January 3-9, 2021

First week back at schools and work for us. 5 very long days. But we made it.

Rough start on Sunday. The reality of back to school was pretty anxiety producing. So Ally and I settled in and watched some movies together. 

The gymnastics classic Stick It and then another “end of the world” movie, Deep Impact.  Ally enjoyed them both. After movies she took a relaxing bath watched a couple episodes of her favorite Vampire Diaries and got a good night sleep.

Monday during a break from school. And below a memory from when Ally was 8 years old.



Becky finally trashed the gingerbread mansion. 

On Wednesday Ally wore her new sneakers to the orthodontist.

She has to be the only kid who truly loves going to the orthodontist. She wants her teeth straight and has been enjoying watching them move over the past 16 months. The work is progressing well and she’s due to have them off in August, right before she starts high school.

Wednesday brought the horrific news about the insurgence at the Capitol and the protests in Congress to certify the presidential election results. 

It was pretty awful. The only bright spot of the day was that the the Democratic Party won Georgia. So now our party of choice has control of Congress and the presidency. 

But the entire course of events in DC brought about some major anxiety and on Thursday Ally wasn’t feeling well at all. Out of an abundance of caution we brought her to get a COVID test.

Can you see Ally brought some emotional support with her in the car. It was a drive thru testing site so she didn’t need to leave the car. 


Daisy! Becky said the EMT who came up to the car for  the testing took one look and said this was a first...he had not seen a cat in a car before!  But Ally self administered the nasal swab and her results came back on Friday. Negative! 

Thursday night Ally blew dry her hair all by herself. 

Friday waiting to leave for practice. 

Which was not actually a practice but an in-house meet. Ally is still not competing but she helped out with the meet for 5 hours! The team coordinator said Ally was awesome and a huge help.

While Ally was at gymnastics I took a selfie with Cloey.

Then on Saturday Ally got a leftover Christmas gift. 





A new phone. We had bought it, thinking we would return it. Then her old iPad broke so instead of the new phone we gave her an iPad for Christmas.

But it turns out the phone is not returnable. So we went ahead and surprised Ally with it.

Astonished her is more appropriate. We all worked on her private school application on Saturday and plan to submit it on Monday. It’s a lot of work for parents and students.  We are all hoping she gets in and can go to high school there. 

Goodbye 2020

New Year’s Eve 2020

It was a rough start to the last day of 2020.

But we rallied. All of us. Some aromatherapy, some cat and dog snuggles, some joking around and we were giggling and feeling lighter. Pizza and lemonade and a brand new “end of the world” movie for Ally and the day turned around. Becky got to watch Star Trek while Ally and I watched the movie. As Ally put it “mama does not like that kind of movie” so true. 

Excellent movie. Ally said at one point “this is kind of happening now in real life....COVID”

As soon as it was over she wanted to watch another movie of the same type, so we searched and found 

The 5th Wave. Not as good as Greenland, a little more Sci-Fi for my taste but Ally liked it.

Then at 7pm Olive and her parents came over to celebrate New Years Eve on Greenwich Mean Time. I invited  them over for a toast since 12am GMT was the actual start of 2021 and seemed a fun way to say good bye to 2020. It was chilly and they didn’t stay long, but it was nice to celebrate with friends:

After they left Ally and I finished 5th Wave and then she spent some time solo and watching Grey’s Anatomy.

We all met back up at 1145 to watch the ball drop in Times Square.

Ally found throwing the streamers a bit challenging. She laughed so hard her stomach hurt. 

Then we tried to put a hat on Cloey but in classic 2020 fashion the hat was too big for her and she couldn’t figure out how to get it off.

So she watched the ball like this.

And then stole a party horn.

But this kid. This teenager. She made the most of the Holiday. After the celebration she said she wanted to play PS5 with mama. 

I found them like this at 1:15am.

Loving having Cloey in her lap and squealing with enthusiasm about the game.

Just after midnight we each said what we were looking forward to in 2021:

Ally: starting high school

Julie: vaccine & no more Trump as President 

Becky: no more grad work, seeing more people 

Here’s hoping 2021 is a little less bumpy than 2020.

December 27, 2020 - January 2, 2021

Well I can hardly believe I blogged weekly for 9 months. But I did. Once I started documenting this bizarre pandemic and how we were living and getting it thru it, blogging became a way of keeping track of the weeks and of helping me to focus on the positive and the fun and the progress. 

I can’t promise to keep it up for all of 2021 but I’ll try. 

Here is the final week of 2020:

Mornings in bed with Daisy. 



Among Us with grandparents and Aunt Beth. Mommy won a round!

Becky mastered the balancing game.





FaceTiming from 1st to 3rd floor.

Late night gaming on the new PlayStation 

A day trip to the beach to see Daniela.

Of course Cloey came with us again.

Surrounded by her pets. 

We completed the final puzzle of 2020.

Christmas cats.

Ally is always thrilled when Cloey sits on her lap.

Ally worked hard this week and wrote her required essay for her application to private high school. 

New Years Eve

New Year’s Day breakfasts: breakfast burritos for the moms and pancakes for the daughter.





I wanted to document the 3rd floor decorations. 



We met up with Clemens and his family for a doggie play date. 

His puppy Charlie is adorable.