Week 358: Accelerating

 It seems undeniable at this point that the pandemic is accelerating. The wistful hope that the virus would somehow die back in the summer heat has turned out to be just that, a pipe dream. I hope all of you are staying safe, staying home as much as possible, wearing masks, washing your hands, and all that good stuff. Of course I feel like I'm preaching to the choir here since you are the self-selected readers of this blog, but spread the word, you never know when someone you think is being adequately cautious is not.

Case in point: our afternoon sitter's friend. Our sitter herself is very cautious. But, on Tuesday she ran into a friend while she was at the grocery store. Thankfully, she was wearing a mask. Because, on Thursday, the friend contacted her to say, "Oh, by the way, I wasn't feeling well Monday or Tuesday when I saw you and so I got a COVID test and it came back positive." Yikes. Luckily, even though the friend had the highly questionable judgement to leave home while not feeling well, at least the friend was also wearing a mask. So, instead of coming to work on Friday, the sitter went to our local testing site and got tested, and very luckily, the test was negative. So, we most likely dodged a bullet there, but that one definitely felt a little too close to home for comfort. And makes me dread to think what will happen when an additional 30,000 18- to 22-year-olds roll back into town come fall. Assuming they come back, of course.

Some other interesting COVID-adjacent happenings: I went into my healthcare account to check to see when Lime's 5-year-old check-up was. Since I was there, I figured I'd check Lemon's too, but didn't see anything, so I called the pediatrician's office to see if they had it. I thus learned that not only did they not have anything on the books for Lemon, but that I couldn't actually schedule anything, and that they were canceling Lime's appointment also. I am to call back in August to see if they are making new appointments at that point. So, that's interesting. I mean I suppose overall the chances of something major being caught at any individual well-child visit are low, but we do them for a reason (right?). So, all the kids with birthdays between March and September will be starting the school year without their annual check-ups? Ok.

Meanwhile I had the opposite experience on my own checkup. The doctor's office called me to let me know that due to COVID the doctor was only doing clinic visits 1-2 days per week, and they only found out a week or two in advance which days. So, they gave me the choice of keeping my original appointment, knowing it could be cancelled at the last minute, or rescheduling it to two weeks from today, when the doctor was now booked to have a clinic day. I like certainty, or at least the illusion of it, so I went with the latter. 

We do have a clinic visit coming up for Lemon next month as well. Our last one was virtual, and my understanding was that this one was to be in person since he is due for his big annual appointment with x-rays and lab draws and everything. I guess we'll see what the situation is like in a few weeks. At the moment COVID is definitely spreading in our community, and if that trend continues, I won't be eager to head over to Children's Hospital to spend a few quality hours monkeying around, seeing a dozen different care providers. Not when things are going so well for Lemon, who finally hit a massive 60lb earlier this week. I guess at some point we will have to take him in for something, but I am in no rush whatsoever, and feel very lucky to be in that position.

Given everything that's going on, I can totally relate to Lemon's fantasy of building himself a houseboat and sailing away to explore England!

Week 357: Summer in the air

It seems like this strange summer is getting under way in earnest. We've had our first few really hot days, our first zucchini from our CSA, and the plants in our own garden continue to get bigger.Father's day came and went, with a nice celebration and obligatory photos. It was fun to look back at the photos of Father's Day's past and realize how far we've come. It defies belief but within a couple of weeks, Lime will be 5, and a few further weeks after that, Lemon will be 7. 

I feel like in many respects, we've gotten used to the quarantine lifestyle. We're certainly much more comfortable with having no weekend plans than we used to be. The unbroken stretch from Friday evening til bed time on Sunday still can feel a little daunting, but each weekend we manage to come up with things to do and to give the day some structure. This weekend's adventures included a trip downtown to see the murals that were painted on the boarded-up storefronts downtown, and our first attempt at homemade pasta.

We're still keeping up with a little tiny bit of home school type stuff this summer, mainly the literacy app that Lemon was working on during the school year, as well as an alphabet and phonics app for Lime. I don't know that either of them is learning much from the apps, but it does at least serve to keep the knowledge in their minds rather than letting them forget. A very lengthy document was released today describing the various possible forms school might take this fall. I have to confess to not reading it. I don't need to know what all the possibilities are, I just need to know what the actual plan is!

Week 356: Phase 2

As of this morning, our county entered "Phase 2" of its reopening. Some businesses can now operate at 50% capacity, and the size limits on indoor and outdoor gatherings has been raised. The net effect of all this for us will be pretty minimal, except perhaps the fact that the playgrounds are now reopened. Still, we want to be very cautious about actually being around other people, so aside from potentially visiting some parks, I think we will conduct ourselves much as before.

