Tales from the Pandemic 20

Trying to make the most of a birthday during a quarantine, the Oshry's came over and surprised Ian with a one-sided water balloon fight to wish him a Happy Birthday.  And boy, was Ian surprised!  What a fun and awesome family to come over and throw water balloons at Ian.  Just a little something to make his birthday special during our time at home.

Afterwards, Jeff, Ian, Lucy and I walked to Jersey's Subs and picked up lunch to take back home.  3.6 miles later, we were happy campers getting out on this beautiful day and taking in fresh air. 

I signed Ian up for a drop-in Improv class with 2nd City in Chicago later in the afternoon.  He was initially not happy about this, but I think the class was not that bad and he said he would do it again if he had a friend join him.  Yay!

And the day ended with our first dinner out in 13 weeks at Ozzies.  Ian is now 15! 

Ian turns 15 in the middle of a Pandemic!

Ian is 15 years old!  The past 15 years has flown by; I wake-up and can't believe my oldest child is now 15.  Ian simply amazes me with his all his ideas for so many things; themed-restaurants, tv series, movies, and musicals.  It seems like each day he has planned something new he wants to develop.  It is so fascinating listening to him describe his ideas.  They are generally well thought out and he has got a script going and musical numbers far along in creation.  Ian gets so excited telling us about all of it.  I love the way his mind thinks.

You can always tell when Ian is happy.  He doesn't stop talking.  He will find everything under the sun to chat about; but he does not stop.

This past June, as soon as school ended, Ian starred in a short film. He played a Jewish blind gay boy. And he killed it!  It is going to be entered in film festivals. We finally got to see it about a month ago and it was so neat seeing him in a movie, albeit 6 minutes long, but still a movie!

Ian realized he needs to know how to dance and sing if he has any chance of making it.  He has embraced taking dance classes and voice lessons.  Each week, Ian is in a boys ballet class, tap class, musical theatre class (1/2 voice, 1/2 dance) and voice lessons 2x a week. He went from being so uncoordinated and leaping into walls to actually being able to hold his own.  His progress this past school year is wonderful.

Ian has been a big help around the house this year and will mow the lawn, take out the trash, and unload the dishwasher.  He has been enjoying cooking and makes pita chips regularly.

Ian has been using his extra downtime to develop and write a mockumenetary about Jewish sleep-away camp. He has 11 episodes done so far.  And its really good!

This coming school year, Ian will be taking classes through Fairfax Academy for musical theatre.  It is really cool that our public school system offers a more concentrated course in something you want to pursue in college and beyond.

Ian is considerate, funny, sweet and wants nothing more than to please us.  He works hard at school and keeps on top of all his assignments on his own.   Ian is responsible and considerate.  He has a great group of friends from his theatre world and enjoys being social.  A few months ago, a restaurant called Velocity Wings opened at University Mall and Ian fell in love with their wings.  He made it his mission to go multiple times a week with friends and got to know the whole staff.   Unfortunately, this fun came to an abrupt ending with Covid-19 and everything being shut-down.

This coming year is the one when Ian can get his learner's permit. He has been counting down for this milestone for years.  Ian can't wait to get behind the wheel.   What a new world it will be to have him driving us around.

Happy 15th birthday to my impressive Ian.  Daddy and I can't wait to see what your future holds.  May this coming year bring you many opportunities to be creative, musical, and great roles on stage to see you shine.  We love you very much!

Ian's first day of 9th grade

Samantha turns 12 in the middle of a Pandemic

It's strange when you celebrate your birthday and so much has changed in the world.  Instead of going to your favorite restuarant for your birthday dinner, we will order it in.  Instead of planning any kind of special activity, nothing can even be considered.  One year, I took Samantha and her two friends, Ainsley and Ruby to Cirque de Soleil.  It was so much fun and the perfect way to celebrate Samantha turning another year older.  But this year, it will be low key.

This is the year that Samantha has matured more from a girl to a teenager than any other year.  And with that, acne has arrived on the scene too.  With the help of a dermatologist, it has gotten under control.  But is there any more of a telltale sign of being a teenager?  I think not.

