I find that the longer I go without writing the harder it gets to come back to this space. So many things happen from day to day that I can’t keep up with what I want to write down, and then months have gone by and I realize I’ve never written anything.

We are in the trenches of second grade now! I feel like Charlotte has so many tests and assignments that sometimes it’s hard to keep up with it all. Math is a nightmare because whoever has changed math has decided to make it 1000000x harder than it needs to be. She has a math test tomorrow and every day she has had anxiety about it saying how she is going to fail. It’s so hard to see your kid struggle with something, especially when I am struggling with it too! I have to sit down with her math homework and teach myself before I can even do it with her. I told her I don’t care about the grades she gets as long as we study and try our best, and if we have to get a tutor and try that route we will. I just feel like second grade shouldn’t feel this hard? She loves science which is wonderful, and her reading is really impressive. We’re reading chapter books and she rocks out chapters by herself every night with very little help from me on words. Strengths and weaknesses, am I right?

Mackenzie continues to be a menace and an absolute delight all rolled into one. She is the biggest chatterbox going now and I call her a parrot because she repeats everything you say to her, which is great until Charlotte tells her to say ass. Her favorite phrase right now is shouting “WHAT THE HECK” in every situation. She is very excited for Halloween (she’s going to be Buzz Lightyear, per her request) and when you ask her about Halloween she will say “trick or treat blue pop” because all she wants is a blue lollipop, so if any houses in Westerleigh can stock up on blue pops that would be great! We have a trunk or treat on Friday and a Halloween party on Saturday, so I think the chances of her getting a blue pop even before Monday are strong.

The two of them together are just the sweetest thing when they aren’t fighting and screaming at one another. Mackenzie hugs and kisses Charlotte goodbye every morning and looks forward to playing with her when she gets home. They play with Mackenzie’s figures together, or cook at the play kitchen and pretend to feed their dolls and Charlotte is teaching Mackenzie how to play Roblox on the iPad, which is a game I will never understand. They are exhausting and wonderful and fun. I feel like we’re in a really good groove right now so I’m hoping nothing comes along to screw that up, even though I know the second things start to feel good and easy is when something changes and BAM everything is terrible. But we’ll enjoy it while it lasts!