Harry Trifecta Complete!

Oh my heavens, peeps.

MAJOR LIFE EVENT ALERT:

Chica and I completed Prisoner of Azkaban tonight!

(Cue celebratory trumpets and obnoxious photo.)

What a stinking JOY it is to experience these again through my firstborn’s eyes. Magical in EVERY sense of the world.

And I’m particularly grateful—and even a bit proud of myself, in a weird way—for finishing the last chapter tonight, of all nights.

Because our day totally went off the rails, beginning at 6:45 a.m. when we had to make the call to keep Chicklet home from school due to congestion and a very audible sniffling that we knew would make people nervous.

As as any parent of any school-attending kiddo these days is well aware...having symptoms of ANY kind right now is just complicated on many levels.

As this was our first round of illness (hilariously, ridiculously, ONE week since returning to in-person learning), we were on a bit of a household learning curve. I kept both girlies home, as I wasn’t sure of our school’s sibling policy (and couldn’t reach a live human to confirm), and things just spiraled from there.

Eventually, Chicklet and I spent a slightly frustrating morning getting a rapid Covid test (she’s negative, as expected, but thank heavens), and it’s a good thing we went, as she’s not allowed to return to school without a negative test or a doctor’s note exempting her from needing a test to begin with.

So...things learned:

1. We’re going to need a lot of parental patience with kiddos who have any kind of symptoms that could be something or could be nothing.
2. We’re going to get quite familiar with rapid tests.
3. We’re going to get quite familiar with the school attendance and nurse personnel.
4. If one of the girlies is asymptomatic, but the other sibling isn’t feeling so well, the healthy sibling can go to school, but...
5. For Little Man’s preschool (as it’s a private and not public entity), the rules are far more strict, and if any member of the household has any symptom of anything, he can’t go to school. Oye.

So.

Yeah.

The day was kind of a hot mess.

And as luck would have it, ALL THREE GRANDPARENTS are driving to town together for a Halloween visit, tomorrow (hi, Grands!).

And even though they could care less about what the house looks like and whether sheets and towels are clean, I totally care. And having family in town is pretty much my one chance to get this place clean all at once, ha.

So...the point is: with a lot to get done today, and a day that went off the rails, I’m grateful to have kept in perspective the family time of watching a movie (more on that tomorrow), and finishing up the epic awesomeness that is Harry.

With each book, at the very end, there’s always something that tickles Chica to no end. Some discovery or some humorous tidbit, and it’s my very favorite thing to see her glow with joy. :)

And what an incredible thing to look back and see just how much we’ve read in the past 16 months and three books. :)



Now. As any Harry-lover knows...things ramp up BIG TIME in the fourth book. Enough that it’s typically recommended to wait until the kiddos are near 10 years old to dive in. And I’ve certainly spent some time mulling over the decision to pause or continue, and let’s just be real and say we can’t pause.

I’m that person that has to start a new book immediately upon finishing an epic one, or sadness sets in. So I was a total sucker and opened the fourth book with my girl tonight. (And please note my face is the exact same cray-cray in every pic of this post, ha.)

I have confidence that we can keep this amazing continuation of the story from getting too scary or heavy for my Chica.

First off, we’re reading it aloud, together, which gives me the latitude to deliver lines or emphasize/de-emphasize bits, as needed. And it will also give us a chance to talk through anything emotionally complicated.

And...this book is much longer than any of the previous three (with noticeably smaller font, ha),

so it will take us for sure a year to read. So by the time we’re to the really dramatic scenes at the end, she’ll be another year older and wider. 

Anywho. Harry was a much-needed distraction tonight after a crazy day, and I have a feeling we’re going to have a lot of other distractions come tomorrow evening with the grandparent brigade arrives.

Until then...over and out, peeps.

:)