CHEERS TO US
Officially my last day of teaching 30+ kids from home while raising my own.
It definitely wasn’t always easy, and I definitely stress cried on more than one occasion behind the shield of my Google Classroom. Accomplishing this wouldn’t have been in the realm of possibility if it weren’t for the help of our bubble. I prepped my teacher ass off late into the night and balanced schedules like I was on a flying trapeze, but we did it. Chris would joke that on my solo teaching days with Lou, I was working double duty. Enter a pregnancy and it quickly became triple duty. Teaching the particle theory while mime dancing to Winnie The Pooh in between bouts of nausea was nothing glamorous, but we did it.
When the option came up last summer, I had so many colleagues encourage me to take the opportunity. Anytime with Lou, was more time with Lou and how could I pass that up? What started with a half an hour commute became a quick stroll up the road. I went from chasing you around with AirPods while you learned to walk, to sitting beside you with markers. I spent my actual prep time reading you stories and my lunch breaks rocking you to sleep for nap. It was the greatest thing, sometimes I feel like I didn’t want to leave you so much that I manifested a pandemic (sorry world, next time I’ll try to be more specific).
Lou hit a series of developmental milestones lately, some of which Chris and I felt like came out of nowhere. Her vocabulary has hit a growth spurt; she’s a little parrot. She all of a sudden knows her colours. And while I was making lunch the other day she stood beside me and counted the cookbooks up to ten. Sounded more like “wa, chew, fee” but it was enough to make me well up. Not only was it confirmation our little girl is surviving the pandemic, but she’s actually thriving. As parents, we did it. We worked crazy hours on crazy schedules and kept our baby safe, but also managed to raise a friendly girl who runs up to the mailman for a hug and knows her numbers. A heart melting realization.
We’ll never take all the credit, like I said our bubble carried us. And Lou, we’re biased, but you’re just that special. We’re so lucky to be your parents.
So let’s have a sippy cup of our favourite orange juice and cheers to us, we make a pretty great team! Bring on summer!
