This girl literally gets moody if she goes more than 3 days without being in the water. She was super irate over the holidays when we received a lot of much needed rain -- the rain preventing her from surfing (you know because all the crap - literally - on the streets and in the riverbeds was floating around in the break).
She is currently in water polo season, and I love watching her play.
She practically lives in a bathing suit. We are constantly telling her to put clothes on to come to dinner. Our dinner conversation this week as we are talking about an upcoming trip to Costa Rica:
KT: Do I have to wear, like, clothes there?
Mo: People generally wear clothes when not in water.
Kids are still not tired of surfing. Seriously, 4+ times a week, they sneak in a session whenever they can. Last Friday night they were in the water until dark.
Well maybe not eight days, but it sure feels like it. Surfing is the "it" pastime right now.
The girls go at least 4+ times a week. Mo joined the middle school surf league. My new car is regularly covered in sand. We literally watched Endless Summer last night as a family.
...just got voted "most musical," by her 8th grade class.
The beginning of quarantine was tough for her. Everyday she'd come into my office:
"We should be performing in Simi today..." "What are we doing today?" "We would be having our dance today." "We'd be on Spring Tour today." "Can we go to the beach tomorrow?"
She was pretty mad about her social life being put on indefinite hold.
Two months later it's down to:
"What are we doing today" "Can we go to the beach tomorrow?"
She's definitely less angry which is nice.
I get it, no music trip, no Washington D.C. trip, no 8th grade dance, no 8th grade promotion event (which has been rescheduled as a "drive through" event -- that will be interesting) and probably 6+ music performances cancelled. It really isn't fair. I keep telling her, at least she's not a high school senior.
She has been doing a lot of solo music. She has started composing using software which I for one think is pretty impressive (yes, I'm her mom, but still).
All in all we've settled into quarantine life pretty nicely. The girls and I have found our weekday rhythm and I have to admit -- it's not terrible.
Oddly enough the COVID-19 pandemic has not changed my schedule exceedingly. If anything I have more time as I no longer have to drive people to school and then pick up and drive around to various practices after school. No joke, this probably gives me anywhere between 2-3 hours more a day.
But, the tradeoff is I am no longer alone in my office (house). The number of interruptions in my work day is countless. Questions about their school work, how to email an image to a group when they have email accounts that are limiting, how to crop an image for an assignment, how to change a document into a .pdf, questions about how to get answers from a counselor, etc.
I guess I should be happy they are cute little faces popping in ...
But, clearly as the image shows those regular interruptions are also accompanied by quite a bit of noise.
And, yes that is a saxophone. Katie convinced her music teacher to loan it to her before school let out.
The sounds of guitar, ukulele, clarinet and now saxophone fill the air at all hours of the day and night in house of the Little Wickies.
Katie has started composing, which can be frustrating for her as in her words "I can't get what's in my head into this program!" And, she really has no one to help her as this is way out of my league. A snippet of the intro she has been working on:
Mo has been teaching her "sisters" Lani and Keera to play uke. They made "The Coronavirus Song." If you listen, make sure to have the Closed Captions (CC) on so you can see the lyrics.
I am so happy they have music in their lives ... but, man it's loud around here these days!
They are NOT best friends. They tolerate each other. Yes, sometimes they play fight, and that's actually pretty funny. It's slow motion fighting. I'll need to post that someday.
In the last few months Tobey has been peeing on Fitz's bed. What a jerk.
We've purchased 5+ beds in recent months for Fitz.
I finally bought a waterproof bed and slipped it inside a Costco outside lining (he prefers the soft outside), and it's like Tobey knows. He hasn't peed on the bed since. Like I said ... what a jerk.
Love watching them play sports. It's easy to get swept up in the excitement of watching your kid play. We try hard to keep it all in perspective. I want KT and Mo to have sport in their lives. I think it's important, and fun -- but, there is way more pressure on kids and families to play competitive sports then when we were young.
