Hello, I'm Patrick Adams. And I'm Caroline Legere.
And this is Librarians of Littles, a podcast
where we discuss books, give makerspace ideas
and tips and tricks for working with our youngest
learners in the library setting. This week we
have two excellent books because it is getting
to be fall. We are not necessarily here in Texas
seeing the fall weather yet, but we're hoping
and wishing it into existence. But we have some
wonderful fall books to share today. The first
of which is called The Very Last Leaf. It was
written by Steph Wade. It was illustrated by
Jennifer Davison. And it was published by Capstone
Books in 2020. This book ended up on one state
list for Pennsylvania. The list was the best
books of 2020. As far as our author, Steph Waite
holds a BA in advertising from Marquette University
and an MBA in integrated marketing communication
from DePaul University. Steph is a member of
the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators,
or the SCBWI. She's bounced all over the Midwest
with her college sweetheart husband and her three
historically and literary named boys, and currently
resides in the Milwaukee area. Some of her other
books include A Place for Pluto, illustrated
by Melanie Demmer. Every Day's a Holiday, Winnie's
Birthday Countdown, illustrated by Hasna Agnia,
Moving to Mars, illustrated by Aaron Taylor,
and Q &U, Call it Quits, illustrated by Jorge
Martin. And for the illustrator history, Jennifer
Davison is a passionate and acclaimed illustrator
who has illustrated over 50 picture books, touching
hearts across the globe and being translated
into 18 different languages for publishers worldwide.
After graduating from the Belfast School of Art
with a first class honors degree, Jennifer embarked
on her journey as a digital artist. It was her
deep rooted passion for illustration that guided
her toward a fulfilling career as a children's
book illustrator. Years ago, she discovered a
profound connection between creativity and spirituality,
which ignited a desire to convey the richness
of heaven's culture through her art. She strives
to create illustrations that are not only visually
captivating, but also have the potential to transform
lives. Today, she dedicates her time to illustrating
inspiring faith -based books and stories from
the Bible, including the beloved Very Best Bible
Stories series and God's Big Promises Bible Storybook.
Some of her other books include The Shrew with
the Flu, Written by Will Hamilton Davies, Mouse
and the Rocket by Tim Bailey, and The Six -Legged
Spider also by Tim Bailey. And so I think part
of I was looking at Jennifer Davison's stuff
and I couldn't find a ton of her books listed.
It says in her biography that she has done over
50. I think a lot of them are faith -based and
maybe not through the major publishers, which
makes it a little bit more challenging to find
some of her work because it's not necessarily
as mainstream. But good for her for doing all
those books. That's pretty awesome. Alright,
so the summary for this book. We have Lance Cottonwood,
who is a leaf, and he is the best and brightest
student on the Cottonwood tree branch. He was
best at budding, at wind resistance, at photosynthesis,
and pigment changing. But, Lance is afraid to
fall from the branch as the last exam of the
season. Lance is able to overcome his fear and
finally falls to be with the other students of
the Cottonwood Tree Branch. And this is a really
cute story. I enjoyed reading it. It's a story
about overcoming your fears. It includes some
very, very special and awesome scientific words
that I think would be a lot of fun to include
in a discussion with the students. And it's nice
that the way they're used in the book, you don't
necessarily have to pre teach because it does
give like an explanation of what that means in
the story itself. So that's nice, but you could
pre teach them in advance if you wanted to. The
pictures are colorful and very cute. There's
also a little bit of like teasing that you could
have a conversation, you could pull this in for
a conversation about bullying, about fear of
change, about nature in general. So there's lots
of opportunities to bring this book in to have
different discussions with your class, which
I love to be able to use books for different
reasons. So that's always a good thing. I think
this book would be very engaging, because the
kids are always loving anything about nature.
So like the leaves changing and that kind of
thing is always something that is fun to watch.
We don't get to see it as often here in Texas,
but they do change. They go pretty quickly from
green to orange and brown. But, you know, that's
something that the kids do notice and they start
to pick up on those things. And so having books
that mention why and what's going on in a fun
story way. is always good. I like this book a
lot. I think I'd probably give it, I don't know,
I think maybe like a four and a half out of five.
I think it was good. I think some of the leaves
that fall before Lance, they're kind of harsh
on him. But I think it was a good story, so yeah.
