Our Little Beastie Blog: November 2020

It seems crazy, especially in pandemic-land, but this was a busy month. Schedule-wise, emotionally, and mentally.

Hiking Uvas Canyon on Obie's Bee Day - November 24, 2020

We had another carefully planned family visit in November - Grandma and Grandpa Thoma! It was very nice to spend time with them, but any visit these days takes a lot more energy. Planning, testing, quarantining, the list is so much longer than in "normal" times.

Fun with Grandma & Grandpa Thoma - November 16, 2020

That said, it was worth it to have family time. And we're extra glad that we pushed for a visit before the holidays get into swing. The surge raging across the U.S. right now is something we want no part of.

We took a couple days off of work to focus on the visit, and we took the full week of Thanksgiving off as well. To most of the world it's "the week of Thanksgiving," but to us it's really "Obie's Birthday Week."

We started with a neighbor's yard party to celebrate their twins' 2nd birthday. The yard parties really do feel like a good middle ground of waving hello and sharing some "smize" and distanced chit chat, plus people are getting really creative with outdoor (and distanced) kids' activities. This one had a construction truck themed scavenger hunt, driveway painting, and all the trimmings to make dirt and worms at home.

Can you spot the excavator? - November 21, 2020

Celebrating the neighbors - November 21, 2020

Then it was diving into some Fiorani family recipes for Thanksgiving prep. With Everett getting older and learning about holiday traditions in school, we want to make sure he's comfortable with our family traditions (which don't revolve around turkey).

**Our planned activities were then interrupted by a gnarly bike fall in which Everett lost his two front teeth.**

We told you - it's been a busy month. Chris was with Everett when it happened, and somehow managed to carry two bikes and a child around the corner towards home before Elizabeth met them. One tooth came out after some gentle movement, but the other was still attached to some gum tissue... but dangling. We knew this was not going to be a safe situation for sleeping or eating and we needed to get it checked out.

The first step was 911 and the firemen who came to check him out for more serious injuries - loss of consciousness, vomiting, etc. Thankfully, Everett was alert the whole time and we had no concerns about a major head injury. Also, shout out to Imogen who played quietly by herself while all this craziness was going on - right at dinnertime!

The next step was calling the medical advice line to make sure we went to the right ER. Elizabeth drove Everett to our regular hospital and luckily there was no wait. Lucky for no waiting - and also lucky that there was not a lot of extra exposure because we're still in a pandemic! Everett enjoyed watching some videos while we waited for a nurse and a PA to check him and tell us they can't do anything because it's dental... but they did have the number of a dentist who would do after hours - success!

The final step was to go to the dentist's office where Everett could finally be treated. At this point it had been a couple hours since the original injury. We can't overstate how well Everett handled everything. He answered everyone's questions well, he wasn't screaming or crying much at all, and he was in a fairly good mood. He called it a "super mega-adventure." We'll spare you the details, but essentially he had one extraction, some teeth fragment removal, and three stitches in his upper lip. It's been a week now and he's healing very well. You can't even tell on his outer lip and his gums look nearly normal. He's also able to eat almost his regular diet (we've stayed away from gummies and very hard things).

Then it was back - mostly - to the plans for the week.

Making sauce less than a day after the bike accident - November 23, 2020

On Obie's Bee Day, we were still able to hike to his bench at Uvas Canyon. It's becoming a nice tradition to have the kids hiking with us. Next year we may push a little farther than our 1.5 mile up to the bench and back.

Obie's bench - November 24, 2020

There were some reminders that other people love Obie on his Bee Day - some expected, some unexpected. Every year it's a little less from those outside our little family, but that makes sense. More time has gone by. The world he was born into has changed more and more since he left it. While there was once completely cleared space for him to be in our (and others') lives, it's more fuzzy now. We love and remember him, but he doesn't have school friends and doesn't have funny stories to share.

This year, the emotions hit us at somewhat different times. Maybe not right on his birthday when we expect them to. Maybe a few days later. Maybe it will keep coming. This is the most emotional time - all the anniversaries of special moments and events are coming (good and bad).

Our Thanksgiving meal was a traditional Fiorani one with some adjustments. We made ravioli instead of lasagna (thanks for the tips, Vitali side!). We added more vegetables. The kids LOVED the apple pie, but Everett was still going on and on about eating turkey, also.

Helping make pie - November 26, 2020 (Thanksgiving Day)

So Saturday we had some turkey, and they both expressed extreme displeasure. Everett did like the canned cranberry sauce, so Chris has a reason to buy that again next year.

It's the last day of this outside life reprieve. Tomorrow it's back to work and back to day care (but not back to JrK yet because... the surge has us concerned). We feel... not ready. Apprehensive maybe? It's been very warm and comfortable in our bubble. We've felt busy, and adding back outside obligations is nerve-wracking. Here we go.