2020: A Whompton Recap

The continuous meme storm of 2020's horribleness are amusing and can be one way to approach a 2020 recap. Despite all the ups and downs of 2020, the Whomptons had a good year. Here's a recap of our life before COVID (pre mid-March 2020) and after.

STEM experiences

Both Raina and Lola embraced STEM opportunities in 2020. In February, Raina participated in the Catalysts for Change program through Washington University as well as continuing the lead programmer role for the Rampunzel robotics team. Rampunzel had a rough season: they competed once and then had the remainder of their meets were snowed out, and this new season has a rocky start due to COVID. It's hard to build a robot in a shared space in a socially distanced way, especially with so many of the students doing remote learning. 

Lola also had a series of STEM Saturdays in February, where she did introductory coding, construction, and other engineering challenges. The program was offered through Parkway and it was awesome for her to connect with other 5th graders at other schools. Lola wears Raina's Catalysts for Change shirt, her own STEM Saturday shirt, and a funny Math Counts t-shirt each week. 

Over the summer all of Lola's summer camps were cancelled so we searched for COVID safe alternatives. The Girl Scouts offered a series of virtual camps, where they sent all the materials to your house and then you zoomed in with everyone else to do the activities. Lola did multiple STEM oriented Girl Scout camps this summer and they staved off the boredom just a little bit.

Eric's Knees

Two-plus years ago Eric tore his ACL and meniscus playing basketball, and the doctors didn't catch it. After time and rest the pain would ease some, he'd go out and play again, and then reinjure himself. As a basketball coach for Lola's teams, there were multiple opportunities for this to happen! Eventually he went out to get another opinion and they determined that he did, indeed, have a rather serious injury that would require surgery to repair. 

Because the surgery puts the patient out of commission for so long, he planned on doing it immediately after our planned beach trip in July but, of course, COVID shifted those plans aside. He rescheduled the surgery for September and, despite some extraordinary swelling issues, has come out of the procedure and recovery process quite well. He progressed from being horizontal nearly all the time, to painfully using two crutches, to confidently using two crutches, to using a cane, to gingerly walking, to walking the length of our street, to walking over a mile. Eric has diligently performed his PT exercises -- he hates a blue water filled ball, just ask him! -- but it has paid off because his doctor has now cleared him to lightly jog on a track! He's weeks ahead of schedule and it's remarkable the transformation 3 months has made.

We took our final full-family hike two weekends before his surgery.
Bootleggers Trail in Creve Coeur Park

Eric took a series of photos to document the swelling of his knee. Just over one week in here.

Lola and Basketball

Lola is/was a three season basketball player -- spring, summer, winter -- and she played for her 5th grade team as well as playing up at 6th grade. She further developed her step back shot, her 3 point shooting, and left handed layups. 

Lola was selected as MVP of her team and her team placed second in her first travel tournament!

Lola's Knees
Lola battled knee pain off and on in 2019 and early 2020. We tried knee braces and focused strength training to improve the situation, but it wasn't enough. Sweet girl was diagnosed with Osgood Schlatter disease -- somewhat like growing pains centered in the knee -- and rest, physical therapy, and time are the only things to improve it. Theoretically once Lola stops growing in height the pain will stop. It's a catch-22 situation though. She cannot really play basketball or run or even walk long distances because it hurts too badly -- Lola has spent the past 9 months mostly sedentary as she waits to heal -- but she wants to keep growing taller so she will have a longer basketball career and so she can be taller than Raina. As we approach the end of 2020, her knees have improved enough that she can walk 3 miles and she doesn't need to ice her knees afterwards. This is a notable development, and we're hoping for further healing!

Raina and the Theatre

While in Middle School, Raina worked lights and/or stage managed multiple times a year: the Middle School Talent Show, the 7th/8th grade play, and Summer Stock. The Upper School presents four shows a year and Raina was queued up to work two of them: the all school musical 9 to 5 and the 9th/10th grade play Romeo and Juliet. She did all the tech and lighting work for 9 to 5 and it was supposed to open the first week of March. Due to illness within the cast, the show got postponed and rescheduled, postponed and rescheduled, and then finally was closed due to the COVID shutdown. Raina did multiple tech weeks where she was at school until 11 PM and it was so sad that the show never got to be seen by an audience. Romeo and Juliet was the spring show and it, too, was cancelled.