Except for when it's hot and you have no air conditioning. It has been uncomfortably warm for almost 3 weeks now. When it's hot consecutive days like this, the house never gets an opportunity to cool down.
Today I wrote a press release about a mushroom knife while a fan blew hot air at me.
I'll be honest, it was probably not the best work I have ever produced.
But then, at least I'm not wearing a fur coat.
Poor puppy has been laying on the floor next to me all day -- switching sides every so often (presumably when the floor gets too warm underneath him.)
On the right side of me...
And, later on the left...
The only place he is really happy when it's this hot is here:
But, unfortunately it's a less conducive place to write and work.
Summer can be hard when you work from home and kids have to stay busy (and quiet) while mom writes and conducts phone calls. This is especially difficult for my non-homebody KT who itches to get out and "do something." The days she is not in a camp/clinic during the day is seemingly torture for her. She is always sure to let me know about her agonizing state -- repeatedly.
But, she sure is cute.
Mo on the other hand is fairly content playing with slime and watching YouTube slime videos in between doing her mom-mandated-stop-your-brain-from-going-to-mush curriculum.
Part of this "curriculum" is doing music daily. For KT, I never had to employ any type of requirement so I was a little worried about doing so for Mo this summer. To my relief she has taken to it beautifully -- and, has progressed immensely as a result. I can't tell you how much I love hearing both of them play and sing...
Dog, and dog-cat have been well, lazy as usual, mostly in part because it has been hot!
If not sleeping, this guy just looks at me with sad eyes throughout the day.
Dog-cat sleeps in his perch in Mo's room through most of the morning, and then sneaks onto dog's bed in the afternoon for some rays.
Have to say though, would way rather be with these characters than in an office any day.
8 a.m. soccer match for Mo
10 a.m. Relay for Life event for Mo's teacher
1 p.m. soccer match for Mo (in Goleta)
3:30 p.m. soccer match for KT
6:30 p.m. soccer match for KT
8 p.m. Cyrus de Mayo party
And, that's just Saturday. There are more games on tap for Sunday!
Maybe someday I'll look back, my life a little slower and think -- wow, we were busy then. But, for now, I'm going to grab a gulp of air and head into the weekend!
Simply put, we need to find time to make bread at home soon.
Katie and I took a cooking class when we were in Paris last October. We made amazingly delicious bread.
No, seriously ... really. good. bread.
We walked back to our apartment and bought two rotisserie cornish hens, an Orangina for KT,
red wine for me and ... well, this might have been the best meal we
had that trip.
I know it's such a motherly thing to say, but Katie is getting so grown up.
No, she doesn't wear makeup. Her, D and Lia were just messing around at a mom's makeup event.
Love their "gentle" technique of palming each other's head when applying makeup.
We watched The Bourne Identity with her recently, and I feel like we have more and more "adult" conversations with Katie. Often I feel like I'm talking with a friend rather than a kid.
Then something like this happens:
Song: Fitz's tongue just went into my mouth. He Frenched me!
Katie: That's not how French people kiss.
... and then, I remember she's still a little girl.
Songer and I went on our first date. We were in college and we ate at Tony Romas, and watched the movie Waterworld. Five years later we got engaged in Paris at the restaurant pictured above.
Now, every year we eat ribs on March 1st. Tonight we were eating ribs ...
Me: Hey Katie, 22 years ago today your dad and I kissed for the first time.
KT: You kissed on the first date!? Ewwww....
I keep thinking I'm going to "catch up" with my blogging. I haven't chronicled my adventures in Paris with Katie, the holidays, Mo on a rip-stick, Katie playing the bass, and now clarinet, Mo joining a club soccer team ... none of it. It's just so daunting when I think about it.
So, I'm just going to post when I can and it will probably be more simple things -- you, know how I wish things were.
Today my new kitchen rug arrived. I had to lock the dog and cat up in another room while I was trying to get the rug situated on top of the rug pad because they kept laying on it.
I like it. Fitz seems to like it. I hope everyone else does too, although, it's from Turkey so more than likely I will not be returning it even if they have objections...
