Well sure is summery all the sudden. Which means: PANIC!!!! A few days ago I spent a fevered and terrified moment researching all the possible summer camp options for Allan. Finally found some. They were waitlist only. So we're on those and a few more. God, I hope they work out. Only three hours versus her in-school 7. And only about 5 weeks, leaving another 4 to 5 pretty blank. But it makes a difference heading into the abyss.
Because I've had firsthand experience with keeping the kiddo out of school and... oh wow. She's got a pretty high need for stimulation.
Which is sweet. Very very sweet. Also exhausting. Yesterday (we'll explain the circumstances later) she and I made Andrew a birthday card, then made a bunny mask, then made a programming game from kiwicrate (it had a bunny motor), then we played with coding on that, then we went to the playground, then we watched an extra octonauts, then we hid Andrew's card in his office, then we played the game (Happy Little Dinosaurs) that I'd gotten him for his birthday, then we played with stuffed toys, then we read about twenty books and then...
... about then...
Allan collapsed in her chair and asked if it was lunch yet because she was SOOOOO BORED
(funny thing... nope. It was only 10:30. ACK!)
So yeah! Wheeeee!
It's been an interesting month. We've actually avoided direct exposures through the heft of this pandemic. No doubt a few that nobody knew about. Definitely lots of people we knew had covid (several times for some of them) but largely things have just been kind of chill in our little insular part of the world. Privilege has gotta bear some fruits I guess.
Glad to say we finally got to experience what most parents of younger children have enjoyed in the last couple of years. Namely:
Yael is Allan's bestie. Yael's an extrovert and then some. She's a hugger. She's super affectionate, especially with adults. Allan loves it. Allan is addicted to Yael's hugs. And when Yael's not super warm to Allan, Allan responds by howling for reassurance diving into her face nose-first.
Of course, that was what happened when -unbeknownst to anyone, covid started making her feel a little under the weather on Tuesday the 3rd. Though honestly Yael had been acting weird the day before. Everyone thought it was because her mom had been away for the weekend, but in hindsight, I'm betting she was starting to feel under the weather. Allan also responded that day by latching onto her somewhat more restrained bestie and yell "please play with me Yael! Can I hug you?!?"
On Tuesday (still the 3rd). Yael didn't want to play with Allan. For the second time in two days. She went around hugging every adult in the general area (me included), but had no love for her devoted bestie. Allan ran after her face first screaming "Yael, Yael, please play with me!!!"
Her mom commented on how out of character it was when Yael basically just pulled away when Allan sat down on the bench next to her and wearily said "Allan, I need space". The part about Yael's response. The part about Allan's poor beating anxious heart exploding is pretty darned in character.
Yael's mom texted that Yael was sorry about earlier. They exchanged text hearts. All was healed.
Anyways, later that night we got a text that Yael had passed out on the way home and then refused to ear and... long story short, we were now a close contact of a verified covid case.
Which means... kind of nothing anymore, apparently. Nobody gives a flying fudgesicle about covid now. We had to spend some time tracking down any guidance from the schools and ultimately landed on "wear a mask for ten days and test in about five."
My nightmare scenario is basically Allan gets the slightest sniffles, while Andrew and I get knocked on our asses with what many of my friends have described as "like a nasty ass flu" and somehow have to still parent a boisterous stir crazy kindergartner for a week or two.
We've been there before with a rotovirus that wouldn't quit circulating. It was... fun? Andrew just stayed in bed. I remember collapsing on the floor in pain with bad bad cramps, while trying to make it look fun, while Allan exuberantly leapt over onto me shrieking baby gibberish and shoving a toy in my face... Not anxious for a repeat with our older and more mobile hellion.
My dad points out (glass half full of sewer water daddy, that he is) that my nephew recently had a harder time of it with the flu than his friends with covid to which I say... yeah I don't want that either! I liked masks. No coughs. No colds. No flu. etc etc. But whatever.
So, I convinced Allan to wear a mask. Not just her usual cloth masks, but an actual surgical mask. Not the best, but it's been several months of resistance to anything but crayola cloth masks we started this pandemic with, so this is a huge victory!
I even convinced her to go to school despite Yael's absence. She did great. She has a lot of other friends, as it turns out. Kid forgets this in her dead on devotion to Yael.
Thursday the 9th, we lost power along with 1500 other West Seattle houses. Hadn't seemed that windy, but I guess it was enough to fell a tree onto a power line. Andrew rushed into the office to keep working. I tried to disable a cranky fire alarm and managed to cause it to fall towards my face with a ton of debris that my body decidedly did not like.
Subsequently, I developed a horrible full body itching rashy reaction the next day that is probably due to nasty ceiling gunk but could be running the AC overnight because every year when we start using the AC I get this sneaking suspicion it's causing a flare up and I'm never sure.
But regardless, I hit the road for a while to get internet updates on the power outage (that was out too, including data), and charge my phone. Then, I stalled at school since Allan usually hates power outages. She cried when she got back to discover that the power had come back on and she'd missed it entirely! She also got out of her bath that day. Clever girl that she is.
By Friday... I couldn't help but notice Allan was the only kid with a mask on. Even the teacher - who's sounded fairly hoarse the last couple of days - wasn't wearing one. I mean they were all exposed to some degree. But ... shrug. That's how we feel these days. Nobody gives a good rat's patootie. Allan said her teacher was probably coughing a lot because they were out of water in the classroom. So I held onto that.
