Figuring out how to be

The novelty staying of home has worn off, and we are all trying to figure out how to be in this new normal. Maren in particular has had a bit of a tough time this week. I think she is realizing that this might go on for a long time and is feeling sad about not being able to go to preschool or daycare. She has been testing every limit there it is to test, and then for a couple of days this week had really low energy and just wanted to hide under a blanket much of the time. Eventually she said she was feeling sad, and maybe also lonely.

Our next-door neighbours also have a four-year-old, and he was in Maren’s preschool class. They have a six-month-old baby as well. We often see them when we are outside or on walks. The other day this four-year-old neighbour was essentially chasing us on his tricycle trying to catch up with us while his mom was telling him to stay back. It felt strange, and kind of wrong in some way.

So we talked to our neighbours. We decided that our children could play together. We are staying in except for groceries once a week, and so are they. They have no contact with anyone else, and neither do we. The benefits of the four-year-olds being able to play together seems in our minds to outweigh the risks. I feel like we are doing something wrong, like we are breaking the law even though we are not. I feel like I need to confess that we have done this. But after two days of allowing them to play together I am sure we are making the right decision.

Spring fever or cabin fever

Our children are behaving like they have been cooped up for too long. Or else they are so excited about the weather improving that they can’t focus. Either way, we are spending lots of time outside and it seems to be a good thing.

Today we went for a family bike ride where both Maren and Linden rode in the bike trailer pulled by Jeff, and I rode on my three wheel recumbent bike. It was fabulous to be outside without a ton of winter gear on — no hats, no gloves, just hoodies instead of jackets. But after the bike ride (which was Linden‘s first bike trailer ride), Linden could not nap. It’s possible that her mouth was hurting because she is finally pushing out a seventh tooth (I thought that she was teething on and off for the past three months with no new teeth).

A couple of days ago as we were adjusting to the transition from winter to spring we went out in the backyard way overdressed for the weather. Linden was immediately drawn to a giant puddle, and she spent about half an hour in it. I took a video of Maren trying to show Linden how to splash in puddles.

Thank goodness it is spring. I think things would have been a lot harder this past week if we couldn’t send Maren outside to play. She has figured out how to ride her balance bike really fast down the ramp leading up to our house. I am not sure how many hours in the past couple of days she has been going up and down the ramp but she is thoroughly enjoying it. Also, now that playgrounds have been closed I am extremely grateful for the swings in the backyard. We definitely have it better than a lot of families right now!

Still spring

There are now 52 cases of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan. In the past week the provincial government has closed all schools, universities, and restaurants, limited any public gathering to less than 25 people, and enacted mandatory self-isolation for certain individuals. Many work places are closed, and anyone who can work from home is asked to do so.

Jeff has gone out a few times to buy groceries, pick up takeout, and buy toilet paper. We are trying to get outside twice a day, usually once in the backyard and once walking around the neighborhood. When we go for walks the streets are eerily devoid of cars, although today there were tons of people out going for walks and riding bikes. A number of times we had to stop and wait in order to maintain appropriate distance. Our face-to-face social contact involves running into neighbours and yelling to them from 20 feet away.

Part of the reason so many people were out today is that it is clearly turning to spring. We are transitioning away from snowsuits and moving toward hoodies. No need to wear a hat. Yesterday it was a little bit confusing. I dressed Maren and Linden for cold and snow, but when we got outside it was surprisingly warm. Jeff ended up chipping at some ice in a T-shirt.

And so in the midst of all this pandemic craziness, the world goes on. Winter turns into spring. And eventually it will all be over and it will be a story to tell.

Staying home

Things got crazy really fast here related to the COVID-19 pandemic. There are currently six cases in Saskatchewan, all of which appear to be related to travel. There are no community cases so far. However, out of an abundance of caution we are staying home and keeping Maren and Linden home as well. Maren's preschool is closed but daycare is open, baby groups and music classes that we take Linden to are modified but open, but we are choosing to keep them home. None of us are in high risk categories, but I am concerned about the likelihood that Maren and Linden could be exposed to germs and spread them to people who have contact with high risk people. Germs spread like wildfire among babies and preschoolers. So we are adjusting to a very low contact life for the moment.

We had some snowfall from Saturday into Sunday which meant we could go sledding yesterday. Although we ended up seeing a few people that we knew on the sled hill, overall we were able to stay many meters away from other people and the sled hill was surprisingly quiet.

Even though it has only been a couple of days, we are going a bit stir crazy at home and need to figure out a schedule for activities. But there have been some fun times. Right now Linden likes to push cars around and make a sort of vroom vroom sound. Over the weekend I caught her pushing a cow around like a car, which was super cute. Of course by the time I was able to record a video she had kind of stopped, but here is my best attempt:

And finally, we are trying to get Maren to "read" books to Linden. Her actual skills at reading would be way too slow and boring for Linden to maintain attention, but books that she is already super familiar with she can talk through a bit. Here is a cute video, if you happen to know The Monster at the End of This Book:

One year

Linden is one year old! I am feeling very ambivalent. So excited for all of the things she can do, and the little person she is becoming. And also so sad to think that her tiny baby days are done and gone. Sometimes it is hard not to hang on to the past, even though of course it is impossible to hold on to what is already gone. But here are a few things about Linden right now:

She loves animals. Sometimes when she sees a dog out the window she is so excited that we can’t tell if she is ecstatic, terrified, desperate to get to the dog, or some other similarly strong emotion. I suspect it is a combination of all those. We sit on our window seat watching for dogs, squirrels, and birds, and Linden usually spots them before I do.

She is very expressive. Excitement, joy, and anger are her most common emotions.

She has started standing from the floor a lot. Whenever she is developing a new physical skill she practices over and over, through many failed attempts. She is very persistent.

She likes to figure out how things work. As an example, she has spent multiple sessions, maybe 10 minutes at a time, pulling down a door handle she can reach from the couch. She watches the latching mechanism go in and out of the door, over and over. She does this kind of thing all the time, and doesn’t like to be interrupted.

She loves to go on the swings, probably more than just about anything else.

I started this post a week ago and lots has happened in the past week but most of all we got a taste of spring. Most of the time the snow here is too dry to build a snowman but on Thursday we were able to build one out of melting snow. I didn’t get a picture of it, but here is Maren with it while it was melting yesterday: