Sick, no...healthy, no...sick, no...healthy, no...sick!

Alexander's still coughing from his pneumonia, but he's feeling just fine. But then last week Zoë got sick. And this week Phoebe has been sick. And we've been...doing very little outside of the house. 

But today? Today no one had a fever (and those who had been feverish had been fever-free for 24-hours!) and we really needed to take our glass to the recycling collection point so we (at least the youngest four) took all the glass we've been amassing the past few months (as well as our textbooks, because we're on week two of our school year) and went to the park. 

Here's Phoebe showing off her big-girl ponytail while Alexander sets out his school books in the background:

Here's Zoë with her mouth stuffed full of crackers:

Here's Alexander climbing:

And here's Benjamin doing some climbing:

Miriam and Rachel opted to stay home so they could study for the ACT and things. They also had a zoom meeting with their friends from FSY that they didn't want to be late for. We had a fun time without them, even if Phoebe was still a little bit grumpy. 

Holy Hannah, did this illness ever come with some big emotions for Miss Phoebe. She has done more crying about more things this week than I think she's ever done in her life. 

Dare to say good morning to her without her wanting to? Tears. Sit beside her at the breakfast table when she didn't want you to? Tears. Give her the macaroni and cheese she asked for for lunch...only to have another child make themselves a tempting bowl of Ramen noodles? Tears. That ten seconds between episodes of Daniel Tiger feeling a little long? Tears. Pyjamas too hot? Tears. Mosquito bite itching? Tears. Did someone eat the last slice of mango? Tears, tears, tears. 

So many tears. 

But look how happy she looks here!

She refused to walk on the wood chips because (a) she's so tired and (b) she didn't want to get any wood chips in her sandals. So I had to carry her between climbing structures otherwise she'd...cry. But other than that she was very happy to play.

Here are the older three playing "the ground is lava":

We had to leave the park (cue the tears) in order to take our neighbour's puppy for a walk. I only let Phoebe have her water bottle after she was buckled into her car seat (more tears!) and then the car was a little hotter than anyone who have liked (let's cry about that, too!) but we eventually got home and got to play with Luna for a while.

Phoebe loves puppies. So much.

It's a rather foreign way to be because I don't love puppies (I'm rather averse to them, to be honest). Rachel and Miriam are rather neutral about animals. They have never really begged me for pets. Zoë and Alexander seem also to be fairly neutral about animals, though they are probably more comfortable with animals than Rachel or Miriam.

Now, Benjamin. He likes animals. He has a list of animals he wants that's about as long as his arm. That's part of the reason this arrangement is perfect for him because he is a boy who maybe—to some degree—needs a dog. But I can't really have a dog in my house. So half an hour of dog a day works out just about perfectly.

I sent my family these pictures of Phoebe snuggling with Luna, asking "where this kid came from"—because willingly getting this close to a dog is not something I would have done at Phoebe's age (or...you know...my current age). Uncle Patrick wrote back and said, "What kid? I see two little puppies."

Phoebe often talks about herself in third person as "this little puppy," so I expect that she'd appreciate that comment a lot. 

Excuse her purposely stepping directly on Luna's paw. She overheard our neighbour explaining that Luna often purposefully steps on her feet and that they were trying to train her out of it because that's a sign of dominance in dogs—so Luna was essentially telling her owner that she (Luna) was top dog. They trained her out of that behaviour...but I've yet to train Phoebe out of it.

"I'm the boss," she'll sometimes say.

Here's Alexander:

Some other neighbours just got a new puppy as well—a doberman pinscher with enormous paws. The kids get to take it out for a potty break for the first time on Saturday and they're so excited (well, Benjamin is excited...but he might not be home when puppy needs to be let out, so Rachel and Miriam also went over to learn about how to take care of the puppy and they are much less excited (which I understand because even the word doberman makes me nervous)). I got to meet the puppy for the first time today and he surprised me by being so calm. 

Luna puppy is wild. She loves attention and seems to have come into the world yipping and nipping (though she's doing much better after going through obedience training). She was straining her her leash trying to meet the new puppy (I was the one holding her leash while the other kids went to get see the new puppy; and the new puppy hasn't had all of his vaccines yet so can't mingle with other dogs) and always leaps around happily when the kids let her out. 

But this new puppy...man...he was just chill. No barking, no straining, no jumping. 

Apparently he was the chillest puppy in the litter.

Anyway, enough about dogs. Let's talk about swimming.

After dinner we went to the end-of-the-year party for the swim team. It was another opportunity for them to swim with their friends. And there was ice cream. 

The whole family went...but the whole family didn't stay long. 

Phoebe, who had been so excited for ice cream and swimming, threw up all over Andrew during the awards ceremony. All her ice cream—blah—gone. 

I missed the whole thing because I went over to stand closer to the awards ceremony, while Andrew hung back with Rachel, Miriam, and Phoebe. 

Andrew, Rachel, and Phoebe left to drive home...and then Rachel drove back to pick the rest of us up (and to swim with us for a little while). We'd had a long at dinner about whether we should take one or two cars to the pool and we eventually settled on one car—the parking lot is small, our schedules all matched (so no one—as far as we knew—needed to leave the pool before anyone else), and it's more environmentally friendly. 

Evidently we should have just taken two cars to the pool. Who knew?! 

Hopefully one day everyone in our home will be healthy again (I really thought we were at this point...but I was wrong).

Anyway, here are the kids with their awards:

Alexander and Benjamin both got participation medals. Zoë got a participation medal and a "most improved" medal for becoming such an expert breaststroker in such a short time. They're looking forward to next year. 

One beautiful thing about swim team is that although the kids train in separate age groups, they are still on the same team. The older kids help the younger kids (Benjamin wasn't to be a junior coach next year) and they all swim at the same swim meet with the older kids cheering the younger kids on and the younger kids standing in awe while the older kids swim. 

It's one of the only sports where kids from all ages are on the same team. And that's kind of a fun thing!

Anyway, here's Alexander who'd come to show me his medal:

"This is cool," he said. "But I'm not really sure what it says...w...w...wims?"

"Buddy, it says swim!" I told him. "You're looking at it upside down!"

"Oh!" he laughed. "That makes more sense!"

Hopefully we'll be able to enjoy more of the pool in the coming weeks. We've hardly visited the pool since our last swim team day! But we're sure to be fully healthy again soon...right??