Less than Twelve Parsecs

The kids had been plotting for weeks  to get out into the wilderness, shelter-or-no-shelter-in-place, so it was going to happen one way or another. Thus, we let it happen our way: on a sunny Friday afternoon we went to the park! We upgraded the kite to a nice large jellyfish, which still worked perfectly as a social distancing tool - there was a suprisingly large group having a birthday nearby, but they all stayed safely away from us. Mara ran, and ran, and ran, and got everyone else equally excited!   Even when her feet were too tired to run, the kite flying continued: Out of nowhere, Gaius decided to do an impromptu lovey snuggle with Greg and Fae, textbook photo shoot material - I was definitely not prepared! I'm so glad I managed to get the phone out in time! By the time the other two girls got in the mix, Fae was done and ready to get moving - our 7mo has a busy personal schedule. But we tried it anyway: Gaius took on the kite duties after Mara got tired: And in the end we di

I'm pretty sure they're plotting an escape. There have been tell-tale signs for quite a while, I'm just finally putting them together. For instance, over the past month both older kids have been quietly playing in a room by themselves for looooong periods of time. When you open the door they look annoyed at the interruption, and they won't tell you what the play was about. We say: Fine, keep your secrets. I have to work anyway. But we pick up whispers about other worlds as the door is gently closing... Then, more pieces of the puzzle fall in place. Like their daily training to climb a quasi-vertical rope on a flipped-up bed mattress . They're suspiciously proficient at it by now, they've been doing it over, and over, and over for the entire past month. It all started as fun entertainment one night, around when the shelter-in-place was declared. We pushed the mattress and boxes against the wall as we were moving the bed in the room, and thought we'd give them