December 2020

December. Finally. This was a really hard year on us, and I'm glad that as of writing this, it's truly over. 

In December, Emily got Covid from preschool. She and I were in the bathroom and she had told me she wasn't feeling well. I said, well, maybe you aren't feeling well because you need to eat more lunch. She replied "I ate my lunch and couldn't even taste it!" When I say my jaw dropped and time stopped moving, I mean it. I stared at her like "does she watch the news? Maybe she's making it up?" and a million other excuses. I didn't want it to be so. First, I called her preschool to let them know that we went to get tested, and told them we wouldn't be back until we knew for sure. I pretty quickly got her all set to go get tested at MCC, and by that evening at 7, we were through the long line. While waiting for her results, I started monitoring the rest of our symptoms for fevers, malaise, loss of senses, etc. Nothing but really low fevers that I chalked up to a random thermometer issue. I really did an excellent job convincing myself she was joking. And then her test results came back. POSITIVE. We got results back on Monday morning, so I called her school again to let them know. We went over the protocol, and determined they would not come back to school until after the new year, since our 10 day isolation had started the Friday before, and school was out for the year. After Emily's positive test result, I continued monitoring symptoms. We had to get tested again (Gwen and I) and we finally got positive tests. Tangent: the wait for our results was so flipping long. End tangent. There was one day when Gwen needed a big rest, and another when I was completely out of commission. Since then, the only lingering symptoms for me (the girls report being totally fine) are still not having taste and smell, and some constant headaches and body aches. Not having my senses is more depressing than I anticipated, but life moves on. Somehow Jake never got it, despite being in close contact with all of us. Three negative tests. Incredible. He also recently received his first dose of the vaccine, and gets the booster in another few weeks.  We're just thankful to be over it. 

Christmas was pretty uneventful. We did a few new things like going to Christmas lights in a little neighborhood with hot cocoa, but we didn't want to be outside and spread Covid so we stayed simple. Our quarantine ended on Christmas Eve, and we celebrated Christmas by letting the girls finally play with neighbors. It was so magical and quiet and I cried. I had spent 100% of my time with Gwen and Emily for days on end so to have a moment where I didn't hear anything at all was so sweet. 

Gwen and Emily had their first sibling gift exchange. It was probably my favorite part of Christmas. We had a chore day, and the girls made money (we paid them too much just for this occasion, normally we don't pay them) by completing chores. However much they made would be used for the gift for their sis. Gwen gifted Emily an Ariel barbie doll, and Emily gifted Gwen a locket necklace and beanie baby thing. It was so fun and I'm excited to do it next year already. I think I might do this for birthdays, too.

We watched movies galore, and even resubscribed to Netflix once we got our positive tests. Made tons and treats, but none to share.The girls learned how to climb on our back wall and perfected their balance. I perfected nothing at all and have no regrets.

Jake worked a lot, and kicked us out of his office too many times during the holiday break, so once we were out of being stuck, we have left almost every day. Parks, the zoo, Target, Walmart. . . anywhere we can go, We GO. 

I've started this new thing when we go to the store. My girls will fixate on wanting a toy and it used to turn into me whispering angrily to them that if they didn't put it back, fill in the black. A therapist I follow on Instagram mentioned this idea, and it's gold. She said to take a picture of the child with the item. Show the child the picture to make sure they see it and validate to them that I saw it. I think she said to delete them when needed, but I like to keep them and show them! They like it, too! They'll say, "can I see that toy again?" and when I show them, they're perfectly contented. I've included a few of them here. 

None of my captions are working, so I'll do something different.

PICTURES:

1 and 2:Gwen at her last day of music class. One of her stations was to dress up and take pictures. She's the cutest big kid I know.

3. Emily loves legos, always.

4. Emily walking with me home from school. She loves climbing rocks and jumping off. 

5 and 6: Walk at the Riparian Preserve. We went so early to avoid people, and it was cold and colder.

7. Gwen's sweet teacher dropped off some activities for her to do. This one was a Santa chain countdown!

8, 9, 10: More riparian preserve. 

11: Cookies we decorated

12: Matching jammies

13:Gwen drew coronavirus. lololol

14: Emily drew something.

I'm over this. Christmas dresses, old pictures I've missed seeing, and zoo pictures followed. We ate frozen bananas at Balboa's. And more pictures of toys they like.