Audio went to a birthday party for one of her classmates on Sunday.  Dee Dee felt bad that she didn’t have a party to go to.  Sadly, she couldn’t have gone even if she had.  She was pretty sick.  The sound of her cough filled our house the whole weekend.  While Audio went to the party with her mom, Dee Dee and I watched TV.  We finished the second season of the show, Hilda.  We both liked it.   

Audio and her mom were only gone for about three hours.  So, after Dee Dee painted her fingernails and toenails, we picked out snacks and drinks to have while watching Hilda, and then watching a couple episodes of the show, we didn’t have much time for talking.  But we did discuss how the one friend at school who Dee Dee likes the most has been sitting across the table, next to another girl at lunch instead of sitting next to Dee Dee.  Dee Dee complained that she can’t hear her friend over the noise in the cafeteria.  She also said that other best friends all sit next to each other and not across from each other at lunch.  Offering either my best or my worst advice, I suggested that Dee Dee speak with the girl about the situation. 

Dee Dee agreed with me about talking with the girl, but not with my technique.  I suggested wading into the situation slowly by discussing how the three girls who sit together could take turns sitting next to each other so they could take turns hearing each other better.  Dee Dee preferred the diving in, head-first approach of just asking the girl to sit next to her and if she doesn’t want to, asking her why not.  I agreed that it was best to know where the other girl stands.  But the scenario wouldn’t get to play out until Tuesday.  By the end of Sunday night, it was clear that neither girl was healthy enough to go to school Monday morning. 

Audio had a good time at the birthday party.  It was at an indoor playground in a warehouse.  From how my wife described the place and the photos I saw on the internet, it seemed like a filthy germ farm.  Apparently, at one point during the party one oblivious classmate sat where my wife had left her and Audio’s jackets while getting refreshments.  In search of a new place to sit, Audio made a beeline to a seat next to one of the mean kids from her class.  My wife reported that the kid clapped his hands on his sealed bag of chips, blowing the bottom out of the bag, shooting the chips onto the floor.  But that was about as exciting as sitting next to him went.   

Beyond the snacks, Audio had a good time.  My wife showed me videos of Audio trying to get up on what is called a Kangaroo Jumper.  It’s an inflatable pillow made of PVC material that is the size of a house.  Many kids can jump on it at one time, if they are able to climb their way up onto the jumping surface from the sides.  In the videos I watched, Audio had a hard time getting up onto the top of the thing.  Scaling the steep, slick angle stocking-footed to get to the top seemed to be difficult enough for her.  And the jumping of the other kids on the thing sent her bouncing left and right and then off, made it seem impossible.  But she made it up to the top and jumped and bounced with the best of them. 

On Monday morning, Audio threw up twice and Dee Dee slept until 10:00AM.  They both seemed miserable at the start of the day.  But by lunch, they both seemed fine.  So, on Tuesday, they both went back to school.  I learned mid-afternoon that the school nurse had texted my wife to let her know that Audio had been twirling in her stocking feet in the hallway, fell, and landed on her elbow.  But “She was not crying and wanted to go outside for recess,” so she did.   

When I picked up the girls at the end of the day Audio told me that while she was sitting on the floor in the hallway pulling on her snowpants, a mean kid (the same one who blasted his chips onto the floor at the party) stepped on her hand.  I would learn on Wednesday morning from one of Audio’s teachers that her hand was stepped on while she was laying, sprawled out on the hallway floor.  There’s often a little more to every story.  And after I pulled the girls (the long way) home in the sled, Dee Dee said that she asked her friend if she wanted to sit next to her during lunch.  And she did. 

Thursday was the last day of the second quarter.  At the end of the day, after my wife and I hauled the girls home on their sleds, Dee Dee told us that one of the annoying boys in her class announced, with help from the teacher, that he was going to transition from in-person learning to online school.  I was relieved to hear that he won’t be there to upset Dee Dee as much as he had for the first half of the year.  Even though the kid drove Dee Dee nuts by talking out of turn, getting out of his seat and running around, or taking things from her or others, she decided to make him a “goodbye” card.   

After discussing the possible reasons that the boy was transitioning to online school, we made sure to let Dee Dee know that it was very nice of her to make the boy a card.  Dee Dee told us that after she gave it to him, she saw him drop it on the floor in the hallway.  She picked it up and gave it to him again.  She didn’t pay attention to whether or not he kept it after she gave it to him the second time.  Either way, the annoying boy is gone.  Good riddance.