I did end up taking Lime to the dentist on Thursday. It was a weird experience, calling up to the office from the car to check to see if they were ready for us, answering screening questions and having our temperatures taken when we went in, and everyone who was not a patient wearing masks all the time. But, Lime wasn't thrown by it at all. Childhood comes at you fast, and he has totally adopted this as his new little reality. He was very cooperative, and even did his first set of dental x-rays without protest. He still got a superball as a prize, which is the most important thing anyhow.

Another big change is that the school year is now officially over. Just kidding, the difference for our household is basically imperceptible. We are continuing to work with Lemon on his literacy app every day, and otherwise the kids do all their regular stuff just as before. Their energy level certainly indicates that they are aware that it is summer though. I thought our house had taken a beating during the winter months, but we seem to be at some new level of destructiveness right now. At least the garden is doing well. 

One other thing that is growing like a weed: Lemon. He's gained almost 5 lb since the schools closed, as is now just a hair shy of 60lb. I had honestly sort of stopped thinking about ever getting out of the 50's, and yet, here we are. Being home grazing on snacks all day is great if your goal is to gain weight. Even little Lime, who seemed like he might be 36lb forever, is now closing in on 40lb. 

So, we're just trying to enjoy the good parts of this new scenario, and let the kids have a fun stay-at-home summer. We really should teach them some math at some point, if we can ever get them to sit still for a moment. Well, maybe in July.

Week 355: Reopening

All around us, various things are reopening. The swimming pool reopened for lessons (we're not going), the tai kwon do place is offering limited lessons (we're not going), the various local beaches are open (ew, lake beaches, we're not going). But, we did go ahead and have Lemon's first post-COVID play date. He has not been around another child his own age in 10 weeks or however long this has been now, but a friend's parent reached out to us to see if we might like to do something, and after some consideration we decided we could do that. 

Lemon and his friend were definitely excited to see each other. Being that they are first-grade boys, the excitement mainly manifest as using smaller things to hit bigger things, repeatedly. But, all the things involved were inanimate, they were outside, and they were wearing masks and staying somewhat far away from each other most of the time. So, I think it basically went as well as could be hoped and we'll probably do it again some time. I got the feeling that Lemon has kind of lost the knack of socializing with someone who is not his brother, and he was pretty worn out after just 45 minutes. Just in terms of school preparedness, assuming there is school in the fall of course, it would probably be good for him to have some kind of semi-regular contact with another kid or two over the summer.

The other thing we are doing while things are semi-open is the dentist. Both kids are due for cleanings this summer, and again after some debate we decided to go ahead with that as well. The dentist's office has implemented a lot of new precautions that make it seem like it will be pretty safe, and I do think it's important to keep the kids teeth healthy, especially as Lemon's adult teeth start to come in. Plus, things are relatively good right now, and there is certainly no guarantee that anyone will be wanting to set foot in a dentist office in, say, February. So I figured we'd better just get this cleaning in now in case it is our best chance for a few months.

And, after putting it off for a while, we had the plumber come today to fix a faucet. Much though it was fun to have the kids flood their bathroom and the basement below at the same time, we decided that it was worth it to implement some improvements so that the flooding is now restricted to just the bathroom. 

After putting it off as long as we could, we also finally bit the bullet and withdrew the kids from summer camp. We'd already basically decided, but put off actually contacting the camp since that made it seem so final. But, with the incentive of losing our deposit, I emailed the camp yesterday. I'm still sad about that, they were supposed to have such a fun summer there. But, hopefully, next summer. 

Other than that, quarantine baking madness continues apace. I received a lovely new mixer from Papa Bear and Nona as a belated mother's day gift, so I have been putting that to good use. More importantly, of course, it came with a nice box. Or maybe I should say, the kids got a nice box that came with a bonus mixer inside? Anyhow, I look forward to putting it through its paces over the coming weeks and months. I just wish I could get together with all of you to share all these things! Hopefully soon...

Week 354: Toothless wonder

As some of you long-time readers will recall, way back two hundred some-odd weeks ago, Lemon fell down and knocked one of his two top front teeth right out of his head, root and all. Since then, he's had a charming gap-toothed grin. I can now report that he is gap-toothed no longer, or at least that the gap is considerably bigger. He was pretty pleased with his prize from the "tooth fairy," although if you thought it was hard in this day an age to maintain an illusion about the tooth fairy, just try doing it when your kid knows for a fact that you're in his room every night at 2:30 a.m. to turn off a feeding pump. Yeah. He knows where the prizes come from.









