11!

 Dear Jameson,

Why did I have to go back and read my first few posts- I miss that tiny baby so very much. I mean, I adore the tweenager we have now and WHAT A YEAR it has been- I don't even know where to start.

Our Florida move is now a year and a half in the past, things are MUCH better now. Well, mostly- I'll get to that. We have explored the theme parks, Oakland Nature (tons of times), Butler Tibet Preserve, Wild Florida, a Serpentarium, the zoo, and so so much more. Oma and Opa are doing fantastic, you sleep over at their house every Friday night now.  Uncle Jon has been staying with us for a few months, and you have absolutely adored your time with him, playing Mario, Zelda, Noita, and other games he's showed you, or just watching movies, screen time together in his room, dinners, etc.

Your closest friends are the same as last year- Sharon's kids (Jayson, Josh, Jordan, Jacob), Kerry's kids (Helen, Harper, Hailey, Cameron), and Brianna.

I guess none of what I'm about to say is going to make sense until I mention the pandemic we're living through.  In March (earlier actually), we started hearing news of some new virus that was spreading around China. First reports were that it could have originated at a wet market, maybe even from a bat. The world was watching closely- as the likelihood of a pandemic is truly never far away, which I wasn't really all that aware of. It's really hard to look back at how this started, 10 months ago our lives completely changed.  Maybe forever.  Hopefully not.

We traveled to Mexico in March for Spring Break, stayed at the Paraiso Del Mar, but we decided we like Tucan/Quetzal better. It was lovely, we did all of our usual fun stuff. Oh how I would love to go there right now, but the world is so different. As we were in Mexico, the news about the pandemic, named COVID19 (a novel corona virus found in 2019) became quite concerning- cases started showing up in the US, many countries began talking about halting travel in and out. We actually arrived back home the day the resorts shut down, and we arrived to a completely different reality. Everything was shut down except for essential services (which to be honest, included quite a bit).  Theme parks, movies, restaurants, bars, everything just completely shut down- but restaurants could still serve to go orders. Schools were shut down- at first for an additional two weeks, eventually for the rest of the school year. We stayed home, we didn't see Oma and Opa for a very long time. We wear masks any time we are in public, we use hand sanitizer without even thinking of it now. I'm not even going to put into this blog about the political impact on this whole deal, but lets just say not everyone is doing their part, we have leaders (ahem, Governor DeSantis) that opened too soon, with too loose of restrictions and it is backfiring badly. We stayed home, did a ton of puzzles. We cooked a lot, with what we could find at the store. People hoarded toilet paper, lysol spray and every meat- still unsure about the TP and meat. Non perishable foods flew off the shelves, there were lines to get in to any store as they had to count the number of people that entered. Limits were set on what we could buy. People are scared, and this has cost many lives.

Let's just fast forward til now- because honestly it's been a mess. We are very careful, many people aren't. It's tired at this point, and it's sad. The good news is that a vaccine was JUST approved for emergency use. The first people that will get it are healthcare workers, then nursing home residents, and then health compromised and the elderly. Pretty sure you and I are near the bottom of the list, but we'll get there and there are other people that need it more than we do.

School, ok- now that we talked about how the world changed, school went remote. And you have absolutely ROCKED it. All A's for the first 9 weeks (looking like all A's for second 9 weeks as well!). Principal's award AGAIN. You are a shining star, your teachers adore you, you are mastering math. Back in march when you guys all went on spring break, none of us had any idea we wouldn't be going back, so that was really weird. You attend 100% remote through Lake Live, the first program offered by the county tied directly to the school.  Your teachers are Mrs. Gleeson and Mr. Garcia and they are amazing.  I just love both of them. We set you up on a computer from school in the nook of my bedroom, your little home school office thing. You have your text books, and have had to quickly learn how to type, use a ton of apps on the school learning page including google slides, google docs, google meet, and Zoom. 

I hope the world changes back to a wonderful place, that is safe for all of us and we get to enjoy our new life in Florida again. You're amazing, as always- and I love love love being your mama <3

Love you to the moon and back times infinity,

Love Mommy