Quarantine Week 3

Another week down!  It would be nice if I had any idea when we could start going out again, but I have a feeling it won't be for awhile.  My students on VIPKID have been quarantined since February and are just now starting to have life return to normal.  The things that I miss the most is being able to take my kids to the park and being able to do family things with my parents and siblings and all their kids.  I was joking with Asher about riding the bus (he always complained about having to ride the bus) but he told me he misses riding the bus.  He's a little bit of an anxious child so this whole thing has been harder on him than it has been for the girls or even me.  I asked him if he wanted to go get ice cream in the drive-thru and he said he didn't want to go because he didn't want to get Coronavirus.  I try really hard not to talk about it around the kids, but I do watch news clips on YouTube sometimes when I think they're not listening.  I will be listening to those after he goes to bed now.  I'm not going to lie, it's been a tough week for us.  But I'll try to balance the bad with the good!

Sunday: We were learning about my Grandma Fay!  She was my mom's mother and died 4 years ago, so before my girls were born and Asher doesn't remember anything about her.  But it was fun to be able to tell my own stories about her!  The challenges my mom set for learning about Grandma Fay were to do something with gold because my grandma's favorite color was gold (we made sugar cookies with yellow frosting and Asher said they could be like gold coins), we had to read a lot because she was always reading (Asher and I read for about 3 1/2 hours in 2 days!  My voice was getting hoarse but Asher sat there and read with me the entire time), and we had to do something with yarn because my grandma was just about the best yarn-er there ever was!  She knitted Asher a blanket when he was born and Asher loved that thing until I finally had to take it away because of how threadbare it was.  So we made little rainbows by cutting out some cardboard and wrapping different colored yarn around it.  And after we did it I remembered why we don't do a lot of craft projects because it's a lot of work and supervising for me, but they all had so much fun!  You can't see their projects too well, but I love this picture of the three of them.  The girls love wearing dresses just about every day, and Asher doesn't mind that I make him get dressed up for "church".  Overall Sunday was pretty good.

Monday was not so great.  During the day the kids just had a hard time leaving each other alone.  Asher and Mia fight the most.  They are just always up in each other's business and both get mad easily.  It didn't help that the weather was crappy so we didn't spend much time outside.  That night everyone kind of broke at the same time.  We had pancakes and bacon for dinner.  Asher loves bacon, so we told him he had to eat a pancake before he could have some.  He ate it and then he only took a couple pieces of bacon.  I thought that was weird (he normally eats the rest of the plate) but Ava was standing naked in the bathtub ready for a bath so I moved on to that.  I went into the bathroom and started to get Mia ready for a bath when she started screaming about how she didn't want a bath and was crying hysterically.  I did not understand what was going on with her because normally she loves baths and stays in the bath 1/2 an hour longer than Ava!  I know now it's just the stress of being quarantined and not being able to leave or do any of our normal things.  So Mia left the bathroom but came back crying even harder because "Asher made a mess of pancakes".  I couldn't figure out why that was making her so upset so I went out to the dining room and saw that Asher had projectile vomited all over the floor.  Mia must've seen him throw up and it really made her upset.  So I had David sit with Ava in the bath and try to get Mia into the tub and I cleaned up the puke (which took awhile...)  Mia is more of a Mama's girl so once I finished cleaning up the mess I managed to get her into the tub (still screaming about how she didn't want a bath) long enough for me to quickly wipe her down.  After Ava was done with her bath I got Asher into the tub so he could get cleaned up.  And by the time I was done taking care of Asher and getting Mia in PJ's, Ava had crawled into our bed and fallen asleep 1/2 an hour before bedtime.  It was a stressful evening.

On Tuesday we really didn't do much.  We hung around the house, the kids got on each other's nerves, and we survived.  I think the way Ava is coping with all this is to start taking naps again.  She will make her way to someone's bed (Asher's or mine, never her own) and falls asleep.  I think she prefers Asher's bed because she can pile all the stuffed animals on top of her, which she likes for some reason.

