January Update (Lily 7, Clara 5)

 
January was only slightly less hectic than December but with Covid keeping everyone apart and home. Lily and Clara both started their lessons this month (Clara = gymnastics and Lily =hip hop). This month started calmly and 

Andy Update:

Throughout January Andy had been getting progressively weaker and towards the end of January the decision was made to stop chemo. According to his doctor the cancer is very aggressive and has stopped responding to chemo. We were able to get set up with hospice in our home and we feel very fortunate to have the hospice team working towards making Andy as comfortable as possible. We would like to say thank you to everyone who has come by to sit and talk with Andy, sent messages, brought food, and sent entertainment for the girls (mommy loves having a break). We have told both of the girls about Andy. The most helpful advice I've gotten is that adults feel grief like a blanket that covers all areas of their lives. Children feel grief like a toddler eating an apple (they take a few bites, set it down and then come back to it later but in between those times they will play, laugh and just continue being kids). The chaplain from Hospice said that kids are very resilient and overall their method is probably healthier than how adults deal with it. 

Lily's January update: 
This month Lily started her hip hop lessons this month. Initially she was a little jealous that Clara was doing gymnastics lessons. I didn't listen to her though because anytime she would stop asking for gymnastics lessons she would start dancing hip hop. She loves her classes although it is hard to tell because of the mask. Unfortunately, Lily tested positive for Covid (with no symptoms) at the end of January so she been doing virtual school for the past week with one more week to go. When Lily had to go virtual in September she seemed to like it. In contrast, today I had to repeatedly chase her back to the dinning room table and the computer. One time today I caught her playing princess checkers with Clara instead of her online learning so I'm not sure how much information she is retaining.   

Lily loves:

-legos

-playing dolls with Clara

-the show Jessie

-hip hop lessons

-painting/ doing craft projects

Lily hates:

-covid

-online school

Clara's January Update:

Clara started gymnastics lessons this month. She loves it and bonus she's always tired after a lesson. Along with Lily, Clara has been stuck inside the house because she also tested positive for covid (also with no symptoms). Clara is still bouncing all over everything around the house. She always asks to workout with me (which consists of me working out and her playing on my yoga ball, saying 4,981,734 words per minute and making helpful comments like "mommy what you're doing doesn't look like what they're doing on the iPad". 

Clara loves:

-playing pretend

-barbies

-Peppa Pig

-gymnastics lessons

-painting nails

Clara hates:

-worms in dirt pudding (I think it looked too real to her)

warm enough for short sleeves in January (it didn't last)

we figured out that my brother Ross decorated our

tree at 6am one morning. 

while Ross was undecorating the tree cousin Henry came over for a playdate

Clara keeping warm over the air vent

gymnastics class 

game where whoever was vacuuming was the alligator 

and tried to eat the other one

??

anyone want to guess what this is? 

If you guessed a cow drawn by Clara you would be right.

Lily's first hip hop class

enjoying some cracker barrel

LOL not enjoying the dirt pudding

virtual gym class

both of the girls like rolling around in Andy's wheelchair

and they LOVE andy's new electric recliner

tree climbing Clara says see you next month