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]

Quarantine: Week 1

Recess

My friend Kim encouraged me to keep blogging during this period of social distancing. It is going to be a major event that all three kids will remember from their childhood - and I should record it ... both the ups and downs. She might have a point. 

So, here I go: We've made it through week 1 and we still like each other. The end. 

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Fine ... I'll fill in a few additional details. 

Legos

Day 1 was ... rough. By 4:00pm, Mike was laying on our bed, convinced that he wasn't going to make it. Day 2, my boss told me to call it, pack my workstation, and relocate to the home office (aka the basement bar). According to my watch, after that decisions was made, my resting heart beat went down 5 bpm! Day 3, Mike picked up packets from school and two more pairs of rollerblades. Day 4 rained. Day 5, we put our pjs on right after dinner and watched Ellen's Game of Games. Day 6, Mike installed our Ring doorbell and we talked to each other through the doorbell and pretended we had company. And made cookies. Basically our "Johnson" came out on Day 6. 

We continue to strive for elements of normalcy in this extremely not normal time. Bedtime remains the same, as do family dinners, and most screen time rules. Each day, when I shut down my work computer, we grab bikes or roller blades and go out for a walk/ride. It's one of our very favorite parts of the day. We even went on Day 4 - because a little rain does not scare us!

Matching skills

Gma N gave Dec the coolest Lego set for Christmas. It's an old school Volkswagen camper. We had not put it together because we never had time. Guess what we have loads and loads of right now ... so Mike, Q, and D have been building it. There has also been a lot of marble run building. It's the perfect time to let their imaginations and creativity get to work.

We are also finding ways to get outside and get the energy out. Lots of walks, bike rides, and rollerblading. There was even a street hockey game one day! Mike was able to clean up the dog piles in the backyard so they can run around back there. He and Q have even planned where they are going to build the vegetable garden this spring. 

We've been keeping their brains busy with daily lessons that Scholastic made available online. And the girls were so excited to send videos to their teachers of what they have been doing. Today, we rearranged their bedroom and had a blast doing that (until bedtime. When they wanted it put back). We are FaceTiming and calling and texting our people. We miss humans who don't live here. But we hope to come out on the other side still liking each other. And with a deeper appreciation for the little things. It's hard and stressful right now. But there is so much to be grateful for too. 

So that's where we are. For the record, we still haven't found toilet paper- but Mike did successfully restock the Kleenexes!

Marble run

Topsy Turvy

I was supposed to be on a plane to Milan, Italy, right now - heading to the European version of Emerson Exchange. Mike was meeting me in Milan on Friday and we were going to spend the weekend in Switzerland, hiking the Alps, before heading home on Monday. We are obviously not doing that anymore. Instead, Mike has been furloughed for at least a month as the theatre closed its doors, the kids are off school for at least three weeks, and I'm a little bit alarmed that we are going to have to resort to using napkins as toilet paper.

Dec calls it "crayolavirus" ... he knows it's wrong, but he just can't quite get "coronavirus" out. We've talked about it with the kids, so they understand a little of what is happening and why. Their biggest question is "why is there no toilet paper?" and honestly, mine is the same. That, and "when will it be over?" Sweet Quinn asked me today if they would go back to school this year. I had to honestly tell her that I didn't know. It broke her heart because she loves her teacher.

The end of season Hockey Jamboree this weekend was canceled. Quinn was extremely disappointed, but we were able to grab her trophy, which helped a little. The arrival of a street hockey net and sticks also helped. Mike is on the search for two more pairs of roller blades to help pass the foreseeable stuck-at-home future because Google is currently being overworked on the timer front as three skaters try to share one pair.

We spent as much time outside as possible this weekend, including two evenings at the baseball field. Somehow, pitching tennis balls to a pack of neighborhood kids and running around the diamond resets a feeling of normalcy. We are all praying the weather continues to cooperate. We're keeping the neighborhood group play to outside - so bikes, bats, balls, scooters, and roller blades are on permanent rotation.

There are a lot of unknowns on the other side of this. The economy scares me the most. Both Mike and I work for companies that will be severely impacted. We've put a hard stop on looking for a house. We are going to make this one work until we feel things stabilize - probably 1-2 years from now. It's just not the time to take on a bigger mortgage. Honestly, there is comfort in a firm decision. We are finally tackling some projects that have been on hold while we looked. Mike has plenty of time on his hands now - and three small helpers ... dream team!

This is most definitely NOT a "woe is us" post. As the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps the world and not a single one of us is getting through it without impact, stress, and fear, these unexpected turns are just part of the deal. I mostly wanted to capture some of my thoughts for the kids to look back on when this is a distant memory (I'm so ready for it to be in the past!). And to also say that I'm not sure how much I'll be blogging as we take this one day at a time. It could be the usual funny stories - or I may just need a break from it all. Stay tuned.

Our main focus is going to be trying to keep things as smooth as possible for the kids - and maybe finding some toilet paper and kleenex (we were good - until Dec and I both got a cold and burned through the supply this weekend). Although if we do end up with napkins for toilet paper, that's basically blog story gold ...

Robot Tops That Battle

So very happy.
God bless Teenage Target Boy

In January, Dec went to his friend G's birthday party and came home talking about beyblades. "Do you know what beyblades are, mama, and can I have some for my birthday?!?!" No, I do not. And sure, I guess ... it's 5 months away. Whatever. Mike's curiosity got the better of him, so he looked them up and then told me they were "robot tops that battle." I understand each of those words individually ... but still had no idea what in the world beyblades were.

