- This will be a bit of a sad Easter since we won't see any family. I'm sure we'll facetime with both sets of grandparents, though. The church we got married in is live streaming Mass so I will watch that. Phil's mom sent an Easter basket and some eggs to hide for Paul with Phil when he went out to her house to bring her groceries last weekend. I think Paul will enjoy the Easter egg hunt this year as he 'gets things' a bit more at 2. I got more than I usually would for his Easter basket but I used this as an excuse to stock up on crafts. So he's getting construction paper, crayons, a toddler coloring book, toddler scissors and some books. Yes, that means we did not own any crayons before! Paul has never been into art so I held off on buying any. But now we are in dire need of some toddler activities so it's time to work on some art projects!
- We had a beautiful day on Monday with temps around 70F. That made a huge difference in my mood. If only our weather was like that every day right now! Unfortunately we are having another cold patch with highs in the low 40s. But spring will arrive some day! We had fun that day going for walks and playing outside. Our backyard is on a hill so Paul had fun throwing his ball to the bottom of the hill, running to retrieve it, and running to the top of the hill. Over and over and over again!
- Walks continue to save me as well. We usually walk to the local lake now (~ 3/4 of a mile away) instead of the creek as we have a better chance of seeing ducks there. Paul is so obsessed with ducks so is very disappointed if we don't see any! If we don't see ducks he will yell, "where are you duckies" over and over on the way back home. This group below was diving under for food so we had fun watching them pop back up!
- Last weekend we decided to go to a state park as I needed to get out of the house and have a change of scenery. I thought Paul would be willing to ride in our ergo-style of carrier. NOPE. He wanted to walk on his own and SCREAMED AND CRIED. So we could only do one trail that was flat and safe for a toddler. So we drove an hour each way to spend about 20 minutes walking around. That's toddler life for you.
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| So upset and uncooperative. This is real life with a toddler. |
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| No, I will not smile for this photo |
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| The views were really pretty |
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| Living his best life! Snacks, agua, and LBB on tv. Ahhh! |
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| Stacking and lining up toys. This is Paul's favorite thing to do by far. |
That's all for my corner of the world! I hope everyone is staying safe, healthy, and sane!! :) If you celebrate Easter, I hope you have a wonderful celebration, even though it will be very different from how we usually celebrate Easter.
11 comments:
Oh Paul. It sucks when you just NEED an outing and then they toddler. One of my favorite 'art' things to do with toddler Isla was foam shape art pieces and foam stickers to put on them. I think Target usually has a steady stream of these and so does Michaels. We were just going through our 'art' stuff and I have declared NO ONE needs to EVER buy my children crayons again. EVER. I mean sure a new pack to take to school BUT OMG we have all the crayons here ha. Like for life. We have an art station upstairs and downstairs. Paper is overtaking my life but in all honestly, in the almost month we've been home she has played one game of yahtzee and has either read books or doodled. Why do we have toys????
I a m so glad to hear the physical distancing is working in your state (they're saying the same in CA and our stay-at-home order has also been extended until the end of April). That is at least some comforting news.
I can imagine it's hard to decide if you want to send Paul back to daycare or not, especially with you being high risk. I probably would err on the side of caution, although I am sure both Paul and you and Phil would benefit from the "break" from each other (while you're still trying to work from home).
Aw, maybe things will get better with his enjoyment of parks! Two years olds are so volatile and changeable - the ergo might be his favorite thing next week, who knows. Glad your state is staying relatively safe! We are doing better here, curve flattening, but still not great: today we are at 18,283 cases, 702 dead, and 2,014 in the hospital. Our hospitalizations and ventilator usage is down though! I hope our social distancing measures are lifted by the end of April, but I rather doubt it. We've been hit so hard.
Since Paul likes books, do you think he would like to make his own book? If you sewed together some pages for him? He might be a bit young but since he loves to read so much, I think he'd get it!
