under self-imposed quarantine

 

The kids were diagnosed last week with Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease. The name sounds alarming. The stories of friends kids with the same disease, sounded terrible. And the spots and blisters that began appearing on, well, on the hands, feet and mouths of my children were horrible. And yet the blasé manner in which we were diagnosed, reassured me that this isn’t too big of a deal.

Still, due to it’s highly contagious nature we’ve been self-quarantined for the last few days. Well, I quarantined the kids at least.  Just from other kids. Right, so technically we haven’t been fully quarantined, but I only slunk into public into select, adult-only areas. 

This is sounding worse and worse. 

My point is that it’s been quite a few days now where I’ve been predominantly with the kids and just the kids, with no Mountain Dad (Junction House), no play dates and no outside warmth to allow me to just abandon them in the backyard sand-pit to entertain themselves. 

I’ve been forced to be more creative in the activities I’ve dug out for these Mountain-but-quite-urban-in-their-access-to-fun-social-activities kids. Usually I access community groups or preschool to fulfil their developmental needs for painting, singing, crafting, reading...anything that requires effort on my part, really. Unusually, my sense of community responsibility and keeping this disease to ourselves has over-ridden my innate laziness. 

So we’ve crafted and painted. Organised toys, danced, baked and cut hair. 

Mixed results on all fronts.