Last night my sister was excitedly texting with me about how soon I'm visiting. She's been counting down the days and she reached the point that she felt she could start counting down to me now that I have no more concerts before my visit to share her excitement in the group text with me and her husband Jon. She's still counting down to me tonight. We haven't yet reached the counting down hours point but I know my very type A Virgo younger sister and I know it's coming, lol. One of the things she said to me was, "We told Monroe this morning that you'll be here on Thursday night and she told us that it made her the happiest because she loves you even more than us." And I was just like, "Awwwwww! That's so sweet! But also. Wow, that's a lot to unpack. And a really high standard for me to try to live up to this visit." My guess is it's in part because I'm the only person who acknowledges Monroe's gifts and her past life memories and she talks to about them to help her learn how to handle them -- and that's important to a very young child with spiritual gifts and past life memories, to have someone close to you to help you learn how to channel and control your gifts rather than suppress them. Monroe also has taken to having tea every morning with her pre-breakfast snack/oatmeal and then in the evening with dinner. (I drink a lot of tea and my niece absolutely loves to smell all of them when I buy new ones or bring them with me and there was one which she called "the pink tea" which I had thrown in the last of a bag and she loved the smell so much I offered to make her a cup for herself to try it and then ended up leaving them what remained of the bag of the Apple Strudel tea from Churchill's Fine tea. (Churchill's is my Cincinnati OH tea shop.) That was the oolong one, but the last of that bag and I made sure she didn't have too much of the oolong itself because caffeine. Then I checked with them in January to see if it was something she loved all the time or just during Aunt Dani visits, if I should send some more, and she got super excited and happy definitely wanted it. So I ordered them a big box of a bunch of teas for my sister and Jon as well and some fun colored ones Jack might enjoy watching the color change and 8oz of the Apple Strudel herbal for Monroe. (8oz or more of one type of tea counts as bulk so it gets you a discount per ounce.) And she's been having it every day pretty much since it arrived "just like Aunt Dani" lol. Within the last week, her tea cup, one of my da's pieces of hand made pottery that he made for her, had the handle break off in the dishwasher and she got very upset. He's not currently throwing any pottery because covid restrictions but she wanted a new tea mug sooner rather than waiting for him to make another one special for her. So I'll be bringing her a new one of his mugs with me in my luggage for the visit. She originally said she wanted Frozen blues, but then today after seeing the pictures of the blue ones that my parents and I have she said pink was first choice, then yellow, then blue third place.  So this afternoon/evening I texted my sister a picture of the 5 that we had chosen for her to pick between (before being told about the shift in color preference) and Monroe was offered her choice from the pictures when picked up from her school/daycare and she decisively knew which one she wanted -- the center pink and blue stripe one that wasn't what she asked for at first but one of the ones we thought she might like. And she was VERY decisive about it.

I'm glad she didn't pick the frozen colored one though that I brought in for her. It's one of my absolute favorite mugs he's made and one of the few that I have as a matched pair. He rarely makes matching glaze work on his pieces, even within the same batch.  When my da made that pottery batch in 2012, I claimed the first mug right away because I love the shades of blue and the colors that the glaze melds. And then the next week, he brought home the second (slightly taller and with pale rose undertones where the blues end. That one's at home, so I'll have to wait to get a picture of the matched pair) and I seized it immediately! I adore them and I only offered it to Monroe because I love her dearly and her tea drinking habit is because of me and if she hadn't been drinking so much tea then her mug wouldn't have been in so much use that the handle broke off in the dishwasher.

I love her enough to offer her up one of my beloved wintry ice blue seafoam as the tide goes out matched pair of mugs. And the offer was completely genuine, it would have made me happy to know it was making her so happy. But I must admit there's a part of me that was relieved she didn't choose it because I do really love them very much. And they match feel like they belong together.

