Calling it for spring at this point
There is nothing more fabulous than a mix and match outfit a la Allan. Her sartorial process something to behold: she choses her dress by dancing around naked for a while and then seeing where her hands lands in the closet. The leggings and hoodie are automatically chosen by whatever was worn least recently, and/or whatever is next in the rotation that I've set up to make up for not remember the last twenty days in perfect detail). It's always boots until it's jellies season. And the accessories are chosen by pure gut. It's a really great process.
And there's nothing more glorious than actually getting out of the house to show it off. Sure, we're all sneezing and itching and hacking up lungs because the spring that's sprung is mostly large heaps of pollen. Sure there are long stretches of weather forecast that just say "50s, rainy". Sure, for no discernible reason today 6 a.m. will now by 7 a.m. (except our bodies know better, but hey why the fuck not!)
But heck, it's spring, baby! Primavera! Cue the stringed instruments!
Oh and covid is like SOOOOOO last month! Apparently never happened. Forget all this shit.
Which is a little confusing because I also read that there's a fancy new omicron delta hybrid (Corona Strikes Cack: Revenge of the Deltacron), some other variant or two, and everywhere but here seems to be having a rise in cases...
But I do understand enough to get that counts are all going down and that decreases risk drastically. So that's cool anyways. As I'm one of the few that seems to have avoided exposure due to being a total shut in and all, I'm just as happy to keep avoiding it as best I can.
Though we still got tests and by golly we're gonna use them.
Yesterday we were about to go, out when Allan announced woefully "my throat feels funny!"
Dun
Dun
Dunnnnnnnnn...
Now, we are a family of high hayfever, so this is not surprising to hear. But in a spirit of social responsibility, the adults agreed that this proclamation warranted a rapid test.
The rapid test turned out to warrant a thorough booger cleaning first. I'm not quite sure how that all played out because yesterday was mostly Andrew's day. But I know we sprayed her nose through with saline and he was poking up her nose with a toothpick and a rolled up wad of paper towel? No idea. Anyways, although Allan has been tested before (I usually sneak it in while she's watching tv in the morning and at that point she barely notices) all the previous todo had her on high alert. Getting the swab was a bit like flossing an alligator's teeth. She sulked for several minutes afterwards because now her nose also felt funny. Thanks parents!
Few minutes after we'd collected the sample, I asked if she wanted an apple and she explained that no, she'd already tried to eat a slice a while ago and it hurt her throat when she swallowed it wrong and had to cough it out.
So... shockingly her test was negative.
Also, I'm assuming we will never eat apples again in this household.
Admittedly on the covid front, I'm a little concerned that all the testing and tracing seems to be done now, since i don't believe this is the end and I don't think there are clear guarantees that viruses evolve to be more benign over time.
But, I am not super paraonid just yet. Just a little eyebrow raised here or there. That said, I'm probably going to be happy enough that there are plenty of paranoid people still wearing masks, because I find them very nice. Being allergic to everything, blocking out the air on which everything travels, a bit isn't a terrible thing, as it turns out! I'll only sort of look like a freak in the coming couple of months if I chose to avoid it.
And I guess no amount of masking is gonna do much for nuclear war, so... hoping that WW3 is not actually on the 2020s bingo card. Just a little.
But in life, you just gotta roll with some mass extinction events, I suppose.
Just, I prefer it, when it's a bunch of plastic dinosaurs and they mostly save the eggs and escape to safety. Well, mostly. We played this game - Dino SOS - two weeks ago and Allan still talks about the brave little brontosaur who sacrificed their life so that others could live. It's very touching.
Yeah we're still renting games from Meeples. It's very fun. We are not a stalworth gaming family exactly. Andrew pretty much is. He's pretty competitive,, focused and strategic. But, I can't follow directions to save my life and I'm not really into competition. Allan is... Allan. So we've found that playing cooperative games works pretty well. Alternately Allan and Andrew play against me, which works because Allan throws a little of her gonzo into Andrew's competitive and makes it interesting
They also have a cafe, where you can play the games for free, so we dabbled with that a bit yesterday as well.
Dragominos was a hit! Monsters of Tokyo a little less so, but fun to throw all the dice at once and Allan did like being a cyborg bunny.
It's nice to sneak in those little moments on the weekend. Things get so busy, I swear! Once both the adults get their own personal time (which has been long delayed a sorely needed) and then some time together while Miss Allan gets some grandma time, we don't always get a lot of great family time. So, it's kind of fun to take a little time off of my off-time and go out to play together. Though I have to be careful about that, because that is definitely how my off-time evaporates!
I do like the one on one time we are cultivating too! Andrew has been making more of an effort to go out skiing etc, so Allan and I are developing our own little weekend day rituals for when it's just us.
They include:
* never ever leaving her bedroom in the morning for like hours. Seriously, I started whining a little after two hours and stuffed animal dance off, but of course puppy dog and giraffe had fallen in love and were currently in a love-pile and we had to marry them off before immortal sin overtook them
* Skipping formal breakfast in lieu of Cheerios on the couch and then endless bowls of blueberries while listening to storytime podcasts. OR having rice krispies and peanut butter as our "special breakfast". This complements our "special dinner" of quesadillas, which we now always eat when Andrew's not here for dinner.
* Crafts! This is pretty much an any time thing. And she loves doing them with Andrew on their time too. But it's requisite for sure.
Last week she and Andrew made an Egyptian whatever-it's-called (already forgotten). She wore it for all the run of their chores outing before sharing the joy with us
Andrew didn't last that long
I had to wear it until bedtime. It's still on my nightstand I believe. (yeah we keep it fresh up there!)
* Bathtime! No that was more me losing the gamble in which we ask "would you rather have your bath today with Daddy or tomorrow with me?" I'm not a huge fan of bathtime, though it isn't nearly as bad as I can make it out to be. Usually it's just a half hour to forty minutes of negotiations and screaming, before she stands in the tub (yes, stands) and smears bubbles in my hair while I sponge bathe her. Ain't no thing. Once she gets in, it's usually over pretty quickly.
* Soccer!!! Ok that happens when Andrew's around too, but more often when he isn't. Allan requires tortilla chips in order to watch, but she is very excited about the chips. And she's very clear on who Neymar is and thinks Mbappe is a very funny name, so she likes them both. I'm pretty sure she accurately identified a yellow card foul last game, so I'm feeling like this is growing on her.
Maybe a little less than Andrew, although I did get him to watch the second half of The Sounders game with me! He could give a rat's ass about soccer, so this was a labor of love, but he was a good sport (har har) and had seen enough of "that other stuff you watch" to note a distinct difference in skill and sharpness between US soccer and European/Latin American teams. By god, there was riffing. Basically the takeaway is that if you are playing in the States, you probably weren't good enough at math to be an accountant. More or less. I didn't say it! This is Andrew! Don't turn on me, local fans! The boy spent a lot of time in theater and can do catty like nobody else. It's one of the cutest little edges to his good-guy persona.
That said, it was a good game.
At any rate, we're midway through our morning Cheerio and strange kitties dressed as bunnies show. And then it's on to podcasts before maybe some long negotiations about going outdoors while the weather is weatherable and then... hopefully some futbol!!
Which is to say, happy Spring! Sniffle sniffe!
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