Day 1 of whatever we’re calling this. Home isolation? Quarantine and chill? Apocalypse watch? Whatever it is, I’m not a happy camper. Daycare’s closed and work still expects us to work full time from home. I could handle one of those things at a time, but together it’s… rough. I know I’m extremely lucky that I can work from home and that I’m still getting a paycheck right now. But if I had a unicorn to wish on, I’d wish that instead of bailing out big companies, the government sent us all home with pay for 3 weeks so I could focus on keeping the kiddos happy and safe, and not worry about anything else while we’re home.
And speaking of not a happy camper.. our vacation is also cancelled. I was holding out hope, even though I knew it wasn’t likely. I was watching all of my friends on Facebook continue on their vacations and hoping I’d be able to take mine too. But instead everything seemed to shut down about 48 hours before our flights were supposed to take off. Restaurants are closed, beaches are closed, the world is out of toilet paper.. we might as well stay home.
I realize all of this is stupid to be complaining about in the face of people dying, but I think we all have a right to be disappointed and complain, no matter how big or small. Yes it’s for the greater good, and I will play my part, but I will also take a few minutes to be sad about the things we’ve lost because of this. We can do both.
I don’t think of myself as that social of a person, but I guess I interact with more people on a daily basis than I realized. I had a video call with my work team this morning, and it felt amazing to see and talk to other people. Besides a quick trip to pick the kids up at daycare last week, I haven’t left the house since… last Monday? Maybe? It’s hard to remember. It certainly doesn’t help that we started with a week home with sick kids immediately before everything shut down, so I feel like we’re on day 6 or 7, when in reality we’re just getting started. I’m beginning to miss people.
I am fortunate to have two of the best distractions at home with us though. Worrying about the world falling apart? Hang out with these two (or don’t, because social distancing and all…) and you’ll be too busy and tired to think about anything else. Our kids thrive on routines, and daycare is a routine machine, so we’re trying to keep things as “normal” as possible while they’re home. We have creative time, and active time, and quiet time, and everyone pull your hair out and scream time.
I’ve moved my office into a room with a door for now, so while not as comfortable as I was, at least the kids won’t freak out because they can see me, but I can’t play with them. It’s also allowing Tom and I time to work in shifts. He’ll take the kids and I’ll work, and then I play with the kids and he works. It’s a lot, but it’s what we’ve got.
Tom was on kid duty this morning, as he normally would be on a day where daycare was open, and I hid upstairs and got some work done. I could hear them dancing, and playing with their new tickle me Elmo doll, courtesy of the neighbors. When I took over, we attempted creative time with varying degrees of success. G doesn’t have that long of an attention span, so while E worked on his latest project (decorating plain bags for probably anyone who’s having a birthday in the next few months…) G moved between coloring, and eating snacks, and playing hide and go seek with Elmo, and begging me to pick him up, and looking out the window, and playing in his kitchen… 1 year olds have the attention span of Dory in Finding Nemo.
I’m pretty much trying everything to see what works and what doesn’t. Daycare is sending home projects we can try every day. Making your own musical instrument? Big fail. Science experiment with oil, water and food coloring? Eh. I didn’t think it was very cool, but E liked shaking the bottle, so we’ll call it a half win. Special snacks in cupcake liners? E liked them, G threw them at me. Win some, lose some.
Speaking of special snacks, I told E today that we weren’t going to Florida. I told him we’d see his grandparents as soon as we could, but we couldn’t go now, and we wouldn’t be going on the plane. He was understandably confused, and kept asking why, since I’d been telling him we’d see his grandparents soon. When I mentioned the plane, though, he got upset about his animal crackers I’d promised he could eat while we flew. So I’ve decided to put all those snacks I bought for the plane to good use, and we now have special home quarantine snacks every day. Because why not.
I also had big plans to break lent and eat a key lime pie while we were on vacation, so I might need to find a place that delivers pies here soon….