Yeah, this was a really good book. This was the
first time I got into read it. I love that it
does introduce lots of really great vocabulary
words and it kind of teaches them in a pretty
developmentally appropriate way. It still like
very much reads like a fiction book. It's clearly
fiction, but it does teach a lot of really great
nonfiction concepts and like everything down
to like You know Lance is named Lance because
he's a I forgot the full name of the cottonwood
It's a Lance something cottonwood but like you
can have a lot of conversations with why things
are the way they are and Like why the story is
going in that direction and it's all very science
-based. So it's a really great kind of book for
cross curricular literature in general. It's
pulling in a lot of different directions and
I love it. It was really good. And I did really
enjoy at the very end his report card because
it goes through and explains what each of those
things like what budding is and what the wind
resistance is and how it impacts the leaf and
what it does for the tree and that kind of stuff.
So it gave a lot more in -depth information about
those things as well as a nice little way to
end the story. So it was a good book. It was
fun. It was. It was cute. Good one. Yes. A makerspace
activity for this. If we're going to use this
in makerspace, I would... You can do one of two
things with this. You can go out and actually
pick up some leaves off the ground, or maybe
you can get some of the fake leaves from like
the Hobby Lobby or Michael's or something like
that. Either way, I think it would work out perfectly.
With that, you take some paint, have some paper.
I think what I would try and do is something
similar to the glue in the sponge and put some
paint in the sponge and see if we could make
that work. But if you wanted, you could use some
paint brushes and have them paint on the back
of the leaves. But the idea is to have the kids
get paint on the back of the leaves. I think
you could do it by putting some paint on a sponge
and putting the... the leaf on the sponge, and
then using that leaf to kind of make stamp impressions
on the paper. And then if like they so the kids
could take different shapes of leaves and get
paint on them and make different paint stamps
on their paper. And then if you really wanted
to challenge the kids have them take use the
leaves to make stamps and make something else
out of those stamps, like you could take the
different stamps and make them so that they make
like a landscape with a bunch of trees or maybe
they could make like a bunny rabbit using the
leaves or maybe they can make a dog using the
leaves and so having some extra markers to have
that they could add little defining features
to those stamps and get even more creative with
it would be a fun way to take what's already
going to be a fun activity of being able to stamp
and make the leaf prints and then make it into
something even more and kind of stretch that
imagination a little bit more. I love that. It's
a very creative way to go about including those
leaves and their artwork and kind of encouraging
our kids to be more creative with what they create.
I love it. That's great. Have you read the book,
If You Find a Leaf by Amy Sekiro? I have read
that before. It's been a while. That one? Yes.
Yeah, I think that one does the same thing with
the illustrations. That's a good one to do Yeah
Maybe maybe subconsciously. That's what I was
thinking of when I came up with that idea, you
know, yeah, maybe That would so that would be
a good one to thought like you could have them
do this activity and then follow up the week
by reading that one and being like look what
this one what this author did to kind of follow
up to I would. Yeah, that's a good connection
there. All right, that brings us to our library
of little's management tip for this week. And
so we're going to be discussing the pros and
cons of using reading calendars or doing like
reading bingo activities with our students, specifically
our pre -k and kinder students that are younger.
And to be upfront, there are definitely pros
and cons to these activities. Caroline, you and
I tend to lean towards not doing them anymore.
In the past we have done them. I found that they
became problematic pretty quickly for a couple
different reasons. But the way we did our original
reading calendars was in the grading period.
We had a paper that was landscape and on it basically
it explained that the whole purpose was to have
the students adults at home reading with the
students. And then for pre -K being that these
are little kids, the way it worked is there were
like a grading period, it's about six weeks.
And so we had six sections where it asked for
the adult to write down the name of the book
and the author. And then there was an open space
for the students to be able to draw a picture
of something from the book that they enjoyed,
right? And so. between the front and back of
the paper there were the six sections for the
kids to fill out and at the end of the six weeks
the grading at the end of the grading period
they could turn that in when i was doing it we
had like the first time they turned it in they
got a keychain that had um our campus uh mascot
on it and it said like i'm a reader kind of thing
and then each one after that that they completed,
they got a spirit stick that had different like
reading themes on it that they could add to the
key chain. That was the intent behind it was
to just incentive to have the adults reading
with the students. What it quickly became was
I had so many issues from the start with it.
I had where like the form would be finished.
and turned into me, and it was clearly the adult
that did all of the work, like the picture, the
writing, all of it. Which, again, the con of
that is that the student isn't getting the opportunity
to express themselves, and they're not the ones
that are doing any of the real work. The parent
may be reading with the student, which is the
general goal, but there's no Real proof of that
happening. So I wasn't really sure if that was
actually being done another thing I had was the
where it like parents would fill out like or
they would do like two of them and Then send
it back and be like we did it Well, you were
supposed to do six of them. So like Do you get
do you get the reward for doing it too? When
the other kids are getting the reward for doing
so that became an issue I had on the campus originally
we had bilingual classes with us also. So we
had Spanish bilingual classes and Vietnamese
bilingual classes. And so we had versions of
it that were in those languages. And that's like
another random thing that happened was I had
the Vietnamese teacher coming to me telling me
that their families didn't actually speak Vietnamese,
so they needed English copies of the form. And
so that was just slightly frustrating, because
that was a whole other issue. But we had stuff
like that happening. And the other part is it
wasn't the easiest thing to keep track of. I
had to have like a folder for every class. And
then every time they'd bring the form back, I'd
have to go through that folder to find it if
they'd given me the ones from earlier in the
year to decide if they needed the original key
chain or if they got the spirits. So keeping
track of that stuff wasn't the best. And honestly,
I don't know. Like I said to you before, I'm
100 % sure that some of the students that turned
these in actually sat down with their adult and
read. But I also know that there were definitely
some students that never saw the books that were
written down on that paper and turned in. And
so it's really hard. to verify that. And the
other part is, is I don't have the time, energy,
or honestly the willpower to argue with the parent
about any of those issues. It's not worth my
time. And so then it quickly became, well, I'm
not gonna fight this. So here's the reward. And
then at that point I was like, but so why am
I doing this? If they're not like, I don't know
that they're really doing the work. when I can
be using my time in other ways to give the kids
other opportunities to be reading and that kind
of thing. And like using my time for other things.
That was a lot of my issues with it. You were
telling me some of your problems with it too,
like becoming way too big of a thing too, right?
Yeah. Yeah. So my biggest problem that I had
on my campus was we started out small, like you
were describing. where and it was the librarian
before me started it and it started out small
with just like they would do fill out their little
reading log and they would come turn it in and
they'd get their little keychain or their spirit
stick every six weeks and that was okay with
the caveats that you were explaining but ultimately
it was still just a small little program to kind
of encourage reading at home and it remained
a program to continue. to encourage reading at
home. However, the librarian before me kept adding
more and more things to it, and by the time she
left, in her final year, the things that it included,
if they did all of the, they had to do all the
reading logs for the whole year, which was a
total of six, because it's six weeks, then they
would get a T -shirt, a trophy, a pizza party,
and a magic show with an actual magician coming
into the library just for them. And it was like
this big, like hour -long celebration. And while
I agree with celebrating reading, and we should
do that, it was just, it ended up being so much
stuff. Like, first of all, pre -K, They they're
not gonna make that connection that's gonna be
so far removed from the reading I don't think
very many of those kids are going to connect
that they got to have this celebration in this
magic show because they read For an entire school
year and had to continuously keep reading I don't
think that connection is going to be made because
it's way too delayed as far as a reward goes
and then There was so much with a program like
that at the you know pre -k kinder age They can
there's a few kids who are going to be responsible
enough and Cognizant enough to go home and talk
to their grown -ups and tell them that they want
to read and it's for this reason but the vast
majority aren't going to do that and it's more
of like you kind of need to connect with the
parents and tell the parents this is what's happening
because the parents are going to actually have
to be the ones facilitating a bit more and making
those connections with the kids for you. So there
was a lot of kids that are being left out because
if they missed even one of those, then they're
out for the giant celebration at the end of the
year. And then that was also kind of angering
some of the teachers at our school. So then As
a work around those teachers were like you know
what we read every day in our classroom this
is going to be something that i complete with
every single one of our kids and those teachers
filled out the forms with their kids and they
they did read the books they legit did the reading
log but it was in their classroom it wasn't the
extension that it was intended to be and they
kind of. did that little work around so that
every single one of their kids got to participate
in the massive little magic show giant celebration
pizza party thing at the end of the school year.
And then after so after at that point, it was
like, okay, so some classes are fully participating
and all the kids are getting the things and then
how do I tell these classes that only like these
two kids get to come to the things and it was
it was I think if you are going to implement
something like this, it's imperative to keep
a good reward, a tangible reward, so that the
kids do make a connection. And you want it tangible,
too, so the parents can see, so that they know
that their kid's getting something out of it,
because the parents really are going to have
to put forth effort to do it with their kids
as well. But just something a little bit smaller
because you do ultimately the goal is it is to
read But we want reading to be a lifelong thing
that they just love because they love to read
We don't want them doing it because they get
a magic show at the end of the school year. So
like keeping it smaller is Will make it easier
to transition it from an external reward to an
intrinsic one later on as they go get older,
it's just an easier way to weed them off of it.
If you make it massive, it's harder to scale
it back in the future. I'm also just trying to
think about that money coming out of your budget
for that. And as more and more teachers have
their whole class do it, that means you're spending
more money on pizza and you're doing more of
it. and it just becomes more and more expensive
with and with our library budgets being cut year
after year because school district budgets are
being cut like that's a big chunk of money being
spent on a celebration that the kids aren't actually
making that connection to oh this is because
i read like you know yeah yeah ultimately i think
i think if i could go do it all over again I'm
not sure I would participate in that but I think
I would do some sort of a I would try and do
a parent outreach thing instead and kind of and
try and educate parents more about the importance
of reading at home and kind of let them know
because there's a lot of little things about
um reading that parents don't realize like they
don't realize that it's a like reading is important
but you can totally if your kid's into it Read
the same book 20 times. You might not enjoy it,
but like your kids are still getting the same
benefits from it. You know, we're still learning
print concepts. We're still, you know, solidifying
the vocabulary. It takes more than one reading
to really grasp all the vocabulary and all the
concepts that are being that we're reading about,
like especially for younger kids where they're
because they're little sponges and they're learning
all the things all the time. Because they don't
have all the background world knowledge that
we as adults do so like it's okay to read it
a few times and It's you know, it's okay. If
it's a shorter book. It's like in for even for
our Parents of older kids like it's okay if it's
a graphic novel and has lots of pictures still
it's all good Reading is reading will accept
any form of reading. Thank you very much You
know, I think that would be more effective. I
yeah, but Yeah, breeding logs are still okay.
I'm not saying don't do them. Just with caution.
Proceed with caution, especially for the youngest
kids. Yeah, and just be mindful that these situations
and these issues may arise. And if nothing else,
be prepared for them. Just have a plan in place
of maybe what you want to do about it. And if
it's something like that, you're just going to
be like, well, I'm just not going to fight it
or whatever. you know, just be prepared. I do
think that like the key chain and the spirit
sticks is not a terrible, tangible reward. Cause
it is something small. It's not gonna, it's something
that the kids can hold and have. They're not
crazy expensive. And so like, I always, always
tried to keep the, and the spirit sticks that
I got were always, like book themed so that I
could be like, remember this is you got this
because you read kind of thing. So at least being
able to try and connect it back every time to
the reading kind of thing. It just becomes like
a, you just have to have a process in place to
make sure that you're keeping track of it. And
then, you know, it's just, there's a lot that
goes into it and a lot of things that if you're,
if you're brand new to it, you'll find real quick
that there are lots of other parts to it that
you didn't plan for. So thinking it through,
thinking about the real goals that you want to
have and the real purpose behind it before you
choose to do any of it. Because I think you're
right. I think that if I Could have like there's
not an opportunity for me to have like all of
my pre -k Parents or all of my kindergarten parents
in one place where I could just sit and talk
to them first Like at like an open house or something
like that like if I could sit and be like here's
why? Reading is important and be able to go through
like the list of all the things that are happening
in the child's brain While they're reading and
why it's important to do it every day and that
kind of thing and then be like and to encourage
it we're gonna do this and then explain that.
I think that would have a more impact on the
families but it comes down to the time and getting
those parents all in one place together and that's
the part that doesn't become so feasible. And
so then you're hoping that they're reading a
paper that you're sending home and we know the
realities of that and so it gets diluted really
quick. Having said all that I did continue to
send home reading bingo for read across America
day to encourage more reading at home and they
the kids just got I think for that one I Think
I had I still had all the spirit sticks. I think
they got spirit sticks. Yeah Well, and I mean
like our school district this you like you'll
find this coming summer They'll send home a reading
bingo blackout sheet And it's for every grade
level. And so like, here's the thing though.
