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?