This month was a lot of fun to start out with, since the girls were happily back in school and I had a little more free time to myself in the mornings. But, Varun did have to travel towards the end of the month for another 6 week trip to his favorite place: Equatorial Guinea. (It’s hard to get sarcasm across in writing, but just so everyone knows, EG is Varun’s least favorite place that he ever has to travel to, and it’s the place he has travels to most often.) So, we all tried our best to take advantage of the time we did have with Varun before he left.
Sara Gail Turns 5!!
February is usually a big birthday month in this family, we have almost all my French families’ birthdays happen this month, among other relatives. But, most importantly, Sara Gail’s birthday is in February! I can’t believe it’s already been two years since I first posted about my baby girl turning 3 and now she’s a big, grown-up 5 year-old!
As per my personal family tradition, I put up streamers and decorations all over the house the night before her birthday. It’s something my mother always did for my brothers and I when we were growing up. And no matter where we may end up in the world, I will always surprise my girls, and Varun for that matter, with a fully decorated house including balloons and streamers galore!
This year we didn’t do a big, fancy party or anything like that. Mainly because the COVID numbers still aren’t the greatest, but also because of Sara Gail’s shyness. When we last threw her a big party with lots of her classmates and friends, she was huddling up and crying when we all tried to sing Happy Birthday to her. Now, once Sara Gail gets to know you, she will be the most outgoing kid you’ve ever met. But if you shine a spotlight on her, she freezes and becomes almost cripplingly shy. So, since COVID wasn’t cooperating for a big party anyway, we decided to keep it simple and just have our close friends over on the weekend and had them stay the night. Which, of course, was fun for all four of us!
Despite not having a big party, she did get a celebration at school with her classmates and teachers. The school does have very strict requirements when it comes to cake, i.e. no frosting or flavoring of any kind, only simple vanilla cakes are allowed. So, I decided to make some cupcakes instead, since it would be hard for us as a family to finish a whole vanilla cake. I was sure to make her some chocolate strawberry cupcakes for our actual celebration at home and with our friends. But, she still enjoyed her time in the sun at school, sharing her birthday cupcakes with her class.
And, Sara Gail got an added surprise for her birthday this year: another visit from the tooth fairy! As a baby she did get her two bottom teeth in very quickly, so it does stand to reason that they’d be the first ones to come out. We were again lucky that it came out while brushing her teeth, so she got a surprise from the tooth fairy the morning of her birthday too!
Back at School
Since the girls started going back to school on campus in January, it was in full swing this month! Abigail is still young enough to be taking naps, so she is only at the school in the morning. Sara Gail is thrilled to be back at school for her normal schedule from 8 am until 3:15 pm. And the school has been very thorough in all the sanitization and cleaning methods used in order to prevent the spread of COVID. Firstly, the students are all divided up into “Bubbles” of 6 students each, and these are the only other children they interact with. Each classroom is divided as is the playground so no two bubbles will be in contact with each other. Next, all parents are expected to do a quick check of their child’s health before they bring them to school, just a simple: do they have a fever, runny nose, stomach ache, type of thing. The school doesn’t get a copy of this, it’s just on the honor system, but it is added to my morning routine when I’m getting the girls ready to head out the door. Parents do need to complete a weekly form confirming that no one has been in touch with someone exposed to COVID, etc. As far as the on-campus regulations, everyone, and I mean everyone, onsite in the public areas has to wear a mask. So, both girls wear a mask in the parking lot too; they are allowed to take them off once they reach their bubble. All the teachers are equipped with masks, face shields and aprons to keep themselves and the children safe. Each child gets a wrist band to mark off how many times their temperature is checked and how many times they wash their hands each day. Nurses are stationed throughout the school to do the regular temperature checks, and to make sure that all teachers are wearing their masks properly at all times. And the school is divided up into three different entrances, each entrance has a hand washing station and sanitization booth. Only the students and staff are allowed past the entrances.
All these measures certainly make me feel safer about sending the girls back to school. But I definitely miss the interaction with the other parents and children. Before COVID hit, we would spend 30-45 mins on the playground with the girls having fun on all the equipment and me getting to chat with the other parents. But now, there are social distancing lines throughout the parking lot, and while there is some chatting, it is a little sad that the playing is limited. They do still get to play on the playground during the day, in their bubbles and in cordoned-off areas of the playground. But social interaction for both parents and children has not been easy these days. I’m sure the effects of the pandemic, including lockdown measures and social distancing requirements, will have their effect on children as they grow up in this crazy world we live in today. But hopefully it’ll be for the better.
