Several Months Later...

Um, well then, that was an interesting several months to a year... 

Where were we? I apparently started this blog back during the plague times and then... well... you could read the extended version of what I was writing, but let's really condense it here: 

Buckle up baby

There was...

A trip

(Several)

Andrew went to Florida

He was back for a couple of days

He went to British Columbia

(to be continued)

And here I interject with a little Allanism: 

\When I was eating the sandwich, I pretended the jelly was BLOOOOOOOD. Because I was eating it! ANd the sandwich said "ow ow ow ow"

So... Andrew went on a ski vacation with his mom and brother. Allan went to Pam's. 

It was awesome. I hung out all over the house. Watched a ton of soccer and movies and worked and cleaned on my schedule and... then I got... a bonus?? Kind of? 

Andrew came home. We reunited in close proximity in closed cars and hosues. We shared a bedroom. For a day. Turns out, Andrew kind of forgot to mention that his mom had been sick during the ski trip (including the 3 hours they drove back to the airport together). 

Negligible little thing like a cough and maybe a fever? 

Anyways, they apparently didn't think much of it at the time. But enough, I suppose, that the day after he had returned, she did take a covid test and it was... 

... drumroll here...

POSTIVE! 

 He took one that night and it was negative, but I was a little less into canoodling all the sudden, and decided I personally would be wearing a mask and turning up the air purifiers regardless of how "too late" it might be at that point. And the next day, he was still negative, even though by then he had his own sore throat and cough.

I know I know, covid is inevitable and if you're vaccinated etc etc... Also totally huge trigger for MCAS flares and kinda a big deal to my histrionic lil immune system. So, gulp

Andrew moved into the room downstairs, we started wearing masks and mostly interacting via text. I camped out in the bedroom, and Andrew moved between the study and the bedroom. We took walks together outside. 

Then of course the next test after totally negative was TOTALLY positive too! We're all such cheery folk here. 

So he undertook to isolate properly and - to the chagrin of the cat - took a sick day in the downstairs bedroom. 

Funnily enough I didn't catch it. I had a horrific sore throat for a few weeks, but that is not uncommon for me and definitely came and went with the weather. I had several covid tests, including a couple of PCRs at various times, and none of them were positive.

Allan and my mom came back to the house a day before school started again. It led to an interesting stratification. 

I'd been exposed, so I had to wear a mask around Allan in case I became contagious. 

Andrew was sick so he had to avoid all of us.

Allan was basically healthy and could go around wherever she chose however she chose, but was a minor and needed to crawl in somebody's lap and get several thousand kisses from somebody. So we chose to have my mom stay the night for a few days and take care of her in tighter spaces and cars

Anyways, did I mention that we had a guest coming in March? 

Andrew managed to finally release himself from isolation two days after Fidel arrived. He wore a mask for one more day and then, yay! Everyone was back to normal. Mostly. 

Also Andrew almost immediately  left AGAIN to go to some heliskiing thing with his brother. And then again last month to go to Florida! I've been getting tons of Allan time. Which is lovely. I love Allan after all. 

We had fun doing crafts and wandering. And Allan bought herself some new toys with her allowance. This is Beaverly

Beaverly was popular for about a week and is now forgotten. Who can compete with the random things she drags home from Gramma Pam's house...

This giant freakish unicorn rescue somethingorother toy has also been forgotten and sits on the shelf only to be remembered if I suggest maybe we could send some of the toys from Pam's house back to Pam's house... (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!)

And then there was Easter. Allan's favorite holiday. She was talking about it for months and told me *very* specifically what she needed to receive from Frosty the Easter Bunny. You cannot disappoint on the best holiday. It would be like stabbing Santa Clause in your living room and setting the stockings all on fire. 

Marlon was just helping. But this is Frosty the Easter Bunny and her friend Sparkles (not to be confused with Allans other unicorn kitty toy Sparkle... very very different)

Yes, her entire diet was chocolate animals that day. 

And we've still been going through the candy from all the Easter Eggs she found. 

Then there was Rosie, who was another allowance toy. Sew Surprise! Luckily involving zero actual sewing, but it does come as a hot mess that you need to wash, dry and brush out before you dress the animal. 

Allan whisked her entire bounty away to Gramma Pam's house for a Spring Break like nothing else! Yep it's been so long that Allan has had two school breaks at Pam's house. She slept about zero hours the entire time she was there and was only moderately insane on returning, so all in all a successful April without delving into the remaining weeks!

No no, there was a little more. 

Blue Origin's take your child to work day. Her very first Movie Night at school! I would tell you more but honestly those were Daddy/Allan nights. I enjoyed hanging my time off. 

But there was some family time too! Allan earned herself a shaved ice after getting several stars for deescalating from potential meltdowns with the interventions her school therapist and she came up with. We are proud. She is proud. I'm sure her teacher is relieved.

Yay!

 Shaved ice! Allan was so excited she spent an hour postponing the trip for shaved ice to draw her having shaved ice. Because of course she did. 

She's the one saying So Yummy. I'm the one diving headfirst saying yummy. Andrew is the one yelling AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. The kid in the background dropped their shaved ice. 

We tried Patrick's Cafe, since that was shaved ice heaven last year. They were no longer in the shaved ice trade, so we quickly ran off to Dairy Queens. I can't eat anything there. And Andrew, being lactose intolerant, wasn't exactly overwhelmed with options but what matters is Allan got her shaved ice (technically a Misty, but same dif)

And now it's basically summer. How the heck did that happen? Except Allan has two more months of school because of the teacher strike earlier. Which is kind of nice. We have already planned out the entire summer, and it being only two months is really convenient actually. I would not mind it going more in this direction!

Also, it's pollen season so I'll be living indoors with several heavy masks and fistfuls of antihistamines until roughly November. Yay again! But it's pretty out the windows right now!

Happy May!