Honestly, I have on my campus, I had 720 students
at the end of last year. I think I got eight
of the reading bingo blackouts back from the
summer. That's surprising. So that one I'm not
like, and I'm... whether those eight kids read
all the books or not at that point. I'm like,
well, there's only eight of you. It's fine. We'll
submit your names kind of thing. And actually
one of the students on my campus did win. And
she is one that I know actually read all the
books, which is nice. So like there, if it's
done correctly, it can be very beneficial and
it will impact some families. I wish we could
find a way that it was more effective and impacted
more families, but there's only so much we can
do. So just having that understanding of this
will help some and maybe that's enough for you
to do it. Maybe it's not. It depends on really
on your, your campus and your goals, I think.
Yeah. So just understand there are pros and cons
and like there's not one blanket like this is
how it should be done or this is the way to do
it. There's so many little things that will impact
how that works for you on campus. It's true.
All right. Well, the next book that we're going
to talk about, I cheated. This isn't just fall.
This does all four seasons. This is Tap the Magic
Tree. It's published by Greenwillow Books in
2013, and the author and illustrator is Kristi
Matheson. This book is a Junior Library Guild
selection for 2013. It got the Kentucky Bluegrass
Award in 2015, South Carolina SCALC Picture Book
Award 2015, Tennessee Volunteer State Book Award
2015, and Texas 2x2 2014. And for the author
history, Kristy Matheson is an award -winning
children's book author and illustrator. Her books
have been translated into more than 20 languages.
She enjoys spending time with her children outside
in nature, and of course, reading. Some of the
other books that she has written are A Mischief
of Mice, Forest, Mamas and Babies, Birdwatch,
Plant the Tiny Seed, The Hidden Rainbow and Touch
the Brightest Star. She's also written two middle
grade novels, which are Select and Shelter. And
in this book, an unseen narrator tells the reader
to begin the story by tapping a bare brown tree,
which makes a leaf magically appear on the next
page. The narrator continues telling the reader
how to interact with the tree and it makes the
tree go through one full year of seasons. I like
doing this one this time of year to introduce
the concept of fall because it's the first time
that we talk about seasons in school because
we do start school in the fall, right? And then
I feel like I think it's important all the time
to talk about seasons in general. I mean, that's
just an important concept, right? But in Texas,
especially where we don't really have very many
seasons and it's so stinking hot for so very
long. And especially if you're doing this book
with like four and five year olds, like really
right now. it's still like 90 degrees outside
and it's the end of September like the last time
these kids were had anywhere near like colder
weather it was like um maybe March maybe definitely
February I was thinking February yeah so it's
been like seven or eight months Which is close
to like a quarter of their lifetime so like truly
they may not remember cold weather like for real
so they may not like they're like it's just hot
all the time because it's just been. Like comparatively
so much of their life has like like they don't
remember like when they were baby and such so
like it was just so long ago that like. I know
they know it gets cold, but do they? Do they?
I don't know. So I like to start with this book
because it does show the tree going through all
four seasons. And we do get to remind kids that
eventually it'll get cold. And like, as I'm reading,
I kind of, you know, like, okay, on this page,
there's snow. All right. We're going to wear,
you know, long pants are going to come back.
It's going to happen. I promise. eventually we're
going to wear jackets eventually it's going to
happen so just like reminding kids that there
are seasons because i know they know kind of
but they haven't their memory isn't long enough
yet to really remember it so this is my favorite
way to kind of introduce all four seasons and
then i usually do this one and then i do another
fall book like just focusing on fall usually
like a non -fiction right after it um and with
this one i very much you know stop on like i
read it through because it is very interactive
the kids absolutely love it and actually a lot
of the teachers love watching the kids interact
with the book as well and they get kind of excited
for that too because it's just so much fun so
that interactive piece is like super duper engaging
for the kiddos. I read it through once like kind
of quickly and just just follow directions and
let everybody interact with the book. And then
I go through it one more time just looking at
the pictures and pointing out like this is what
the tree is doing here. Okay. leaves are falling
down the weather is getting colder now all the
leaves are gone like what season is it now and
kind of point out all the like non -fiction teaching
pieces with it um i feel like going through it
that way they get the benefit of both interacting
with it quickly and remaining engaged so i don't
lose the momentum but then they also get an opportunity
to see why the tree is going through the changes
when it's going through those changes, if that
makes sense. But this is like one of my favorite
books to read because it's so interactive. I
do like Kristi Matheson's books in general, but
I think this one is by far the best interactive
book that she's got. The other ones are okay,
but this one, there's enough to do that I can
get... in a whole class, I can make it so that
everybody gets a turn to do something. And I
can't necessarily do that with her other ones,
which makes this one easily my favorite of hers.