Due to schools closing in March and every business changing the way they do business, we have spent many days at home, all together.  I am thrilled Samantha is old enough to take care of herself.  We've been able to use this time to teach her how to make a grilled cheese sandwich, pizza bagels, and other simple dishes. 

With schools closed and nowhere to be each day, Samantha has embraced her ability to sleep in.  The girl can easily sleep until 11:30am or later each day.  We've had to try to keep some kind of reasonable schedule and wake Samantha up at 9:30am each day.  Some days we have better results than others.

Horseback riding continues to capture Samantha's eye.  It is such a great activity that builds self-esteem, confidence, and is something she enjoys so much.  Seeing Samantha riding always brings me joy seeing how happy it makes her.

Samantha has a side of her that I don't think most people get to see.  She is incredibly thoughtful and tries so hard to let you know she cares.  On Mother's Day, I was chilling on the hammock on our deck and Sam came out and gave me a plate of snacks (grapes, cheese, and a cookie).  It was absolutely perfect and if she had read my mind, she would've known a snack is just what I was wanting.  It was a lovely surprise and such a sweet gesture.

And yet, Samantha can be fiercely obstinate and head-strong.  When she has an idea, nothing can change her mind and she will go to great lengths to prove you wrong when you try to talk some reason in her.  Samantha likes to operate on her own timeline and will eventually get around to cleaning, homework, taking a shower, or putting away her laundry when she deems it a good idea.   There is no convincing her to do anything a minute sooner than she wants. The best is when she is motivated to clean her room and does an amazing job getting everything in its spot.

Samantha can lose herself in her artwork. She is very creative and when she gets going, she will quietly work for several hours on end. She loves to draw and is quite good at it.   But yet, she'll complain she is bored and when the suggestion is made to do something artistic, it is the last thing she wants to hear and will snap at you for speaking it.

Samantha has a major soft spot for Lucy and will hug her and cuddle with her with no plans on stopping to do anything else that needs her attention. Lucy is a very willing participant and loves the attention.  Most of the day, you can find the both of them hanging out on Sam's bed together; with Sam on her iPad and Lucy looking out the window.

A well charged iPad is the better than sliced bread.  When all else fails, Sam can spend endless amounts of time playing on her iPad.  In some ways, this pandemic is not a problem for Sam to be stuck indoors for hours and days on end.  She loves spending time in her room and is more than happy for us to go run errands, go the grocery store, or even a take a walk without her.  Samantha is her own best company!

Every now and then Sam will come up with an idea that she thinks I would never agree to.  I love to blow her mind when I instantly say "yes" without hesitation.  The latest request was to make her hair purple.  Of course, we can do that!  Live life the fullest!  I am so happy that Samantha is not afraid to take risks and will jump in the deep end of the pool.

Getting Samantha to read is still a struggle.  She does not enjoy it and has no problem letting us know.  The other day, Alexa announced to everyone in the house,"Reading sucks" and "I hate reading".  Ugh. With Jeff and I such voracious readers it is hard to understand her feelings on this. Jeff works on creative ways to get Sam reading. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.  Middle school and highs school are not going to be easy with how much Sam protests having to read.

I am most impressed with Samantha's ability to know what she wants and make it happen for herself.  This girl is super smart and very quick on her feet. She has amazing ideas and will see them through to completion.  Samantha recently decided to make her hair purple and gave serious consideration to needing to bleach out her natural color.  Once she decided she was ok with it, there was no turning back.  The results came out amazingly well.   And my Mother's Day Oscar Award ceremony was the brain child of Samantha.  It was the sweetest and most fun thing ever. 

Many times I think I am not going survive Samantha growing up.  We butt heads more than I'd like to admit.  But I have to remind myself that we are raising a girl who will stand up for herself, think on her feet, and have a lot of self-confidence.

Happy birthday to my sweet and sassy Samantha.  You live life out loud and don't hesitate to tell us what you are thinking.  You are quick to make us laugh with a joke or observation.  I am so proud of you and how you take responsibility for your actions.  This is going to be a big year for you; transitioning to middle school and studying for your Bat Mitzvah.  I know you will rise to the challenge and be the best version of you there is.  I look forward to seeing you soar!   Daddy and I love you very much and hope your 12th birthday and year is full of laughter, love and happiness.

