Covid is back and badder than ever. The Delta variant arrived mid July and has hit little kids and unvaccinated adults really hard. The delta variant is also easily transmissable even if you are vaccinated, which means the magical protection we felt we had this Spring and Summer are gone as we don’t want to bring anything home to to kids. The hospitals are full. We took the kids out of school as soon as the case counts started going up. While I’m glad they are back home with me (again), it has been hard and sad to feel like they’re missing out, again.

Late July and August were full of adventures at home as we all got back into the swing of being at the house together 24 hours a day and not seeing many other folks.

We have been able to go visit our friends empty pool during a work day or early on the weekend before anyone is up. It has been a wonderful opportunity to let the kids have fun while still feeling safe.

We go on walks most days and have plenty to keep us busy.

We play with Playdough daily, Ember works on her school skills like sight words, writing letters, art and other creative things like home economics.

The MOST exciting thing that has happened recently was Zora turned two. Wow. She had a Baby Shark cake, lots of Baby Shark clothes as gifts (which she attempted to put on at the same time), door visits from Family, Zoom meetings to let everyone watch her open gifts, and a trip to the pool to celebrate. Not bad for a 2nd Quarantined Birthday.

She is SO busy. She is talking up a storm, playing WITH Ember, and having a blast. She’s also making me crazy by stripping off her clothes and trying to use the potty but I’m sure we will survive it. She is learning shapes and colors, counts to ten and sings her ABC’s. She throws epic tantrums and has recently learned the word “cookie.”

This time in their lives is fleeting. I am so glad to be with them for it. We are hopeful that they will be able to get vaccinated this fall and return to daycare with their friends early in 2022. It has been an absolute wild couple of years.