March 2021

Potpourri

Lukas’s first phase of the Journey of Orthodonture began this month, as he got braces on his upper teeth. He chose red backing for the brackets, naturally; he had been nervous, but Annika wrote him the sweetest note to say it wasn’t so bad (and you get ice cream!), which really meant a lot to him. St. Patrick’s Day was maybe a little less magical than in years past (no leprechaun gold ore, boo!), but the little mischief-makers did show up with green glitter and gold coins and upset/misplaced furniture and whatnot. We finally decided to brave Vicki’s home salon for haircuts — masked up, of course, and with all the doors open), since it had been a year; Annika decided to get bangs, and WOW was it cute!!!! Really, just perfect, and she was so excited by how she looks with them. And finally, took a little outing to meet up with the Patels at Hicklebee’s and then go to a new-to-us park, capped off by ice cream treats.

Grandma & Grandpa re-emerge
The dorks got their second shot, and once they had the all-clear, it was time for them to get back out into the wide world. Mostly that was in the form of errands and doctor appointments and stuff, but their main aim was to see the grandkids and get hugs (which they did, asap). They came over to our house to sign a bunch of documents for the mortgage refinance (we re-fi’ed both properties this month, thanks to super low interest rates, and saved about $500/month total while shortening our own house’s timeline, yay!). Anyway, their being fully vaccinated was a huge relief to us all, of course, and I know they’re feeling much more at ease in general. 

Bicycle days
Lukas and I are biking fools these days; we almost always take our bikes to go see the Patels (and meet their new puppy, as we did this month), we ride at nearly every online-school break, and we even did one morning wildcat ride, blazing out of here in the chill before school instead of going for a walk one day when Annika had another commitment. It’s a lot better way to start the day than going straight to the desk, for sure! 

Of note
This month saw the mostly-unobserved one-year anniversary of the pandemic shutdown; none of us had the energy or inclination to even talk much about it, as it’s really not the kind of thing you celebrate, especially when there’s still not really an end in sight. Selah. 

Quotable
—“manta ray bay aquarium” Lukas, re: the premier aquarium on the West Coast