Unfortunately this is our end of the year photo for leaving Fairview Elementary

First day of 6th grade!

Samantha got braces!

14 here we come!

Ian had an amazing year being 13.  He truly rocked 8th grade and had none of the issues he experienced last year when starting his new school.  Ian has a wonderful group of friends and found his groove with the theatre kids.  It is so exciting as a parent to see when your child finds something they are passionate about.  Ian has expressed interest in doing local community theatre and continue with performing in theatre in high school.  He had an amazingly perfect role for him this past year, playing Lonny in "Rock of Ages" and it really sparked the fire for seeing how far he can take this.  Ian has also started voice lessons to improve his singing.

Ian discovered binge-watching and took it to a crazy level.  He managed to watch every show of every season of "Friends", "Cheers", and "Seinfeld".  We're talking like 250 episodes for each of these shows.

Independence was front and center this year.  Ian regularly hung out with his friends and would walk across the street for lunch or walk from his school to the local shopping center.  He made all his own plans and even went to a Nationals game with a friend and no parental units.   And he started dating!  Oh my!  Ian asked out one girl at the beginning of the school year to go to the homecoming football game.  And he asked out another girl a few times towards the latter part of the school year.

Ian continues to be considerate, caring, sensitive, and funny.  So, so funny.  He has a great sense of humor.  Most times we look at each other and break out laughing over something silly that both of us have noticed and no one else has.  This is the same way with my mom and its simply wonderful.

Ian has become obsessed with all things having to do with cruise ships.  He keeps planning a trip for us to take (that will not happen) on various cruise ships and where it will go.  He knows inside and out every ship on Royal Carribean's line, how big it is, what amenities/activities are offered and when it was most recently renovated.  He has his eyes on future renovations with other cruise ships and follows all the new developments.  He is a walking cruise ship encyclopedia. We finally had to tell him to stop talking about them.  It was getting to be obnoxious.  Think a kid with Asperger's who goes on and on and doesn't stop.  Yep, that was Ian for months on end.

Ian has decided he wants to get contact lenses.  And he plans to go to the 8th-grade dance.  Ian has lots of ideas and it's fun to see how his mind works.  I love seeing the person he is growing into.  Oh and this is the year that Ian started to shave.  We've had a few laughs over this development.

Happy 14th birthday to my sweet son.  I hope this year continues to give you opportunities to shine on the stage and let you be the amazing performer we know you are.  You keep doing you and all will be just fine.  We love you so, so much.

Ian as Lonny in Rock of Ages

First day of 8th grade!

Ian as Mr. Marshall in Cinderella 101

Billy Joel for the win!

May 24, 2019 turned out to be a beautiful night and gorgeous weather.  We got to the stadium via the shuttle from Chickie and Pete's restaurant.   Our seats were in the 300 section of Citizen's Bank Park and gave us a view from way up high!  Billy Joel started performing about 8:30pm and kept going to just a little before 11:00pm.   He played hit after hit after hit.  Sometime during the show, Sam leaned over and said she was so happy to be there.  It turned out to be a great idea to surprise the kids and we all loved the concert.

Leaving the concert was quite the scene!  The restaurant offered a free shuttle to and from the stadium so we could leave our car parked at the restaurant. Going to the concert, the crowd wanting to take the shuttle was staggered and didn't have any over-crowding issues.  But taking the return shuttle back to the restaurant, once the concert was over, was of course, everyone leaving at the same time and all wanting to get a ride.  

We were lucky enough to get on the first shuttle heading back to the restaurant and even got seats on it.  However, as the shuttle was filling up, the driver said: "This is going to get ugly."  He had to leave probably several dozen people behind and came back for them.  The shuttle driver rolled thru all the stop signs, asked a woman on the shuttle who was blocking his view if it was ok to get in the lane next to him, and then was surprised when he looked toward the back of the shuttle and saw how many people had made it on.  For sure we violated the total number allowed by easily more than double or triple.  There were bodies everywhere!  My row of 2, had 4 of us sitting on it.  The woman next to me and I was laughing hysterically over what a sh*t show this shuttle ride had turned into.  And thru the whole ride, another woman is saying over and over again, we are going to die.  I think the driver was scared to use his brakes for fear what would happen to everyone standing. Meanwhile, the shuttle driver is also taking calls on his cell phone from people asking where he is.

