Staycation Island Diaries: Week 16

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While the country opens back up slowly, we mostly remain on our little island. It's not safe out there - not so much for us ourselves, but because we want to be able to see the grandparents without putting them at risk, we continue to stay away from our friends even though we sadly miss them. N(5) has been writing many cards and letters to friends far and wide.

This week saw the first time the kids got to stay at the grandparents overnight again, as they used to do pre-lockdown! That was a big milestone and something both they and we parents had missed a lot...! And on the weekend we saw them as well because we decided to go to the beach (near their house) and only managed about five minutes because it was so windy, the sand felt like little needles on our skin! So we called them to see if we could come over, and they said yes - and we had a lovely afternoon at theirs instead.






Our biggest adventure this week was due to things opening back up, though: it was finally possible for N to have her tooth treated. It had been giving her lots of problems, to the point that often she would simply refuse to eat because of the pain! She'd been on the waiting list of the dental hospital since September, but even though we escalated it when her pain worsened, she has yet to be seen there. Our regular dentist offered to try to treat it, obviously without knocking her out - there was no way of knowing if she would allow any treatment, especially as her tooth was painful already. I did my best to explain that if she allowed this, the pain would be gone afterwards, and it seems that was what she held on to. She was terrified going in, but determined. The first thing she said to the nurse was, "I prayed to Jesus that he would help me be brave!" and she was. She allowed everything. There was no drilling, but the dentist used pressure water and air to clear the area and then put an actual filling in. And she went through it all. This took half an hour in all, and both myself and the dentist were incredibly impressed by her determination to stick it through. She got the biggest sticker he could find!




Meanwhile the boys went cycling...





We visited our old haunt of Kingsweston again, just for a walk...








And of course Archie was walked.




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