Amelia and Henry have always been really close. Theirs is a special bond that has only grown the older they’ve gotten and the more they’ve come into their own. I still remember when they were both in preschool, teachers would tell us how jubilant they would be when they passed each other in the hall. There was one playground for older kids and another for the younger ones, with a chain link fence between them, and Henry and Amelia used to meet at the fence to say hello and touch hands through the fence.
While we are nowhere near normal on the schoool front yet, and Amelia is in virtual classes for the rest of this school year, Henry is now attending Pre-K at our local school and it is exciting to think of the two of them at the same school once again. Amelia takes great pride in her school, and Henry has always been there when we’d take Amelia to school and pick her up, so it’s exciting for him now to be part of that too.
Right now, Henry just does half-day in-person preschool two days a week, and Amelia usually comes along to pick him up. After all these years, it still makes me smile to see how excited they are to see one another, and how they chat each other up about their days.
I was thinking a lot about the special bond these two have, and how it’s grown in the time of COVID. I’ve been working on taking some of the stories and thoughts from this blog to creat chapters for a book I’m working on. Today I was writing an kind of umbrella piece about some of the mindsets and things that got us through, and one of them was the idea of making sure to create fun, even in a time that seems overrun with darkness and dread.
It’s always interesting looking back at some of the little adventures and wacky stuff we did to keep spiritus up in the last year, and what I ultimately concluded in writing this piece was that it was a lot less about us parents being the ones inventing the fun for the kids, though at times we did. In the end, I think it was the kids who created much of that air of make believe, humor, and levity. I have to give them both so much credit for the way they bounce creative and funny things off each other and make their own fun right out of thin air.
I thought of it Saturday while we were waiting in line at Trader Joe’s. Here’s something we have gotten used to, but imagine the horror you’d experience if your self from a year ago saw people standing in line, wearing face masks, just to get into a grocery store with some level of safety. It was cold outside and standing in line is boring and sucks, but the kids every week just make a game running around these little bushes, laughing and playing just as happily as they did when I used to take them to indoor playgrounds.
I admire that spark, and am so very thankful for the joy the kids bring each other, and us. They play together so well, and it’s fun to listen to the worlds they create together. The past few days they’ve also been coming up with wild adventures surrounding the Frozen castles Amelia put together.
They’ll sometimes play for for hours, spinning stories with Olaf, Elsa and the whole Frozen gang. I’ll jump in and play sometimes too, typically as Kristoff, but I admit I can’t keep up with what they have going on most times.
Of course, there are still those days where they butt heads, or when we hear plenty of “I’m bored,” and requests to entertain them. They are still kids, after all. But in the final analysis, I need to take a moment and express both gratitude and pride that our kids have been able to keep their spirits up so well during one of the most difficult years any of us can or will ever remember. It’s inspiring and I hope we can all remember to find the fun anywhere and anytime we can, because it is always there.