Oh, and the only way we manage to get on is because we walked thru the intersection he was stuck waiting to cross and got on before he could officially pull up.  It was truly a memorable ending to an awesome evening. 

The proof is in the pudding!  This was a note that Sam wrote and put under my pillow at the hotel:

I obviously will be keeping this note forever!!

A surprise that surprised us all

I value giving the kids experience type gifts rather than something tangible.  I feel whatever the experience is, it will last much longer as a memory than the item that is wrapped up as a present. And we all get the chance to spend time together as a family enjoying something we don't usually get the chance to encounter on a day to day basis.

A few months ago I found out that Billy Joel was coming to concert in Philadelphia.  The timing was perfect as it was the day after Samantha's birthday and a few days before Ian's birthday.  Ian has always expressed interest in seeing Billy Joel perform live and with Billy recently turning 70 years old, I wasn't sure how many years left we had to make this happen.  Meanwhile, Samantha was dying to go to a concert, any concert.  Both kids have grown up listening to Billy's music and is fully aware of all his songs.  I am a huge Billy Joel fan (he is my absolute favorite) and Jeff enjoys his music as well.  In fact, we've gone to 2 Billy Joel concerts previously together.  He puts on a fantastic show.

My idea was to let the kids miss school on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend and head up to Philly.  We'd see the concert that evening and spend the night in a nearby hotel.  The next morning we'd be able to see my cousin Leslie and her family for breakfast before heading back home.  I had a dog sitter lined up for Lucy for the 24 hours we'd be gone and was so excited with the plan that was forming.  It was going to be a GREAT surprise and I knew the kids would freak out when we told them.

Jeff and I managed to keep the whole thing a secret until the morning of Sam's birthday.  I put together a cute flyer and handed an envelope to each kid for them to open that would tell them all about the gift.  "You get to miss school tomorrow!"  "We are going to Philadelphia!"  "You are going to your first concert!".   The Billy Joel ticket was attached.  We presented it to them at the same time.  I was ready to video record their reactions.

The surprise that I thought was going to be so amazingly well-received by the kids turned out to surprise Jeff and me even more.  Ian and Sam's reactions were almost non-existent.  They had no reaction.  It was strange and I was beyond disappointed.  WHAT!?!?  It was like they were in shock and couldn't even smile at the news.  It was a non-reaction.  The first thing that happened was Sam saying she didn't want to miss school the next day.  HUH?   And then she said, while she wants to go to a concert, she didn't want Billy Joel to be her first one.  She said he could be the third concert she goes to.  First place position goes to Pink!.    Ian, meanwhile, kept apologizing for his non-reaction and said he was looking forward to going.  Ugh.   Personally, I think this was the absolute last thing either kid expected ever happening.  They really had no clue as Jeff & I kept these plans such a secret that there was no chance for them to find anything out.   I was so depressed all day on how little the kids reacted favorably to their birthday gift from me and Jeff.  It really threw me and I wasn't expecting this to go the way it was.

Every year we let the kids pick what restaurant they want to go to for their birthday.  But this year, because of the trip to Philly, we were not going out to dinner and I said I'd make their favorite dish and we'd get cake.  I know this disappointed Samantha and she wasn't afraid to let the grandparents know when they called her that day to wish her a happy birthday that basically we were the worst parents in the world for not taking her to her favorite restaurant.   What she didn't tell the grandparents or anyone else that called was that we had other awesome plans instead.

Our road trip to Philadelphia was a big success and we stopped in Delaware at our most favorite Mexican restaurant for lunch.  Whenever we are driving on I-95 we try to plan it around us being near here for lunch or dinner.  It's about 2 hours from our house and each one of us loves this place.  It's about 5 minutes off the interstate and brings a smile to our face every time we get to go.  Jeff and I found this place very randomly a few years ago after we had dropped the kids off at camp and was driving back home.  Since then, we've managed to eat at Border Cafe about a dozen times over the years.