So I would give it a five out of five. I like
it a lot. It's a good time. I love this book.
It was great. It was just kind of magical. It
reminded me of like the some of the other books
where you like tap and you flip the page and
something new happened you know so like it was
it is beautiful i loved it i i'm definitely going
to use this with my pre -k students this year
yeah they like it a lot it's it's a good one
it is um and then for a makerspace activity for
this i like to do leaf rubbings um you can just
go outside and fine leaves with particularly
big veins and such and use those for leaf rubbings.
I personally have a set of like plastic leaves
that are like it's clear plastic but it has like
the shape of a leaf and like printed on it and
they're like designed for making leaf rubbings
but then I just I have my bag of Crayons that
where I've taken off the paper on them and I
show the kids how to do leaf rubbings and that's
a good one for Encouraging that fine motor grasp
there They do get a little bit confused with
how to hold the crayon at first because a lot
of them try and like right with it and I'm like
no you got to lay it completely flat and Am I
like I show them how to hold it so that they
can make the rubbings and once that like some
some of the kids do need a little bit more guidance
with that um but once that gets going they really
like it most most pre -k kids are able to do
that kind of independently and i like using the
clear plastic leaf rubbing plates because it
Feels a little bit more magical too when the
kids do the rubbing because you can't really
when they because they're clear plastic It doesn't
necessarily like it looks like a leaf, but not
really because there's no color to it yet so
once you do the leaf rubbing on top and I of
course only use fall colors with it because I
usually do it in the fall Once you do that leaf
rubbing on top and they see it pop up they get
really excited because it feels almost like That
feels almost magical too because it looks almost
like it wasn't there at all because it was clear
plastic But now it definitely is on that paper.
So yeah, I Love that idea. That sounds like a
lot of fun. I'm gonna have to look into finding
some of those clear Leaves to do that with that.
That'll be cool. I lucked into mine. They were
just there they were part of a giant stem package
and that like nobody was using in my school.
I don't even know where I would have ordered
them from. But I'm gonna, I'm gonna have to search
Amazon or something and see what I can find.
Because that sounds like a really cool, cool
activity. Yeah, low prep and all that's the best
kind. Magic leafs appearing. All kinds of magic
today. We got the magic tree and the magic leaves.
It's good. Well, thank you all for joining us
today on this episode of Librarians of Littles.
We hope you found some fresh ideas for inspiring
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Thank you for listening to this episode of Librarians
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decorated the whole house while you were podcasting.
Huh? We're all ready for Halloween still. Don't
worry. It's still up. Awesome. Like when you
sent me that text message, I died laughing. I
was like, that is brilliant. They had that, they
had to have had that planned in advance. There's
like, they were like, dad's going to be gone.
Mom's busy. We know what to do because that had
to be an organized and concerted effort to make
sure it happened. And I love it. All Halloween
is still out. Don't worry. Entire inside of your
house is just Halloween. That's awesome. It's
only inside. Brandon's going to do the outside.
That's amazing. I love it. That's awesome. I
bet they're about to make pancakes or some thing
like that since I'm in here, which is probably
for the best because I shouldn't watch them do
that. I get stressed out when I see them cook
because I'm like, I want to take over and I but
I know they're big enough and I need to give
them space. Yeah. I can see that. But they are
getting to that age where they can handle it.
They can and they should do it. They might make
a mess in the process, but they can handle it.
It'll be okay. I just don't want to watch it.
Yeah, I get that. I get that. I want to be nearby.
At least your kids take initiative to do that.
My son, I'm 100 % sure I know exactly what he
has done today. While I've been podcasting, he
woke up. he has gone downstairs and either sat
on his phone and watched YouTube videos, or he
pulled out his Switch and is playing Mario Kart.
It's one of those two things. That's it. That's
the only thing that has happened this morning.
He hasn't fed himself. He hasn't fed the dogs.
Like, I guarantee that's all that got done today.
So like the initiative to be like we're gonna
decorate the house or even just we're gonna make
breakfast is impressive They have to do the things
that stress me out while I'm in here That's pretty
awesome, yeah