ready for a new year

Well, our Christmas and New Year's didn't quite go as planned. Really, did anyone's this year?

A few days after our family gathering, Christopher started showing COVID symptoms. He and Emily got tested and they came back positive. Christopher was pretty sick for a few days, but it hit Emily harder and she's just starting to feel better. Since we were in close contact with him just before he started showing symptoms, we canceled our plans to drive out to visit Dan's family for New Year's and a belated Christmas. We were so sad to miss out on family Christmas (though less sad to miss out on 20 hours of driving with a 6-month-old). Fortunately, the rest of us stayed healthy and all tested negative! It was a very stressful few days while we waited test results.

GranE and Batman saved Christmas by packing up two huge boxes with all our gifts and mailing them! They arrived on Monday, and Mae was sooo excited when she came down from quiet time to find all the presents under the tree. We had a virtual family gathering to unwrap everything.

Monday was supposed to be our last day of quarantine from work, but we found out late that night that our return-to-work date was actually Wednesday. Mae hadn't fallen asleep yet when I got the text, because she was too excited about going back to day care the next day. When I broke the news to her that she had one more day at home, she sobbed. She cheered up the next day since there were lots of new toys to play with! She spent all day changing the outfits on her magnetic dolls and setting up the magnetic pet center. Thank goodness for the Mae Zone we've set up in the playroom where she can keep all her little toys away from Colin!

The first day back at day care went pretty smoothly. Mae was really excited to play with the friends she hasn't seen since March! She brought home lots of coloring pages and worksheets this week and is eager to get back to practicing her letters. Colin is adapting well to day care. The woman who welcomed him in the morning remembered taking care of Mae as a baby and said, "I remember Mae! I hope Colin is better with his bottles!" (He is.) Colin spent the day following one of the other babies around the mat. He's gotten pretty fast with his army crawling!

I worked Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to make up for missing the beginning of the week. We were all pretty exhausted by the weekend. Unfortunately, Colin has already picked up a cold (not COVID, I got him tested today), so none of us are sleeping currently... except Mae who sleeps like a rock. I'm hoping we recover as we get back on our normal schedule this week, and I'm REALLY hoping none of us pick up this cold.