Raina with the 9 to 5 tech crew

This fall, Raina joined Seldom Scene, an activity group that builds the sets for the Upper School shows. She's really enjoying hanging the lights, using the saws, and hanging out with a friend in a socially distanced and productive way. She's planning on doing tech for whatever shows actually happen in the 2020-21 year.

Lola and Music

As a 3rd - 5th grader, Lola stopped playing the piano and took up the violin. She also sang in the Ross Elementary and All District Choirs. She had a month long illness that really knocked her out in February, so she missed this year's All District Choir concert, but she did perform in the All District Strings Ensemble, which was a really cool performance experience. The video is of "Ode to Joy."

Lola finds her seat in the Family Arena for the All District Strings performance.

As a 6th grader, Lola was forced to narrow her arts focus to a single music, which was an agonizing decision for her because she enjoyed choir and orchestra and she wanted to try band. She decided to pivot and join the Parkway NEMS band as a flautist. Raina handed over her flute to Lola and spent time this summer teaching her essential elements of the instrument; Lola has improved steadily this school year and she uses Samantha's bedroom as her practice space. It's interesting how we've made virtual school work!

Raina teaching some fingering to Lola
Also check out the jam-packed and cluttered nature of our dining room and kitchen!  :)

Making Masks

When we went quaranteam, Lola's school day opened up dramatically: she had maybe 2 hours of work to do and then a whole lot of freedom. The incredibly generous and thoughtful Casey Gardonio-Foat lent her a sewing machine, fabric, thread, ribbon, and pattern for mask making. We deployed it all to the kitchen table and Lola made masks for about a month.

We've received many compliments on the masks -- especially the polka dotted ones -- and Eric always proudly responds that Lola made them.  :)  She also shared masks with our elderly neighbors so that they would be protected from COVID too.

Testing out the sewing machine foot pedal

Some finished products!

End of 5th grade

Lola did not have the traditional Ross Elementary 5th grade graduation experience. That's okay. Instead, she submitted photos of herself as a 5th grader for a memory book (selections below) and had a farewell parade. Frankly, it was a low key and nice way to end the year. The downside is that she doesn't have her handprint permanently painted on the Ross Elementary wall.

She's grown tremendously -- physically, mentally, emotionally -- this year. 

We suited up in our Ross Elementary gear for her 5th grade graduation parade.

And we watched proudly as she said thank you and goodbye to her elementary school. 

School Year 2020-21

The Whomptons intended for Lola to attend Ross Elementary so that she could develop friendships with people in the neighborhood and then for her to return to MICDS at 6th grade. The trade-off, of course, is that Lola wouldn't want to leave her new friends or the new community she was a part of, so by 5th grade we were questioning that initial life plan. Maybe she should continue with her Parkway classmates and attend Parkway Northeast Middle for 6th grade. We still had her apply to MICDS just in case. Midway through her 5th grade year we learned there was a Parkway Academy for gifted students and her Gifted Teacher thought she would be a good fit. Suddenly, Lola had three schools she was considering: MICDS, Parkway NEMS, and the Mosaics Academy at Parkway West. 

To say she was stressed about the decision would be a monumental understatement. Honestly, the stress of this decision combined with a month-long illness in January/February broke her emotionally. It was rough. In the end, she chose to attend Parkway Northeast and she was excited about the new opportunities and new paths she would chart for herself. She got into the Project-Based Learning team at NEMS and she looked forward to doing interesting and real-life projects (Her parents were super impressed by the NEMS principal!) 

Lola was absolutely distraught when we came back to her in July and told her she had to make another school decision. She could attend a Parkway Virtual School for the entire year OR she could attend NEMS in person and do the back-and-forth and uncertainty of COVID protocols, quarantines, and shutdowns. After weighing the decision for a while, she committed to Virtual School for the year. We redesigned her bedroom to make it a classroom space and prepared for the virtual year. It hasn't been perfect, but it has been much better than last year, and she has thrived on the predictability of her schedule. 

Raina had a similar decision to make: return in person to MICDS or do a remote learning experience. The in-person offering was to have a week on-campus and then a week off-campus on Zoom, and the week was determined by grade level. Raina's response was immediate and without hesitation -- she was doing virtual learning, end of story. Her course schedule is atypical: she has only 3 traditional 10th grade classes, and she refused to come to campus on the 10th grade week only to have to zoom into her 11th and 12th grade classes. 

