We're going to have a houseguest. It's not a new houseguest, it's someone we have here all the time, we're just adding overnight to his visits. Blake, our sitter or "Manny" is coming to stay with us until October 10th. His sister, Shane, is at school and has contracted COVID-19. She's fine with her only symptoms being a fever and sore throat, but she needs to come home until she's clear.
She is in a dorm and the administration has required any student who contracts COVID-19 leave the campus if they test positive. You may remember that Shane and Blake lived next door until two months August at which time Shane went off to college for her Freshman year and Blake and his parents moved to a townhome in the area here.
Their townhome is smaller with fewer bedrooms than their prior house next door, which makes distancing Shane from her father, who has Chrone's, a bit of a challenge. The plan is for their father to move to the basement to Blake's room. He'll use the entrance to the unit from that floor while Shane stays on the second floor, totally separate from him for the next ten days.
When they called tonight, asking if Blake could stay here, we were honestly all excited—my daughter most of all. We've always been close with our neighbors but it's been even nicer having Blake here to help with my daughter during school and do fun things with them both when they're not in school.
The only concern I have is helping my children understand that some of the time Blake will be working and they will be expected to listen to him as they would us. This, they already do when he's here working. Then, we told them, some of the time will be fun time and he might play a game with them if they want or a video game with my son. That will be up to him. But then there will be times that are Blake's time and he won't be available during those times.
They are going to have the hardest time with the last part because they like doing things with him so much. We'll see how it goes. Blake comes to stay tomorrow as Shane is coming home in the afternoon.
The Big Boy Update: My son was excited to hear Blake was coming to stay with us. His first question was, "is he staying forever?" Then he said, "maybe we can get him his own Xbox account!"
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter was worried about Shane. Her mother told her we could call and talk to her once she got home tomorrow. Me, like the non-thinking mom I sometimes am, said, "we can FaceTime her too." My daughter likes FaceTime because she knows other people like to see what's going on, but it's no fun for her because she has to stay in frame, can't move around freely, and doesn't know how to show things easily on a call. That, and she can't see at all. She much prefers to just talk on the phone.
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