Lisa, not sure which portion of Minneapolis you're in but there are a few walking trails in Eagan,MN which you might enjoy. Shoot me an email if you'd like me to share the names/addresses of them. I have to agree that walking and the sun have been my saving grace!
p.s. I honestly think its best for kids to have some sort of routine and normalcy if possibly during all of this so that means maybe taking him to daycare 3 days a week at first and then slowly increasing him back to 5 days. The fear of the unknown cannot and should not keep us from living! 😕
So enjoying the update and the photos, Lisa. Too bad about the park. But that's good news on your state and the curve. Poor Michigan. My infectious disease doc says that we haven't seen the peak here in our area or the west. Swell. He'll get older and love the parks more. I understand your dilemma with the day care. They are walking petri dishes, those day cares. We sometimes wonder if we'll ever have toddler hugs again! Do take care and have a glorious Easter.
I love how much Paul loves the ducks :) The age Paul is at is hard with hiking. My boys were big fans of the Ergo but over it by that point. We did have a short phase where a hiking backpack (we bought used) worked. Eric also did a lot of carrying on his shoulders- still do that with Jack sometimes though he has a lot more stamina now. Also Jack is a pro on a scooter now so paved paths are amazing.
As you know I love my kids school/daycare but I don’t think it’s “bad” for Paul to have a break from it. He is getting more time with you guys and probably learning how to play by himself a bit. Considering that everyone sending their kids to that day care is probably exposed (essential workers) I don’t blame you for being worried to send him back. This period of more TV than usual won’t matter in the long haul. My kids had a lot of TV at that age for various reasons. They still watch now but not as much because they are capable of playing independently for longer stretches so we don’t need to rely on it for adult breaks (or adult work getting done). It’s actually crazy the amount of academic information Max has learned from his iPad. Hang in there! (PS. yay MN for flattening the curve!)
Happy Easter Lisa! I am sure it is a little different not being able to do the normal Easter weekend things, but it sounds like you have some fun times planned! I was obviously going to spend the extra day off this weekend studying, and after that got cancelled, at first I thought, yay, I can go on a long weekend away. Clearly that also got the kibosh, as we are in shelter-in-place until May 3.
Regarding the day care, I would suggest keeping him at home with you. No reason to expose him or your family to anything and I really do think the isolation of the SIP is what is going to help get this ordeal over with faster. I am not traveling more than 5 miles away from my house, even to run, as I believe if we stay within our communities, we keep the spread down. I don't know where the other kids from the daycare are from, but I think it makes sense to keep him away from them for now.
Happy Easter, my friend! I keep forgetting about the holiday, which is not normal for me. It will be a bummer, but I'm going to try to make the best of it and stream a church service if I can.
Paul asking "where are you duckies" on your walks is the cutest thing! I love how much he loves seeing the ducks. SO sweet! But ugh, that trip to a local park sounds rough!! Two-year-olds are so unpredictable, man. Hopefully the next outing goes much smoother!
While I can't make the decision for you about sending Paul to daycare, I don't think there's anything wrong with either option. Since you are in a high-risk group, I might err on the side of caution and keep him home, but I can also COMPLETELY understand wanting to send him to daycare to give him a sense of structure while you guys work! There are so many tough decisions to make during this pandemic. <3
I really don’t understand why Paul’s daycare is still open!!!
Here, in Quebec, all daycares are closed, except some special daycares for the children of parents that work in essential health services!
I can see why the virus is spreading so much in the USA...!!!
It’s so much safer to keep him home, even if you think he watches too much television! Better safe than sorry!!!
I’m sorry if I seem to be harsh but it really gets me!
Bummer that Paul wants to walk himself, and yet great that he wants to walk himself. I think if you guys are able to get work done without sending him, you're doing alright by having him miss the learning aspect. Because he will catch back up. And the extra stress of wondering if there is exposure isn't really worth it. But if you were stressing at work, then I would definitely understand sending. One of my friends sends her kiddo 3 days a week. And it works well for them. Not sure if your facility would be okay with that?
Paul reading in his little chair is too cute! I am surprised his daycare is still open. They have all closed here. Social distancing seems to be working in my province, but the population is quite spread out here, so I can imagine that has a lot to do with it. I am glad to hear your state is doing well with this too!
That must be so hard to want to get out for a walk when Paul is just not having it. Hopefully, he starts to love the park more, as getting out for some fresh air and exercise is probably needed now more than ever.
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