More Thoughts About Lockdown Life

A couple weekends ago, as we were preparing for the impending lockdown (but hadn't quite committed to it), Quinn ran her eyeball into a tree branch. Of course she did. There was a visible scratch on her eye - but in the current environment (or really, any time), we didn't want to unnecessarily take her up to SLP for an eye doctor appointment. Thankfully, the eye doctor agreed. So, through text message and cell phone camera technology, they were able to determine that her eye was fine and that we didn't need any appointment - or any drops. It was a pretty cool shift in the way we treat some of those more minor (but important ... eye health feels important) injuries.

[Fun fact: I posted this story on LinkedIn, talking about how digital tools are being applied differently. LinkedIn told me my post went viral. I'm basically a big deal ...]

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We learned last week that leprechauns are not impacted by viruses. The kids woke up St. Patrick's Day morning to find that Darby the leprechaun had left green footprints and a painted mirror in the bathroom - and taunted us with gold foil rolos in their carefully constructed trap. He also left empty candy wrappers in Quinn's woodzeez's house. That tricky guy!

Then on Friday, we celebrated Fiona's half birthday. She's now nine and a half. I don't care for that. I will blog about it soon. But I won't be happy that she is now closer to 10 than 9. She, however, is delighted! And was quite disappointed (annoyed) that the Google holiday calendar did not acknowledge such an important day.

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We rearranged the kids bedroom last weekend. We are trying to figure out how to get another twin bed in that room as Declan will soon [has] grow [grown] out of the toddler bed. Quinn was beyond delighted with the change. Dec would like his bed returned to its original spot (thank you very much) and told me that he does not want a new bed. He embraces change like his mama.

After all that work, we celebrated with glitter tattoos. Gma N gave a kit to Q for her birthday and we don't use it often - so it was quite a treat. Mike even got in on the action and had me paint a blue fairy with gold stars on his bicep. The kids were delighted - and Mike was like "where am I going to go?" I did notice he scrubbed it off in the shower today.

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I mentioned to our neighbor (over text) that Mike couldn't get eggs at the grocery store. Her husband works as a chef at a country club. The club has closed down, but they are still doing takeout orders. However, the run rate on food is much lower than anticipated when they ordered last. Later that day, Mr. Mike showed up at our door with 4 dozen eggs.

That probably sounds like a lot. Except we've already eaten 36 eggs this week. The kids are obsessed with hard boiled eggs. We ate 18 in a single day - and for the record, I only got two!

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Days 9 and 10 have been pretty rough. We are officially over being home. The kids miss their friends, their teachers, and their routine. They are overwhelmed and confused and tired and stressed. We miss our friends too. Everyone misses our activities. There are good moments in every day, but the last couple have been harder than others.

Tonight, Mike installed Messenger Kids on their iPads and they were able to chat with a few of their buddies (and their aunties and Gma N). Fiona had a bigger smile than we've seen in days. Dec was jumping up and down. It was so nice to see some happiness return.

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Mike got a message from the theater that they likely won't reopen until May (at the earliest). School is officially in "distance learning" mode until May 4. We are in it for the foreseeable future.

We will continue to bake things (muffins for breakfast tomorrow), connect with our people as best we can (there was a group FaceTime with all the cousins this week where Auntie read a bedtime book - and it was the best thing ever), and find creative ways to spend our time (car scavenger hunt, anyone?).

We're over halfway through Week 2. We've got this. [we don't got toilet paper]