A Special Mother/Daughter(s) Day

So...last night, as the hubby was putting Chica to bed, she mentioned she was slightly less than enthusiastic about school today, because she was set to have a substitute teacher for the third day in a row (her teacher is out sick, but apparently, it’s not Covid-related).

She really has the most fantastic teacher this year (we’ve lucked out with a ton of great teachers) so her entire class gets really bummed whenever their teacher has to be out. So we couldn’t really blame the poor girl for her lack of excitement about being split up and dispersed to different classrooms for the day (this happens when there aren’t enough substitutes to fulfill the school district’s current needs) and powering through another less-than-stellar day.

So.

The hubby and I chatted about it, and enabled something very special and unprecedented.

We let Chica stay home from school today.

And it was glorious.

Now. It has to be said that, thanks to Chica’s active brain and happy learning environment, she is thriving in all subjects, really adores being at school, and was only less than enthusiastic about today because she knew it would be a bit, well...boring. And that’s the primary reason we let her skip. Because we knew it wouldn’t set a poor precedent. These are unique circumstances during a unique year.

But there was also another major factor that weighed into our decision: the fact that Little Man had preschool today, but Chicklet was still home virtual learning, so if we let Chica stay home, I got to have a super-special Girls Only day. :)

Woohoo.

And, man, did we live it up.

Chica slept in an extra 90 minutes and wandered downstairs all cute and cuddly, asking, “why am I not at school?” Ha. Surprise!

After dropping off Little Man (who was still happy to go see his friends, even though he knew his sissies would be home), I picked up some yummy iHOP pancakes on the way home. And the girlies and I set up a playroom breakfast picnic and watched a Tinkerbell movie we adore (that’s about sisters!) that we hadn’t watched in ages.

And after we ate, I got tons o’ couch snuggles with my girlies (Chicklet looks a little emotional in this pic because the sisters in the movie were about to be separated—temporarily, ha).



Then, when the movie was done, because I was feeling magnanimous and really wanted to ramp up the Girls Only fun...we went to get pedicures together.

My first pedicure in nearly a year (and let it be said that I only felt comfortable with this because Chicklet is 11 days post exposure and had a negative Covid test).



I’ve been a little nervous to return to a salon environment and those nerves aren’t totally gone. I just tried my best not to focus on the exposure and instead focus on the joy of a special outing with my babies where we did all we could to stay safe and germ free. And I’m glad we went for it.

Then after we all had beautiful toes and were nice and chill, we popped next door to our very favorite cookie shop to bring a special treat home, and then spent a lovely lunch at the kitchen table, soaking in the last of our time together before I went to grab Little Man.

Once all my babies were home, we did a doodle together, the kiddos played video games, we had a nice family dinner and really just enjoyed the last bit of our day.

All in all, it was just a really lovely random Tuesday where I got to love up my girlies an extra bit and make them feel super-special.

And now...Chica’s teacher will be back tomorrow (yay!), Chicklet and I will continue our happy virtual learning for these final days before she can return to school, and we’ll just trek along with business as usual.

As I’ve already mentioned, I’m strangely grateful for these shake-ups of our schedules and routines thanks to Chicklet’s quarantine. There beauty in the non-routine, for sure.

Happy Almost Hump Day, peeps.

Stay healthy, stay sane.

Over and out. 

P.S. I should mention one final thing...when I sent a note to the school nurse (who is the funnel for all absences during this Covid year), I just straight-up told the truth.

She knew Chicklet was still at home, so I just mentioned Chica’s substitute situation and basically said: we’re gonna have some fun and take a family mental health day.

And her response?

Enjoy.

She agreed that we all need breaks and breathers and hoped we had a great day. :)

I truly think we all have become more open and honest about the need to preserve our sanity and protect the family time we’ve all grown more accustomed to over this past year. No need to lie and pretend Chica wasn’t feeling well (also, it’s so not cool to do that in a Covid world, ha). It’s great to just shoot straight and have it received positively, because we’re all a bit more compassionate about all it takes to remain healthy and sane these days. And about what’s really important.

A beautiful thing, for sure.