from Reuben is a sweet gesture in two ways - first, Reuben loves marbles, and second, Tsvetan loved marbles, too. Even our Noble cat seemed to understand what was up, and meandered around by us sniffing the box, but not angrily, while we were burying the dead kitty.

And here's a busy boy!

And, oh my. Another busy boy. It's amazing this guy is still alive. :)

Peeling her own sumo mandarin.

Yummy!

Evania, tentative cautious, easily frightened Evania (who, you'll remember, also was my first child to break a bone!) wanted me to help her use the stilts that I received as a birthday gift from a friend when I was little!

Reuben's fountain isn't in the ground yet, but that doesn't stop him from playing with the water that's in the basin it goes in.

Eben is awesome on slides. He's my youngest to get the concept of using friction from your hands gripping the edge or your feet pressed along the sides to control his speed coming down, so he can do this quite independently.

He likes the water, too.

And books. WOW has he turned into a book kid! And now that Evania is a reader kid, they make a great pair.

Happy Birthday, Leah! At home. With no friends. But our friends from church, Doug and Kathy, brought over an incredibly beautiful salad in her honor, and she was very happy.

Death by chocolate for dessert, and then later that evening she shared a video call with her friends across the state who'd all baked their own brownies earlier in the day so they could chat and eat brownies together.

All of the kids' therapy sessions are now via video call. This works great for Reuben's speech. The five physical therapy sessions a week (five total for three kids) are a little more interesting as the therapist directs and demonstrates on a stuffed animal while we, or more often, Rose, do the real hands on stuff. But it's better than nothing! It was funny, though, how engaged they all were with what Reuben was doing!

AND another night with Wingfeather. Krassi's out there, too. Bobbi watches it the next morning in her room on her own. It's quieter that way!

Cute baby boy. He matches his bed!

Modeling our first masks after we totaled 50. We ended up giving this batch to our friends who do our grocery shopping for us because she works at a shelter for battered women, and have need for non-medical grade masks. After she got them and brought them to work with her, she called and told me what a higher degree of compliance they're getting for people wearing them than the dumb white ones they had because the home made ones are both more comfortable AND more interesting to wear!

The Pixie and the Bug.

Look how tall this dude is sitting!

Oh, and dear Gloria got, for a belated birthday present, her own baby doll with a vinyl tummy so SHE can have a g-tube baby like her sisters!!

And last, but not least, Reuben came along with me and Owen for a drive to north Minneapolis and we took a slight detour home to drop off some maple syrup at his favorite physical therapist's house. Brian has been one of Reuben's best buddies over the years, and we were delighted when he happened to see us drive past and happened to recognize Owen and his truck, so he came out to say hi in person instead of us just doing the drop on the doorstep deal. I love how this photo captures the unusual times we're living in - hi and smiles through the window.