Both girls admit that virtual school is not ideal but there are aspects of it that they really, really like. They love sleeping in, making their own lunch and eating when they want, wearing whatever they want, having their "free" periods actually being free time, and not having to spend their time waiting on other people for transportation purposes, etc. Lola in particular loves that the teachers can mute disruptive students. 

Krystal had a fair amount of uncertainty about whether to return back to teaching this school year; the COVID impacts were vast and the health risks did not seem worth it. We worked the numbers and determined that if MICDS didn't offer other alternatives I could quit and we'd still financially be okay. Thankfully it did not come to that, and I successfully negotiated to work/teach from home for this school year. There was a pay reduction that accompanied working from home and negotiations for that took months, which did not help my stress level at all. I'm grateful to continue to be at MICDS and, while it was a notable adjustment, I have enjoyed working from home this year.

Raina's first AP test

Raina took the AP Calculus AB test in the spring and she earned a 5 on it! WOW, Raina! She repeatedly assures me that it's not that big of a deal since she's taking the BC test this year, that the BC score is what colleges will look at with emphasis instead. Who cares?! Earning a 5 on any AP test is wicked impressive!

Raina's social life

Raina has an amazing group of friends who are intelligent, curious, and compassionate, and who push her introverted self to try new experiences. She attended the winter formal in early 2020, and that is not something Raina would volunteer to do on her own, for sure. (She refused to let us take pictures, so no documentation on our end.) They have gathered together in socially distant ways for birthdays and holiday celebrations over the past 9 months. It's been wonderful.

Raina can drive!

Raina turned 15 in May and, after the shut-down order was lifted, she took her learner's permit test. She now has the legal authority to get behind the wheel, but she has close to zero desire to do so. We have pressured her to drive in multiple parking lots (they were empty during the shut-down, which helped a lot) but she has refused to drive on actual roads yet. Some of her friends have now turned 16 and they are driving on their own. It boggles my mind that Raina is old enough to drive, and is totally unsurprising that she sees the possible risks and has decided to pass for right now. There's still plenty of time to further develop this skill. 

Summer jobs

Both Raina and Lola had summer jobs! Raina interned for a start-up company Neptune; she learned how to code with React and she built the general framework for an app. She went to work at 8 AM each day by going downstairs and opening the computer.  :)  Lola helped our friend Bob Heck with his lawn, pool, fence, and general clean-up tasks. Bob was wonderful; giving Lola this basic framework for her day got her out of the house with purpose. There were enough tasks for one of Lola's friends to join, so they worked together daily for a good month or so. Lola and Bob developed a really sweet relationship and she has walked over to Bob's since just so she can visit with him and see their cutesy pup Bailey.

Regular ways to stay occupied

Once the quarantine went into effect, all Whomptons shuttered in the house. Each person had a designated space in the house -- Krystal in the upstairs living room, Eric in the dining room or bedroom, Lola in her bedroom, Raina and Samantha in the downstairs living room -- and we strived to occupy ourselves within those restrictions. You'd think that playing board games would happen in this scenario but we didn't have any more table space to devote to it! Instead, we deployed the card game Set and played it frequently as a single-to-five player game. We're now planning The Crew, which is an awesome adaptable cooperative card game that has occupied us after dinner each night for a month. We did multiple puzzles. Sister Strolls became a regular occurrence: Krystal and Samantha walked together usually twice a day, Raina and Lola walked together once a day. We kept accounts of surveillance kitties and the baby deer in the neighborhood. Krystal gave frequent reports of seeing triplet fawns but Samantha refused to believe such amazingness existed.  :)  

Got close and personal with this sweet one on a daily walk

Samantha and Krystal joined a walking challenge and logged hundreds of miles over two months. I had no idea that walking in Saint Louis summer heat could be so pleasant! After traversing the same streets over and over again, we aimed to put our feet on streets we'd not explored before. We've now walked through many of the neighborhoods within a 3 miles radius of our home and have an ever deeper appreciation for the amazing place where we live. 

