A Pox Upon Us

We have been quarantined for the last two weeks. The boys have chicken pox. We didn't vaccinate against it, so we knew it was going to have to happen at some point. When we found out a friend of ours had it, we rushed over with bagels and hung out all afternoon, and two weeks later, the boys had spots of their own. 

We've been really lucky with it, actually. They both got it at relatively the same time, they both got a thorough but not debilitating case, and they felt mostly well through it all. A few slight fevers, some grouchiness and general discomfort, but all in all, a really good "illness." We've had a really nice two weeks, actually, taking advantage of the excuse to stay home. And I am sure it helped that we were prepared for it to happen. 

We spent a lot of time cuddled up on the couch, watching movies. We've had Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean marathons, and we started watching a Robin Hood series on Netflix instant watch (produced by the BBC in 2006-2009). We have really liked it and are waiting until we are better so we can take archery and horseback riding lessons of our own.

And having a back yard definitely helped with the stir-crazy factor. We have spent some of the nicer days outside with the chickens and watching Lilli run (she suffered the most through the confinement, since we couldn't take her on long walks). I took advantage of a particularly nice day to do a thorough cleaning of the coop.

Other things: we sorted a bunch of Legos, so that you can actually walk on the floor of the Lego room. Of course, this just means that the boys are more excited to go in there and build things, and to do so, they take all the boxes out of the cabinet and make further messes. But hey, that's what it's for. I'm just happy it's clean enough to use again. 

They spent this weekend working really hard on an animation, which we will hopefully finish in these last couple of days of quarantine. And we got a new game in honor of the confinement. A Mario version of Yahtzee. We have played that a few times. The boys have also been playing chess, Otto especially likes it. Otto found the box of Zoobs and has been making all sorts of funny sculptures. And they have played lots of video games. 

We did lots of baking and cooking. We made muffins, brownies and (at the suggestion of Gillian), monkey bread (Max loved this and did the mixing and kneading of dough all on his own--then Otto joined him for the rolling into butter/brown sugar/cinnamon). It was just what we needed to help us through the last few days.

Max and Martin made a couple of smoothies for us.

We've also been planning our spring vacation. We are going to Germany, Paris and London...will be fun. It was quite a decision actually, since it turns out my cousin is getting married in Hawaii in May, and although we had already loosely planned a European vacation in April, we were considering scrapping it and going to Hawaii with the rest of the family. Pretty funny, Alaska one year, Hawaii the next... The boys were pretty excited about Hawaii, but we haven't been to see Martin's mom in two years, and she is not feeling well enough to travel. It's her 77th birthday in April, and she had been excited that we would come, but was also very understanding that we might postpone our visit until fall.

But then, as if we needed a good kick in the pants to remind us of what is important, we learned that Martin's mom had three new cancerous growths in her breasts. They operated on them right away, and they think they have removed it all, they caught it quickly (she is on frequent checks because of past cancer). She will enter five weeks of chemo/radiation starting Monday. So of course, it was clear we needed to go to Germany. Plus, Martin's half-brother just had his second child, and there are a few other friends of Martin's we want to visit. And Jodie and family have moved to London for the next few years, and we want to visit them there. Eamon and Pierce are Max and Otto's oldest and possibly dearest friends, and we are very eager to see them in their new home, new life.

So. All is well. In sickness and in health, it's all still so good.