Also. Apparently my nephew is having his last day of online school the day after I get there and then he's on Spring Break and then going to in person school on the Monday of the week I fly home. My nephew is incredibly sensitive (as in Frozen is too much conflict for him, and I wish I was joking but it was) does NOT handle change or goodbyes well and even though he had wanted to be in person with his friends but now he's really upset about losing all his online class friends/teachers.  But he does need more in person socialization and to learn how to interface with different personality types. So it's important.  Also, my sister told me last night that they added  another doctor's appointment for me to babysit him which will be Friday around the time he's done with his last day of online school -- and I can't tell if that's legit a third appointment or if it's an April Fool's Joke from her, lol.  (She's in her third trimester and it's easier for them to schedule appointments while I'm there to keep an eye on Jack so they can both go than to try to go herself and have Jon, my brother-in-law, stay home. So I already knew about the Tues and Thurs appointments during Jack's Spring Break while I'm there.) It feels a bit too serious a thing to make an April Fool's Day joke around though.... I don't have plans to April Fool's Day prank them at all because I don't think that's something I want their 6 and 3 year old to learn is a thing from me.  They're not malicious or mean humor kids at all, but with a new baby coming, teaching the preschooler and first grader pranks could end up causing more serious trouble than the kids would ever intend if they knew better.

I'll also be there for my half birthday, but I mean nobody celebrates half birthdays. Most of the time I don't even celebrate my actual birthdays other than to buy myself books and something special that makes me happy and nobody else would think to buy me -- although my best friend is also my birthday twin so we often schedule seeing an APT play we're excited about right around our shared birthday. (Birthday is Oct 2, but the APT play tickets are for Oct 4 this year. The Moors at The Touchstone, my mom is coming as well as my birthday twin bff and me. I don't actually know the play, but the 4 person cast is brilliant and it's apparently a comedic take on Gothic English romance novels like Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre so I'm excited for it.) 

 My other plans for my visit are gardening and spending time with my family and Tues night Cath Cath (my mom's best friend since high school, she's like an aunt or godmother unrelated to me) is coming for dinner and stealing me for some adventuring on Weds returning me for dinner.  And then.  I think we talked about having an at home high tea at some point while I'm there as well. But mostly it's just to go se them and spend time with them.

Also, my brother-in-law asked me what new Danipocalypse I was bringing -- if it's just BA2 and WWIII or something else? This isn't a Nostradanimus prediction joke (although my sister is an atheist who suppresses her gifts so only i can talk to my niece about it answer her questions, the anti-religion and anti-spirituality and anti-psychic gifts and anti-magic and and everything must be logically scientific explainable sort of atheist, but when I speak a precog she gets really still and immediately listens to me and specifically asks about my precogs when the world events are makign her nervous  -- too many times she's seen them come true or barely escaped disasters due to contingent precogs) but it's because I keep visiting them in the lull before the next big wave and the shutdowns related to covid and everything accelerates in the days right as I'm leaving. I barely made it home before the 2020 lockdowns.

 Actually, this is once again "a Dani always arrives precisely when she's meant to" timing for a visit  not only is this exactly the timing I told them I'd visit next, but I also get home on the 15th so right before the dropping of all mask requirements on public transport including in planes and airports. And I would never go visit my three year old niece too young to be vaccinated against covid and my third trimester pregnant sister knowing I would be traveling through airports and planes with nobody masked. And I won't do it once the new baby arrives until it too can be vaccinated against covid because the highest mortality age range for covid is under 1 years old. So I'll have to drive to see them or drive to meet them somewhere in between if I want to see them while there's no federal mask mandate in public transportation if federal mask mandates remain dropped on public transportation.  I'll be quite reckless with myself and do shit stupid things that put my own life at risk -- but never with anyone I love. Especially innocent little kidlets.

So when my parents go out to their Montana cabin (yes my parents have a cabin in Whitefish Montana -- they rent it out but family including me can stay for free as long as I or other people staying there do at least a little maintenance work on the property) and thence for a long weekend at my sister's in early May, they'll be driving there and back in a rental care rather than flying since it will be after the lapsing of federal mask mandates on flights. They won't be taking their dog Sophie with because Waffles (my sister's family's dog) is not socialized with other dogs so bringing Sophie to their place would be a problem - so I'll be watching both dogs and my cat living at two places simultaneously.