7/4 - We're leaving in two days for a two week trip. Staying with my parents. I'm 90% done packing. Pretty sure I broke my pinky toe five days ago and I'm not sure what footwear to pack for myself since all footwear and walking hurts! Yo it is gonna be tough chasing the Marchling when I can't run. But I am looking forward to kiddo seeing his cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. We live 1500 miles away and visit once per year.
~~ Meanwhile in Nebraska, we survived COVID ~~
7/20 - I can microblog. I would never have time to write a monthly recap in one sitting. Nor would I be clear headed enough to compose such a thing. But a quick update here and there is some thing I can do. Then I string together all the short posts and BAM -- I can remember the highs and lows of my month.
Anyhow, I wanted to share some wonderful complaints that my mom had from our 2 week stay at her house. She asked if Marchling has a tantrum every diaper and clothing change. And the answer is yes. She says none of her kids did that. I highly doubt that but okay whatever. She also complained about the cartoons. The sound annoyed her. Which is kinda funny. I had it mostly on my phone with the volume way down. I wonder if she was just judging the amount of screen time. Yes, we didn't get a lot of screen time as kids. But smartphones didn't exist in the 1980s so yeah. We didn't know what we were missing. And the last zinger she managed to get in there was that kiddo didn't bond with her, which was the whole reason she insisted we stay at her house. I offered to get a hotel but she threatened to not see us if we did that. She demanded that we stay with her. Okay. She spent about 15 minutes doing play doh with him. He cried 3x in that span of time because 1) she made him wait. 2) she told him he was doing it wrong. 3) he made a mess. It was such a struggle. My kid doesn't eat off plates because he loves to dump the whole plate. My mom kept putting his food on a plate and he kept dumping it. Then she would get frustrated and he was scared of her. It was so triggering for me because I spent my entire childhood walking on eggshells and trying to be a "good daughter" and maybe I need therapy now...
7/21 - Kiddo starts speech therapy tomorrow. Filled out all the forms and it was a lot. I am hopeful that his words will come. I am grateful that we get professional help.
I'm back at the helm of the ship after staying with my parents for 2 weeks without a car. It's challenging to get our social calendar populated again after getting out of our groove. I feel like a cruise director. We have exactly 31 days left to fill. I had paused our memberships and now I have to restart everything. Swim lessons, gymnastics, and mommy & me fitness, art and sensory playgroup! I had added everything gradually and it was just starting to not feel overwhelming. Then halt! And restart. But anything is better than the two of us sitting at home watching TV all day and annoying each other.
THINGS TO TRY: Avoid giving choices. Avoid questions that can be answered by no. Use routines. Talk and work fast so child will be doing what is wanted before she or he has time to think and rebel. Anticipate difficult times or situations and avoid if possible; do not expect your child to wait for things or to share easily.
TLDR: Distract them or change the scene.
7/22 - Tw: COVID . We spent 2 weeks with my parents and got COVID on day 4. So the rest of the trip we had to quarantine. It was awful. I've been home for 40 hours and I'm still processing it.
My parents didn't take us to get tested. We had no thermometer. Luckily I had brought enough Tylenol for kiddo and myself. I can't believe COVID stole our vacation, but I can because COVID is a bitch like that. I kind of wish we had been tested because maybe we could have got antivirals. My mom didn't want me getting tested for COVID because she thought it would just be a statistic or a badge of accomplishment, "I got covid."
I know it was COVID because I took a rapid test yesterday after a night sleeping in my own bed. The rapid test was positive. The uncertainty of not knowing for sure if it was COVID and not knowing how high our fevers got at my parents' house was terrible. But we survived it. I pray that my husband doesn't get it. I mentioned to him that he should stay away from us and he said, "oh Yeah I forgot you were sick," and that hurt. I took care of us even though we were really sick and away from the comforts of our own home. He didn't even remember!
I was this close to getting kiddo vaccinated before we left but I didn't want him dealing with symptoms from the vaccine while we were traveling and I didn't want him to miss his second dose if for any reason our trip was extended. I will still get him vaccinated before school starts in the fall.
I read that if you have been immunized AND infected, you have the highest protection. Also the recent variant isn't blocked by the vaccine but the vaccine protects against other variants so it's still important to get vaccinated. I apologize if the terminology I'm using isn't perfect. I'm not a disease expert. Just a mom trying to make good decisions for the health of my family.
Thanks for reading. Sorry I just needed to write about it. Because it happened and it mattered and we paid $1225 for the 2 plane tickets because fuel is really expensive right now and kiddo is no longer a lap child. And hubs didn't get to go with us because there's a helium shortage due to the Ukraine-Russia conflict now on it's 150th day.
And while I was gone, my husband was attacked by his mom and sister for his political views. Like they saw an opportunity to get him 4-on-1 without me there and started ranting about the stolen election. And the Jan 6th hearings are still dragging on. It's just such a weird time to be living in. I don't know how I'll describe it to kiddo when he gets older and asks why we didn't see his grandparents more often.
TLDR: covid ruined our vacation
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