January is Mean

January continues to be not a very nice month for the Miller family. First, we rolled into the new year with both Brooke and Reese feeling a bit under the weather. This sickness then developed in Bryan and he spent the majority of the first week back at work working from home. Just as Bryan was starting to round the corner feeling a lot better, we had one good night of health where we had Sarah and Lottie over for dinner and one good day of health with Bryan going to the Seahawks game, and then BAM! Covid.

I thought we were done with this nonsense but I guess not. Not even 48 hours after the Seahawks game Bryan took a test and it showed up as positive. Fortunately, we are in a different place than we were a year ago for most aspects of life; Reese could still go to school wearing a mask since she was exposed but not exhibiting symptoms or testing positive, but Brooke was home with us for not one but two weeks. This definitely was not an ideal situation but I would say that Bryan and I handled it as best as we could. In general, I had the girls in the morning, getting them ready as usual and taking Reese to school. Brooke and I would hang out until about 11 am or so and then Bryan would take over from there to get himself and Brooke lunch and then put her down for a nap. I got to work the afternoon. This continued on for two weeks, with me essentially working 11 am – 5 pm or so and Bryan working 7/8 am – 2 pm with a break for lunch. I enjoyed my mornings with Brooke, taking her to a coffee shop, or a walk, or the toddler gym once (always wearing a mask just in case) and I think she liked her time at home too. Thankfully each of our companies were okay with our adjusted schedule and didn’t press us too hard so that it wasn’t anymore stressful than it needed to be.

But this isn’t to say this was how we wanted to continue on with life. Bryan’s work is at a busy time right now, going through retention meetings, having one-on-one meetings with individual employees, and still trying to set their goals for the year ahead. And for me, well I literally got my first projects that I was responsible for right as all of this started to play out. And any time during the day I had for studying was gone. But I still got my projects done and am really liking my work and I forced myself to study 1-2 hours at night so that I didn’t get behind. We made it through. Brooke is back in nanny share rotation as of Monday and it is glorious.

I’m obviously much relieved that none of the rest of us got it. We’ve all been feeling fine and that is a huge relief. And fortunately Bryan’s case this go around was not at all like last time. He had one bad afternoon and night but the rest of the time he felt okay and could work and help with Brooke and whatnot. Reese continues to love her gymnastics class on Saturdays and had a playdate with one of her besties this past Saturday beforehand. I took the girls to the bounce house one rainy Sunday and to the indoor playground called Playdate another rainy Sunday with our friends Rosalie and Anne. We’ve walked to the park when it hasn’t been raining and even spent MLK day at a park that was holding a park cleanup event that was very well attended and fueled by amazing coffee and pastries by some neighborhood cafes. We’ve spent the majority of our nights with dinner at home, puzzles, Crazy 8, movies, and baths.

Now that we are free of Covid we are letting loose again. We spent Thursday after school at the local cinema for their cartoon happy hour which was our first time but definitely not the last. It was a great time. We then walked to school for pickup and then to Redhook Brewlab for some drinks and pizza on Friday night to end the long two weeks. And we went out Monday night to Tavolata for their free rigatoni day where every table got a free rigatoni. It was also happy hour so we weren’t shy and went ahead and also ordered the chicory salad, roasted beets, pappardelle, bread and smoked fish bruschetta. The server was an amazing upseller and somehow also got us to order the fresh made to order mini doughnuts with the chocolate dipping sauce. Plus it’s our turn for date night this Thursday!

We definitely are feeling our spirits rise after two pretty rocky weeks. Everything is looking optimistic, even including studying as I’ve now officially passed the midpoint in terms of learning new material.

Chelsea