In the end, the girls have adjusted really well to all these new rules, Sara Gail always tries to match her mask with either me or her sister! And at the end of the day, the girls are just happy to be back at school learning and playing with their friends and teachers.
Swimming
Outside of school the girls are still keeping up with their extracurriculars. First, I’ll talk about swimming! It’s just wonderful to see how quickly these girls have learned how to swim! It seems like only yesterday that Abigail was insisting that I had to be in the water holding her hand while she was screaming bloody murder the whole lesson! Now, she can swim on her own, underwater! And Sara Gail is just excelling! She can swim a freestyle stroke perfectly, she is learning the breaststroke well and even the butterfly! As someone who can’t get enough of swimming and the water myself, I absolutely adore seeing my babies become fish in the water, just like their Mommy. Although, I’m sure Sara Gail will outpace me of my swimming skills in the next few months!
Gymnastics
Sara Gail is still loving her gymnastics class too. After all those weeks of watching her twist and turn like a pretzel on the couch while she was watching TV, I knew she’d just absolutely love gymnastics! She’s getting so close to doing a cartwheel on her own. And while Varun is away traveling, Abigail gets to come and watch her sister. And I know she wants more than anything to join her big sister on the mat!
Sewing Projects
With all my free time at home, I’ve been putting my sewing machine to work! I decided I wanted to try and work on all the cushion covers we have on our outdoor furniture on our third-floor patio. When we ordered the furniture, the people making it offered to make covers for the cushions if I provided the fabric. So, I found some nice blue and yellow fabric, to symbolize the Michigan colors of course! But, when they sewed on the cushions, they sewed it all the way on, so there was no way to take them off and clean them! So, I decided to take some of the stitches out, take those covers off, and sew on zippers. That way, when they got dirty, which happens very easily over here, I could actually take them off to be cleaned. Then, I decided to make clean up even easier by sewing plastic covers to go on top of the fabric ones. I bought some tables clothes, cut them to size as best I could, and just did my best to sew them to fit on all the cushions. And this month, I finished all eight cushions! Now, when we have people over to hang out, which we are doing more and more now, we have a nice, comfortable, clean place to hang out outside!
With that project done, I was finally able to get back to the one sewing project I’ve been longing to finish for almost a year and a half: the girls’ quilts! I was so happy to have them back thanks to the barrel that we got back in January. And now, with the girls in school, I finally had the time to finish them both! The girls were absolutely thrilled and could not love them enough! And I love the irony that Sara Gail has attached to her quilt. Since COVID hit before I could finish her quilt, I used all the leftover fabric from it to make us all homemade masks. So now that her quilt is finally finished, Sara Gail calls it her family mask quilt! It gives it more special meaning for her, and she loves being wrapped up in it every night! And my smile could not be bigger having worked so hard to make it for her!
Food
As usual, the weekly struggle of preparing, cooking, and providing a good variety of food for my rambunctious girls continues. At least I am lucky that they eat all the different cuisines I present to them at mealtime fairly well. Sara Gail is especially enjoying eating the Indian meals with her hands now, and she is doing a pretty good job, much better than I did when I first started trying! I also try and throw in some treats for them every once in a while too, including homemade popcorn for movie nights!
As usual, the rest of our time this past month was spent at home with each other. The girls are continuing to expand their imaginations and creative play. For most of the time, they play together really well and enjoy each other’s company.
This month Varun also let the girls brush up on their salon skills and got his very own manicure. They both enjoyed it, and Varun was happy that the nail polish did not last very long!
Varun had another salon service done at home: his hair had finally gotten too long, and we weren’t fully comfortable going to a salon during COVID, so Varun asked me to cut his hair at home with his clippers. Luckily, we have a step-up machine so that we can use the US electronics here. I was very nervous to do it myself, because I can’t cut a straight line to save my life! But, for this cut at least, I think I was able to do a decent job. Of course, we found pieces of his hair all over the house for about a week, but Varun was happy to have a nice, clean haircut before his long trip away.
On a final note, in addition to birthdays this month also included Valentine’s Day. Now, Varun and I have never really celebrated this holiday to a big extent, we prefer to keep it simple. Instead of going out for dinner, we alternate cooking dinner for each other every year. This year was my turn, so I decided to make some burger patties, macaroni and cheese, and a cowboy caviar. Along with a decent beer and our favorite movie for this holiday: Valentine’s Day, it made for a great evening together, before he left us for another work trip for 6 long weeks.
Well, that’s all for the month of February! Come back next week for a special retrospective on the past 2 years of blogging and living in Ghana!
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