when I grow up

I want to be a nature photographer, an architect, or an engineer.

Two brothers singing in the bathroom, one getting in the shower the other getting out.

"Can you stay and hang out?"

"I like hanging out with you!  I'm just really tired!!!!"

Inventions

Every spare minute is spent inventing, or on social things.

Inventing Lego vehicles:  with shocks and springs, hatches that open and steering columns that work.  And online, a vehicle simulator that allows you to build and test vehicles based on actual physics:  where is the center of gravity?  what does it take to make them fly or float?  Helicopters, sea pontoon planes, cars and trucks.

And being social in a pandemic can be challenging but Alex makes plans with friends online or for in person distance hangouts, rides his bike across town ( even after dark!), arranges video chats and social video games online.  Introduces friends to one another.  Started his own Google Classroom, in which he is the teacher.

Alex is an inventor.  He also takes care of others.

He has gotten into cooking and baking, making challenging little individual berry "pie-tisseries" topped with whip cream and pomegranate seeds for Thanksgiving; breakfast like scrambled eggs or eggs with bagel and turkey patties and cheese, toaster waffles.  He has a favorite corn, mint qnd butter dish he makes for dinner that he learned at German restaurant Gaumenkitzel.

And he's the family caregiver:  lots of spontaneous hugs, checking in on us, snuggles, petting and talking to Blueberry (Mike and Mahlon's daughter, still in my belly as I write this).  He has plans to help teach her to walk.

Some parts of school can be hard - the distance learning focus, math, writing.  But those muscles are getting stronger and more tools are being added to a toolbox that is already super full of useful and interesting tools.  The best part of this pandemic is us 4 being really close this year.

Covid 19

Covid19 shelter in place, week three.

Alex misses his friends, and sports, and school.

And going over to Ian and Danny's whenever.

And to CvS.

But here, he's telling me how awesome it was to play badminton with Dad in the middle of the day.

Busy weekends are becoming the norm.  4 Lacrosse games in 3 cities (one in freezing sideways rain), 1 violin performance, 1 flute rehearsal & performance, topped off with an Ally Award from the teacher Monday morning.  Whew!

Yes this is an insufferable mombrag post, but I'm doing it anyway to save up for tough times.

Runner

Back before Kindergarten, Principal Rhine at Oxford told us: "He's a runner." Alex would get worried, or lose track of us, and suddenly be...across the schoolyard, or out the door, or two blocks away back home, having run across busy intersections and inspired the concern of strangers. Last week, it was school. School has been rough because it increasingly demands a whole lot of writing, and German school even more so because switching into another language at the end of a long school day is just tiring. So Alex, having big feelings, decided to follow the sound of singing and sit in on a chorus practice instead. Yikes.

Buddies

These two were adorable yesterday. They got totally sidetracked during D&D by the fact that we went to a bar, and were suddenly up out of their seats with Alex chugging all the beer and Duncan tackling him and yelling "Don't drink all the beer! He's drinking all the beer! I throw marshmallows at you!" Brawl ensues.

Then story time, and I asked for committment to storytelling over derailing one-liners "Because the goal is to tell a story, right? The goal is not 'Make Gaby lose her mind.' Both had been nodding alog and then D suppressed a little giggle and said apologetically 'That was a tiny bit funny....'"

Story had 12 year old boy who can turn into a cat and a giant fidget spinner making friends with 5-headed Cobra hydra/dragon with no wings. Long discussion of where in Cobra-dragon's body/necks one would best attach jetpacks in order to get him back to his floating ocean in the clouds.

When jetpacks were slightly underpowered for the task, the problem was solved with diet coke and mentos, and fidget spinner kid tried to guzzle the stream of rocket-diet-coke from below during blastoff.