Dec seemed to mostly forget about them ... and I most definitely forgot about them ... until this week. Beyblade mania happened. On Wednesday, I think he said the word "beyblades" to me 97 times before I finally said "if we go to Target on Saturday and get some, will you promise not to say 'beyblades' again until then?" Fun fact: I upheld my end of the deal. He did not.

Then on Thursday at pick up, he and G were playing beyblades. I 100% blame G for my current beyblades seventh circle situation. His punishment was that he had to host a training course on beyblades. It was way more useful than my previous attempts with Mike, my 9-year-old boy network, and my 7-year-old boy network. The 6-year-old boy network was key! The best part was that several other parents and 6-year-old boys joined the training course. I am clearly not the only one baffled by these things.

This morning, Dec and I headed off to Target with the Christmas gift card from Brenda and Mike in his pocket [this RIGHT HERE is why I do not let the kids spend them right away]. We looked up the aisle on my phone and found the beyblade section. Then we both stood there rather cluelessly. One of us was more clueless than the other - but neither one of us was too prepared. I started pulling down different ones for D to choose from. And he started asking ridiculous questions like "does this one have a launcher?" and "can I get one with a ripcord launcher?" and I said very exasperated things like "I don't know what a launcher looks like, buddy" and "I still don't know what a launcher looks like."

And then, you guys, like a heaven-sent miracle, a teenage boy who works at Target came around the corner, showed us what a launcher looks like, and asked if we needed help. The question was just being polite. We were clearly out of our league. He sat in the aisle with D and help him select two beyblades with launchers and was just the absolute sweetest. I may have cried in Target without him. Or FaceTimed G's mom and asked for G as a consultant. We left with one hydrosphere and one sling shock. I have no idea what that means. But Dec and Teenage Target Boy seemed satisfied.

I thought maybe getting him the beyblades would mean we didn't have to talk about them anymore. That was categorically false. I also did not think about the fact that I would have to learn how to put them together because one of the whole points is for them to burst apart. Mike did NOT train me before he took Q to hockey - but thankfully I figured it out. I have beyblade battled multiple times today ("mama, you aren't very good with the launcher") and have reassembled them about three dozen times.

He is beyond joyful and I love that. But I miss discussions about superheroes. Or dinosaurs. Or hot wheels. Or lemur stink fights. Or even construction vehicles. On the upside, I think I finally know what a beyblade is.

A Look Back Before We Spring Forward

I'm fairly caught up on all the "big" events in our lives right now. During the in-between times (when we aren't running to hockey or piano or gymnastics), we've been enjoying the sunshine and exercising our creativity. While reminding people that it is very unlikely that winter is over (there will be more snow. mark my words), I am in full agreement with the small Vs that we should get outside and enjoy "pre-spring" for as long as it wants to hang around.

A couple weeks ago, we fell victim to the most ingenious marketing scheme ever. One of the local pizza places brought plain pizza boxes to the kids' school. Every kid got to decorate a box. Then - for three days only, you could order a pizza from them. And get it in your kid's box. They did this right around conference time, so all parents were well-informed. Three pizzas later .. evil marketing genius, I both curse and admire you. Best of all, the school PTO got a cut from the sales and ended up making close to $1000.

Valentine's Day decor has been replaced by green clovers and the triumphant return of our leprechaun Darby. Because the children are excellent hosts, they spent the better part of Saturday converting Q's woodzeez's house into a leprechaun house. They were specific - it is not a trap. It is a house, filled with shiny mardi gras beads and gold toy coins, where a whole leprechaun family can come and go as they please.

Sometimes, when the sisters are at the table doing homework, the dude just wants to participate too. So the sticker by number activity book is just the thing to focus the energy and make a guy feel like one of the homework gang [real truth: Fiona would like to be banned from the homework gang.]

[Real truth #2: Quinn is taking a short break from gymnastics. One of the reasons she gave me is that she doesn't like doing her homework at the Y on Monday's and would rather do it at home. I pointed out that she gets homework on Monday - but it is not due until Friday. So she could do it at home any other day of the week. She found that fact irrelevant because she likes to get it done right away on Monday. As Type A people intended.]

We spent the whole weekend outside - even getting the bikes down, the scooters out, and initiating a neighborhood soccer game. Mike also built a bike jump for the kids. The neighbor moms and I will be stocking up on knee-sized bandages.

Fiona had her friend Makai over (her buddy from preschool days) on Saturday and when she came outside, her hair was fixed and she had put on a little make up. She looked so old. Makai didn't notice and was more interested in kicking the soccer ball. She didn't seem to mind and happily rode her bike around and through the soccer game.

On Sunday, Dec, Quinn and I went for a "walk" - which meant I walked and they rode bikes. I did not anticipate practically having to portage on the walking path and wished I had made better footwear choices. Poor footwear choices found me picking my way through a snow patch with some teenagers who were also out walking - and allowed me to watch them react to Declan singing (loudly) his own version of "Old Town Road" - replacing the word "horse" with "bike." It was pretty hilarious and one of the teenage boys looked at me and said, "I kinda want to be his friend."

We have all the hockey this week - but in the moments we don't, you'll probably find us outside. Or in the bathroom applying bandages.