On Wednesday I pulled out the play-doh.  We all played for about an hour with relatively little fighting.  The weather had been crappy all week so we hardly went outside and the lack of physical activity was starting to take its toll.  The kids weren't sleeping as well and everyone was just getting frustrated a lot easier.  But I'm going to focus on this moment when everyone was happy!

I told you the weather was crappy!  On Thursday it snowed!  And right after Mia woke up and saw it she grabbed her hat and boots and wanted to go outside and play in it!  That sounded awful to me, but she loved it. Later in the day Asher (dressed in full snowsuit and boots even though the snow was mostly gone by then) and Ava went out to play in it as well.  I also broke out our Finding Dory puzzles that I had forgotten about and learned that Ava is quite the puzzler!  She picked up on it pretty fast!  Mia also loved doing the puzzles, but needed a little more help.  Today went better, I think because the kids were able to get out of the house a little bit.

On Friday we went out to eat!  I try to only eat out once a week and I have designated that day to be Friday.  I love Friday's for that reason!  We loaded everyone into the van and headed to Wendy's.  I was driving so I had to talk to the drive-thru people.  Honestly, I hadn't realized how much we had isolated ourselves until that moment because talking to those people who were taking our order and giving me the food felt so weird.  I talk to my family, people on Marco Polo, the kids I teach with VIPKID, and once in awhile the gas station clerk.  Even when it's my turn to get groceries I avoid other people in the store and use the self-checkout.  David still talks to co-workers on the phone or has online meetings, but I hardly talk to anyone.  It's going to be super weird when we start going back to church and I have tons of conversations with people.  So anyways, we got our food and went back home and watched Onward (which is a super cute movie!  My kids loved it!) 

Saturday was General Conference!  Watching Conference with 3 kids under the age of 7 is not easy.  I really rely on the talks being published after so I can read them and find out what was really said because I really only catch about half of what is going on.  I tried to be prepared and had printed off pictures and activities and and had puzzles and treats and all sorts of things.  It was still noisy, but at least no one was crying! (well, most of the time...)  Also, this is how I watch Conference.  If I ever sit down I have at least one child on my lap, sometimes two.  And Ava loves to "wash Mama's hair" which means she sits behind me and plays with my hair.  Sometimes it's fine and sometimes I feel like it's all getting ripped out.  But she thinks it's awesome.  ;)  We went on a walk Friday and Saturday.  Friday's walk was super cold and even started snowing, but Saturday's walk was sunny and warm!  We did lose a sandal and a glove while on the walk, but I found them when I went on my walk later that night.  We go on a lot of walks.  Millie loves it.  I'm thinking about posting on our Relief Society page that if people find various clothing items on the sidewalk to just leave them there because they're probably ours and I'll just pick them up on our next go-around.  Seriously, almost every single time I take the kids on a walk, we lose something.  It is so nice to be able to get out of the house and get a little sun!

Sunday was pretty relaxing.  We did a couple more hours worth of puzzles (I might have to invest in some more because we don't have too many that the kids can do) and watched more Conference!  After Conference we all went on a walk.  On the walk we were going by a house and I noticed someone had put a child's hat on their bush near the road - it was ours!  I told you, I really am going to need to send a PSA out that anyone who finds children's clothes on the sidewalk should just text me and I'll come get them.  But I'm glad we got the hat back!  We lost that one on Friday so I for sure thought it was just gone.  Our neighborhood is mostly older people so we're really the only ones that have been walking around a lot.

It's not easy being in the house with little children who don't necessarily understand what's going on, but we're doing our best.  This week was a struggle but I'm hoping next week will be better!  We'll keep taking things one day (or hour...) at a time and just keep trying to have as much fun as we can!  Asher and David both start "school" tomorrow so we'll see how things go with that.  David has been working all week to put his classes online but tomorrow his students will start doing the work.  And Asher will start having packets from school he'll need to work on every day.  With 2 toddlers to distract him, it might be difficult but we'll do our best.  Wish us luck!