Saturday morning, we found out that another friend of hers was positive as well. As we'd had some of the family over to our house that Thursday, it adds to a flavor that covid is closing in! Feels like anyone who hasn't had it yet it about to.
Saturday we did a quick test at-home swab of the whole family in order to justify going to ...
FAMILY DAY! Blue Origin's big annual event where the generally top secret headquarters and workspaces of B.O. (yeah nobody calls it this, but it entertains me) are opened to the employee's families for a little sneak peak.
I'd share pictures of Andrew's actual workspaces, but those still aren't allowed.
Allan had a blast (a rocket blast). She liked seeing all the big machines and robots, but probably more so found heaven when she found the children's playroom in the main office space. We, had the audacity to remove her from her magnetic blocks before she was ready. It wasn't pretty.
Blue did an amazing job of supplying what little kids need: drawing, stickers, Ben and Jerry's, cheezits, goldfish, and fruit snacks. Fruit Snacks were a particular excitement and Allan grabbed on tight to one of the packets from a basket we walked past.
We got her test. There was some fussing about what would happen if mommy and daddy also got sick and we couldn't take care of her. I said Pam would probably want to and that settled that.
We got home - despite pleadings to return ot the play room at Blue. We had lunch. We discovered that
the fruit snacks were nowhere to be found!!!!!
Disaster!
"This is the worst day!!" Allan howled. We searched for them for about 20 minutes even though Andrew and I were pretty clear that they'd never made it to the car. Then there was another 30 of full bodied ugly-crying. Mostly to herself and without need or desire for comfort. It was brutal.
Sunday, I got a fantastic Mother's Day gift, namely a negative PCR result for Miss Allan.
Also some really delightful Allan art.
With 5 minutes to go before heading out the door, Allan - who coughs a fair amount because allergies etc. - announces her throat is really sore. I ask some cursory questions and she says she needs a test. I say "sure ok, but we might be late for school and we're going ot get totally ready while we wait for the results." Allan agrees. She coughs a little more. And as soon as I've gotten it set up, she says "yeah, it was probably the cheerio dust" and is totally better. I've been feeling junky this whole time, likely due to my body's crazy overreaction to pollen in the air (and the fact that my allergy shots were prolly making it even worse... plus stress and stress eating I'm sure). I swab myself too. Why not?
All negative
Similar on Thursday the 12th. Last minute test that I just brought in the car with us as we awaited the results. Negative.
Allan screams and shrieks a lot and this causes her to cough even if you discount the allergies. I think we're finally at a point where testing is not on our regular rotation. But it was an interesting spell.
Well, maybe. Two days ago (Tuesday the 17th) Allan starts coughing a ton. With a little phlegm. So again with the covid test. Again it's negative. But the cough is constant and phlegmy. I tell Allan that she needs to wear her mask to school. This does not go over well. She let me put her hair in a ponytail earlier. This is the first ponytail she's allowed in years. And she's been struck by how pretty her face looks all exposed and not covered by her hair. And here comes mommy forcing her to cover her face like the fucking West Seattle Taliban. It's brutal.
The cough is probably from epic amounts of post nasal drip if I had to guage. Miss Allan is also massively congested and sounds extra goofy when she talks with a totally blocked nose. Begin the mental jiu jitsu. I give her some zyrtec just to see. It does NOT knock her out for sure. Allan's super energetic by evening. We watch a movie together and she's leaping off the couch for most of it.
Wednesday the 18th, still negative but the cough is sounding pretty nasty and Allan keeps breaking into tears. I ask if she wants to stay home. She says she doesn't want to go to school OR stay home. She's worried about her friends getting sick. I show her a kid's kn-95 mask that she can wear. We talk about the day. About how she's feeling. She's still ambivalent. She says she wants to stay home. I start to call the attendance office. She makes me stop. We do our morning preparations and get all ready. Allan realizes it's raining outside and melts down because she doesn't want to wear a rain jacket. Picking up my sobbing little phlegm ball, I ask what she wants to do and she says in her most plaintive little rasp "cough cough stay home..."
So... boy did we. And she was ok. My mom still came over. As mentioned, we had a very involved mother-daughter day (all of which we'll repeat on Saturday, but I'm glad for the break today even if "the break" is trying to get caught up with everything I'm behind on because of yesterday. Tomorrow, I'm playing Pokemon all day and fuckitall until it's mommy-Allan time again!
Also: Andrew's birthday! Yay!!! He's some other age than 40 now, but don't quote me. We had a really nice little break together. Followed by a family game try-out with the Happy Little Dinosaurs. Allan was distressed that she was not winning, but seemed soothed by being able to knock Andrew out of the game. Once that had happened we decided to just call him the loser and consider the game played. We also had rugeleh, leftover pizza, and finished off the post-bedtime evening with a new Nintendo game (Luigi's Castle 3! Spooooooky).
This morning, Allan's pretty much better. It was a fast one.
I expect whatever lurgy Allan just processed will linger a bit more with me, but we'll have to wait and see. And of course, the school is short staffed with covid absences, so not out of the woods yet! But man, every day of school is precious. Every. Single. Day
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