Showing our values

On the whole, we chose not to interact with people and to stay away from crowds. We broke that general rule to participate in multiple Black Lives Matter marches and vigils this summer. The Parkway Schools and MICDS held events and we marched in solidarity as members of both communities. This summer marked the first time we really saw other neighbors putting Black Lives Matter signs in their yards and, additionally, was the first time a BLM march passed by our street. 

The majority of our signs stay at the Ethical Society, so we had to make new ones. Raina did a remarkable job creating the BLM fist. We're congregating with the Parkway North community here.

Marching on Ross Avenue, just about to pass our street

Marching on Warson Road with the MICDS community

June and Pride Month arrived and Raina inquired why we didn't have a pride flag up at our house. We rectified that situation quickly and then didn't take it down for months. Why should we? That rainbow flag brings joy each time I see it. We do not have a trans pride flag yet so that's the next one to acquire. 

On the Ethical Society front, Krystal concluded her Board service, helped revise an American Ethical Union resolution about racial injustice, and fundraised for the Uganda Humanist Schools Trust. Unfortunately, due to stress causing Krystal to have anaphylactic reactions, she had to step down from various responsibilities as a way to minimize stress, which included stepping down from the NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri Board. It was incredibly disheartening but was the right thing to do. 

The other main way we put values into action this year was with political activism. Together, Krystal and Samantha wrote 200 letters to voters in Texas, 300 postcards to voters in Florida and Georgia, called thousands of people to encourage voting for Medicaid expansion and Jill Schupp for Congress. 

What 200 get out the vote letters looks like

We've had this magnet for over 15 years now and it felt very relevant this time around.

Neighbors

We have three sets of elderly neighbors who live directly across from us: Susan and Clarence, Eileen and Mickey, and Dolores. Over the years, we've claimed various tasks for them to make life just a bit easier and to help them be able to age in place. This year saw us saying good-bye to some of them. Eileen passed away in March, and we were uncertain how long Mickey would last without her. His health has declined and he spent some time in hospital and rehabilitation facilities this fall. He's back home now with 24 hour care, which is more intervention than he wants probably, but is a reasonable compromise between living at home and being in an assisted living facility.

Dolores moved out earlier this month and is now in an assisted living facility. We were grateful to have the opportunity to visit with her again before she moved and we hope to be able to see her at her new place once the COVID risk has lessened.

Susan and Clarence's daughter Kelly has battled brain cancer off-and-on for years, and these last three years have been especially rough for them. She moved back in with Susan and Clarence and, as the disease progressed, she required significant care. The entire situation was heartbreaking. Kelly passed away this month and her parents are grappling with the relief they feel that she's no longer suffering and the overwhelming grief that she's no longer with us. 

Finding Joy

Our family has the tradition that the birthday person gets to choose the special birthday meal. Eric requested Derby Pie and homemade bread for his birthday and we aimed to please. Samantha somewhat successfully made the pie but I had to throw away the bread dough because our oven died. Luckily Eric was able to revive it by ordering parts online and watching YouTube videos so we could avoid random people in our house at the start of the COVID shutdown! 

Raina's and Krystal's birthday celebration was take-out from our favorite Thai restaurant and homemade s'mores bars. (We get takeout from MICDS everyday in the pandemic, but Thai takeout is a special treat.) Eric and Krystal celebrated anniversary #19 by visiting the Mississippi bottoms and joining the sunflower selfie club.  :)

Diggity Dog

The Whomptons have spent an inordinate amount of time with the dog in these past 9 months, which means that we have trained him to 1. go into his kennel each time he barks and 2. follow people around every time an apple appears. Krystal slices up an apple with breakfast, and Raina and Lola make peanut butter and apple sandwiches each day for lunch; with that type of repetition, the dog has associated hearing the apple drawer open and soon after a small piece of apple for him. 

One day an apple rolled off the table and Keyboard immediately snatched it up just like a ball. The poor pup couldn't figure out how to eat the apple on his own but he was also unwilling to let it go. He literally bit off more than he could chew.   :)  He walked around for quite a while as we laughed hysterically at the situation. Eventually we convinced him to drop it and we sliced it into bite-sized chunks. He definitely had earned it!  

Keyboard's furtive look 

Mast cell issues

Krystal learned that she had mast cell reactions to more foods but, more notably, that she had them in response to exercise, stress, and routine blood draws. The disease narrows down life, for sure, and it is disheartening to cross possible life experiences off the list for fear of how my body might react. So it goes.