Ginny & Max Again

My two brothers and I share the responsibility of our mom's care; when one of us is out of town, one of the others steps in. Even when my mom was living with us, if C and I traveled, one of my brothers (and of course, my sisters-in-law) would take over. It gives us all some peace of mind to know someone is available to help her anytime she needs us.

Let me interrupt myself to clarify who's who. You may have noticed that I don't use people's names in this blog because it's public. In the past, I've used my brothers' initials, but I've decided that I will refer to them as B1 and B2 (and by extension, S1 and S2) from now on. Why this idea didn't occur to me before now, I don't know!

Now that my mom's not living with me as we wait for everyone to be vaccinated while I have to be at school around people everyday, B1 and S1 have assumed the main caretaker roles. My mom only a five-minute walk away from them and that is working out pretty well. The nice thing is that my mom doesn't have to navigate any stairs, which she does when she is at my house and also at B1's house. S1 checks in on her daily, gets groceries for her, and takes her to appointments. I'm extremely grateful to B1 and S1 because I know my mom is being taken care of.

When we went to Hilton Head, my mom came to our house to watch Ginny for us, and B2 came and stayed with her. Last week, B1 and S1 were out of town, so B2 and S2 came once again to handle her care. It is a team effort over here to make sure my mom isn't alone! While she is able to do many things independently, it's just better for everyone if we all know one of us is keeping an eye on things.

We had some of my mom's mail, so we decided to take Ginny for a ride to drop it off this past weekend. While the mail is certainly important, we had an ulterior motive for going: we wanted Ginny to be able to see Max (B2's dog) because she is in love with him. I'm not exaggerating when I say that...I wrote an entire post about the two of them back in August!

When we got to my mom's, we stayed outside (her apartment is luckily on the ground floor), while my mom and B2 stayed inside and just opened the sliding glass door to chat. Max came out on the balcony and the reunion between Max and Ginny was so precious! He jumped up and kissed her immediately!

Max was so excited to see her!

I cannot handle these pics!

Here are a few other pics of the two of them from when we were away in December; B2 sent them to me while he and Max were keeping my mom company!

Seeing Max - and getting to hang out with him - is one of Ginny's favorite things in the entire world! Watching the two of them together is one of mine!

Happy Tails to you!

Backpack Update

A few weeks ago, I posted that we bought a backpack for Ginny to carry her when we go on longer walks. The first time we put her in it, I had put a blanket in the bottom that took up far too much space and she ended up sitting really awkwardly, which annoyed her. Frankly, I can't blame her!

Last weekend, we went for a long walk in a nearby forest, and given her recent diagnosis, we really didn't want to overdo it, so we put the backpack to the test. I'm happy to report that it is a hit! Not only did I put a much smaller blanket in the bottom for her to sit on, but we realized that there's a zipper to make it easy to get her in and out of it - unlike the first time we tried it when we struggled to slide (i.e., shove) her body in through the top opening. So sorry about that, Ginny!

This time, she settled right in and seemed to enjoy being carried in it. I really do think that the elevated position gives her so much more to look at than her typical, so-low-to-the-ground view!

the first time we put her in it...
not great

on our long walk...
much better!

Happy Tails to you!

Life Lately January 2021

What a weird month it's been! On one hand, it felt like it would never end, and yet here we are and I'm kind of wondering where it went. We started the month in 70 degree weather and ended it today shoveling our driveway, but no complaints here, because I love winter, I love snow, and school is cancelled tomorrow!

We tried to take Ginny for a walk whenever the weather allowed; C ended up taking her without me most of the time because I was at school during the day. Back at the beginning of the month, we also went into D.C. to see a cool holiday light display, but have not been back because between the insanity that took place on January 6, and the inauguration, we've been avoiding D.C. as much as possible.

Hockey finally being back has been great because we'd really been missing it over the past few months. A shorter season means each game is important, so it will be fun to watch the standings as the season goes on. Not going to lie, though…it's weird to watch Toronto only play other Canadian teams!

We finished three Disneyland puzzles over three days – they're the classic attraction posters and we love Disney history and loved how they turned out!

The highlight of the month for me had to be getting the COVID vaccine yesterday. I'm beyond grateful to have received my first dose of the vaccine; I am acutely aware that there are so many people who have not had the opportunity to be vaccinated yet. I hope the rollout continues smoothly and we are able to get people the vaccine so that life might return to some semblance of normalcy. I'm the only one in my family to receive a dose so far, and I'm extremely anxious for my mom to get the vaccine. While of course we'll all continue to exercise caution, it's a relief to feel like things are finally moving in the right direction.

To wrap things up, here are some recent photos!

a throw pillow from my brother,
based on the pic below!

my mom and Ginny saying TTFN

my new Slinky sweatshirt!

the back of the sweatshirt!

new artwork in my office
from one of my best friends

rainbow day at school

one day I got home from school
and these two were sleeping in the basement;
neither of them heard me come in
LOL

Happy Tails to you!