Feeling Lucky?

 

COVID has finally come to the neighborhood (again). We went to a children's birthday party this past weekend, and two days later the birthday boy had a positive COVID test. Since we have an unvaccinated child under five, she has to stay home from preschool until she gets a negative PCR test five days from exposure. The results from the test probably won't be back until Friday, so she is likely home all week. She has so-far rapid tested negative. Mike is away on his first short business trip since the pandemic, so I have to stay home from work through Wednesday. I am lucky to have a job where I have saved up leave, so it's not a hardship. But, it is tiring to still deal with this, when all children who are vaccinated can often return to school sooner after an exposure or even after getting a positive COVID test. We acknowledged this was a risk when we decided to take Pen to a party, and we have been relatively lucky for a long time, so it just seems like it's our turn again. 

All that being said, my right eye stopped twitching after three days away from work, so I guess that's a bonus. I have also had more time to cook nicer meals and get chores done, instead of getting takeout and piling everything onto the backlog list. Since I can't currently work from home, there's no pressure to get anything work-related done. I'm sure I'll be behind in a few things when I get back, but nothing big. 

It's nice that the older Penny gets, the longer her ability to sustain her independent play. If she is really into a scenario with her dolls or sensory play (like play doh or kinetic sand), she can happily play for an hour and a half. At the beginning of the pandemic, she had just turned two, and she could last maybe 10-20 minutes, tops. At this point, she's probably as used to going to school as having "stay home days", so it's no big loss or treat. She misses her school friends a little bit, but she is mostly content to be in our space and in our yard, cycling through different activities. She is quite independent these days, and can certainly dress herself and get ready in the morning and feed the cats.

Lately, I have been planning a few vacations in the next many months. It's nice to slowly build the list of things to look forward to again, even if COVID will still affect some plans. Everything feels like a little gamble.