HAPPY HALLOWEEEEEEEEEEEN!

Our boys like to emphasize the "EEEEE" part of Halloween!

Every year, my parents throw a Fall Fest for the grandkids/great grandchildren.  

This year we had to do it COVID style.

So the boys got their own personal hayride around Grandpas's field.  What fun!

Costumes this year:

Ben: Bear from Masha & Bear

Jonah: Larry the night guard from "Night at the Museum" movie.  Don't make the mistake of referring to Jonah as a police man- he will get very upset with you.  He's Larry, and he takes it very seriously :)

SOMEONE’S WISHING

 

Jonah “talks” about Disney World often.  He does this by finding Florida on a map and then continuously putting the map in your face saying "Dney".  

Subtle, right?

Yesterday, he upped the ante.  He presented me with the following note.  He had found the map and proceeded to copy the word "FLORIDA" into his notebook.  

Something to note, getting Jonah to write neatly and properly has been a REAL struggle as of late.  He gets distracted, bored, or hasn't been feeling well enough to concentrate on school.  But will you please notice how perfect his letters are?  Yes, he forgot a few letters, but I am pretty amazed what he came up with!

After he presented me with this note, he got out 3 lunch bags ☺ and started to pack for Disney.  

After his "packing" was done (books, toys, pencils etc), he brought his "suitcases" to me.  I explained to him that we wouldn't be going to Disney anytime soon because so many people are sick.  This is how we explain COVID to the boys.  This is something I have said to Jonah before so I didn't really think much of our interaction.

However, a few minutes later, I found Jonah sitting on the stairs silently sobbing.  

Let me explain.  Both boys have levels of crying.  The first level is for dramatic purposes and often means nothing is really wrong.  Then there is the real cry when one of them is hurt or sick.  Then there is this silent sob level which is what both of them do when they are feeling a deep sadness.  For Jonah especially, real sadness doesn't happen often because he is generally a happy little fellow.  

So for me to find him silently sobbing yesterday about not being able to go to Disney was quite heart-breaking.  

Nothing I could do about it except acknowledge his "pain", hug him tight and tell him I loved him and not to give up hope.  

Someday, little buddy we will get you to Disney...when this world is just a little less crazy.

OH MY GOSH!

Incidentally, "Oh my gosh" is one of the cutest phrases that Ben says...

But it is also how things have been feeling around here lately...

What a whirlwind!

Jonah: still not feeling 100% after his surgery.  Things are slowing improving for him, but I don't think he will feel completely himself until he is rid of both the catheter and the stent and, hopefully, his left kidney is back to normal.

Jonah and Ben: in quarantine 14 days because of a direct exposure at school.  This was not totally unexpected.  Numbers are ramping up in our area so we knew the risk of exposure at school was probably increasing also.  But it still gave us a scare.  

The good news is they both tested negative 5 days after exposure.  We had them tested because on day 3 of exposure, because Ben started to have cold symptoms including a low-grade fever.  

However, the boys still need to be in quarantine for the full 14 day period despite the negative test results.  

School: after our scare with the boys, we did some soul-searching and realized that virtual school was probably the better choice for our boys at this time.  With Jonah still under the weather because of his kidney issues, it would not be good for him to catch COVID on top of these other issues.  Obviously, we can't 100% protect the boys from getting COVID, but keeping them home from school keeps them a bit more safe.  We will stay virtual at least until Jonah is completely recovered.

A shout-out to our school: they have been incredible about working with us as we keep changing the plan because of the curve balls that have come our way since late August/September.  And now, they are offering an on-line experience combined with materials I can work on with the boys so that they don't have to tied to a screen for hours a day.  Obviously, 100% in person school would offer the boys the most support for their needs, but I feel like the boys will be getting a pretty decent education doing it this way, at least for the time being.

Lydia: When the boys were put into quarantine, we decided to also have Lydia switch to virtual.  This is because the reality of having 2 little boys with DS is that you cannot isolate them from the rest of the family.  So if they would have gotten COVID from their exposure, the chances would have been pretty high that the rest of us would have gotten it too.  

Therefore, we decided to keep home whomever we were able to keep home: so Lydia and myself have hunkered down at home during this 14 day period also.  Of course, with the boys testing negative, Lydia could go back to school at any point, but she/us are thinking about possibly staying virtual for her also.  Much to think about.

Flexibility is the key word for us lately.  Things can change so quickly.  At this point, you just never know when you might be exposed to COVID since the numbers keep increasing for our area.  Of course, being exposed doesn't mean you automatically will get it, especially if we all take precautions and wear masks and social distance as much as we can.  For now, this is our new normal...

From our camping trip a few weeks ago.  

Aren't they handsome?

I just love this photo of Jonah.  He looks so happy which has been hard for him lately because of how much discomfort he has been in.  

Ben likes to come up with what he thinks are cute photo ops and then beg us to take his picture.  

I don't know why he combined a Mickey Mouse hat with a blanket as a cape?