Other than that momentous event, it was another fairly quiet week within these four walls, as the situation beyond the walls seems to grow more tense and charged by the day. This has always been a blog about the life of a family of a kid with CF, and I am not of a mind to change that now, although I do feel mildly ridiculous writing about lost teeth and posting pictures of our garden in the present moment, when I can hear sirens outside and know that our city has implemented a curfew and that so many people are experiencing so much anger and pain.



So, I think I will keep it brief tonight. I hope you are safe and well, and that you can find a way to make your voice heard and to bring about the changes that we need so that everyone in this country can be safe and have a voice.

Week 353: Scoot

As I think I've mentioned, we are not the most assiduous home-schoolers. But, between the age and temperament of our kids and the fact that both Papa Bear and I made conscious choices to pursue careers in fields other than elementary education, it's just not our thing. Nonetheless, we got a clear direction from Lemon's teacher once the schools closed that Lemon was to catch up to where he was supposed to be in Lexia, the literacy app that the school uses. And he was to do this by doing about 15 minutes per day of lessons. This goal was both concrete and seemed within the bounds of what our little family could accomplish. And so, every morning we worked at it. Until, finally, last week, Lemon completed the level that he was supposed to complete and earned his big prize: a scooter! Of course, Lime got one too, for being so cooperative about letting his brother concentrate. Or, that's what we're going with, anyhow.





It's hard to believe that we have an "end of year" conference with Lemon's teacher next week, and Lime's school is scheduling a drive-by event to wave at the teachers and pick up stuff that was left at school. It definitely has an anticlimactic feel to it. This was my last year with a preschooler, and I sort of thought the end of that time would feel like more of a watershed moment than it does. Especially since I had thought all along that the end of preschool would mean the end of the crazy schedule our family has been operating under for the past 5 years, and perhaps the beginning of something more tractable. With all the rumors flying around about what public elementary school will actually look like in the fall, who knows? But, one week at a time.






Otherwise, things continue to move forward in our quarantine life. There was no Memorial Day parade today of course, but Papa Bear organized a Transformers parade on our porch that the kids enjoyed. We worked in the garden, scooted around the neighborhood, made more ice cream, and generally enjoyed the long weekend. Not that the weekend feels that much different to the kids these days than the week itself. They are both just so happy and growing like weeds, though.

On the one hand, I appreciate the structure that school gives them and the amount that their teachers are able to teach them, which is far more than Papa Bear and I can manage. And then on the other hand, I see how much they are enjoying this and I wonder whether maybe some other cultures where kids don't start elementary school until they are 7 have a point. The pandemic is so awful, and no one would ever have wished for it. But, if one little positive thing to come out of it is for them to have this extended strange summer to spend together just being their wild little selves, well, I'll take that silver lining.

Week 352: Encampment

As the "school year" winds down, our thoughts turn to summer. Summer, a word so often followed by "camp." A time I had been particularly looking forward to as it was to be the first time that  I would get up in the morning, pack up the 3000 things and the kids, and take them both to the same place, drop them off, and not pick them up again until the late afternoon. For the first time since they were both born, there would be no mid-day childcare responsibilities. No multiple drop-offs and pick-ups. No wondering who would be covering that last critical hour or two of the workday. A glorious dream.

But, now, reality has intruded, and not at all in a way that I could have expected. Our camp is still sending out lots of emails. Almost daily, it seems, I get a reminder about forms that need to be filled out. Or, a survey to complete. Would I feel more comfortable if the campers wore masks? How about the staff? I managed not to write in the comment box "Do you remember how your business model is predicated on teaching 5-year-olds how to swim?!?!?"

We haven't actually withdrawn them from camp yet, as that feels very sort of definite. But, it is almost impossible to see how we would send them. On the one hand, I feel bad that they will miss camp, Lemon went to this camp last year and loved it, and Lime was very much looking forward to going. On the other hand, I think it's safer for them and for us if they don't go. And, honestly, they are so happy here at home right now that I think they will have a great summer. They can't learn to swim in a kiddie pool in our back yard, but they can have a lot of fun.

Lime is very sad about not having his birthday at the beach this year, but he keeps saying reassuringly to himself that we will still celebrate it, even if we are here at our house. I somehow suspect that as long as there are sufficient Transformers delivered on the big day, he will find a way to enjoy it.

 And so, this new version of our life rolls along. Home haircuts. Home-made donuts. Yard work. Oh, and a virtual relay race instead of the real relay race that I was supposed to do this weekend. A work step-count contest that I might be slightly competitive about. A weekly box from a farm instead of the farmer's market. Dreams of the beach and all the friends and family that we can't see right now. But, the weather is getting nice, the seeds are sprouting, and we're watching and waiting to see what happens next.