Once we got to Philadelphia, Jeff found us a really cool place to hang out for a few hours before checking in to the hotel.  It was a park off of Spruce Street that was a combo street festival and full of hammocks to lounge around in.  The hammocks were built for two people.  How fun!  It was a gorgeous day and so wonderful to be outside soaking in the sunshine.

I had found us a restaurant near the stadium for dinner and with a little luck was able to get a reservation.  The restaurant is a big hangout for all the stadiums nearby and this evening was filled wall to wall with Billy Joel concertgoers.  The music roaring from the speakers in the restaurant was all Billy Joel music.  How cool!   The restaurant offered a free shuttle to and from the stadium so you could leave your car parked at the restaurant.

It was shaping up to be a fantastic day and both kids finally came around in wanting to go to the concert.

Look out, here comes 11!

Samantha turns 11 today. This past year has been monumental for her.  All social anxiety has gone by the wayside and dare I say, Samantha has blossomed.  She regularly goes to a nearby classmate's home in the neighborhood to see if her friend is able to play.  This is a pretty big deal as Samantha was more fond of staying home alone rather than hang out with the neighborhood kids.  And now she can easily spend 3 to 4 hours outside. Goodbye iPad!  Well not completely, but you get the idea.

Another huge sign of social advancement is Samantha wanting to play softball.  Holy moly, this is a team sport!!  And she didn't even need to know anyone on the team or make sure she had a friend join her.  This is amazing!  But wait there's more!  Samantha also expressed interest in doing AFYP; the drama group that Ian participates in.  Samantha is currently working on a production of Alladin Jr.  Talk about putting yourself out there!

Samantha has also continued horseback riding, which she absolutely adores and would love to bump up her lessons to 2x a week.  Needless to say, it's been a very busy Spring for her and we've done much juggling of the various schedules to try to accommodate all the activities.

This past year we also found out that Samantha has a mild learning disability that has impacted reading comprehension, phonological sounds and spelling. We are confident that within 4 to 6 months time of working with a reading specialist (which Sam will start in the Fall), she will be able to catch up.  But this year has been a struggle with the demands of 5th grade  Her homeroom teacher is amazing and has been helpful in accommodating Samantha but we definitely need to bump up our efforts now that we know exactly the areas Samantha needs special help in.

Samantha is growing up.  Her height has shot up this past year and her face is looking so grown up.  I can't believe it sometimes that is my daughter and how beautiful she is.  She pretty much wears her standard uniform of black leggings, t-shirt, and her hair in a ponytail every day.  No matter where we are going, Sam finds this look to be the one for her.  It takes a lot for her to vary and change any part.

Samantha has been known to drive me crazy most days. She has her mind made up way before you even try to reason with her.  I quickly pick my battles and most days, it's not worth the challenge.  But there are the days when Samantha is sensible and so amazing to be around and I get excited to see the person she is turning in to.  She is funny, quick-witted, wicked smart, and has an amazing sense of self.  She stands up for herself and is quick to let you know what she is thinking.  When she likes you, she really likes you and is still bringing her 2nd grade teacher her favorite candy bar of Kit Kats.  She'll randomly stop by her former teacher's classroom just to give her a hug.  She also loves her 3rd grade teacher and enjoys her time with her each Wednesday when Sam does after school tutoring with her.  You always know when Sam is good with something when she willingly goes and does not complain about it.

Happy birthday to my fiercely independent, feisty, funny, and brilliant daughter.  Each year we get a little closer to figuring all these issues out.  It's pretty awesome how far we've come.  You are the perfect blend of your dad and me and a force to be reckon with.  I hope this year brings you the happiest of days and the ability to adjust your sails when the storm hits.  You teach me every day how to be a better mother by pushing me to new limits I never thought possible. I love you more than you realize and wish for you a great year of being 11 with Lucy by your side.

1st day of 5th grade!