Self-Isolation: Week 4 (4/5-4/11)

Nothing brings this kid down. He's rocking this quarantine.

Within a few days we'll have been in self-isolation for an entire month. In that time I have gotten groceries twice, picked up household supplies (like medicine and paper towels) at Target once, and Jordan and I have each stopped by our offices once. Other than that, it's been a lot of hanging out at home, walks around our neighborhood, and the occasional drive to drop off something on a friend's doorstep or search for hearts. I'm also pretty sure that I've gone through the 5 stages of grief in the last month (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance). Actually I'm still bouncing around between those stages. Yesterday there was a lot of anger. Today there is more acceptance.

This was a harder week for me. It feels like the schedule we've been trying to maintain is breaking down a little. Or maybe we're just being flexible. It's not like there is a "right" way to do this thing with kids, and I'm finding it especially difficult with an infant that is changing so rapidly. Evan is coming up on four months(!) and if you have kids, you know about the four month leap. Babies at this age go through a huge mental development which brings more crankiness, clinginess, crappy sleep, and general WTFness that can last for over a month. Fortunately, we've been through this before so it's not quite as alarming but it's still a big disruption to any sort of routine we're trying to maintain. Luckily he's still cute so I think we'll make it through.

Yeah, I'm cute. I know it.

This week brought about more baking in our house. If the photos on facebook are any indication, I think EVERYONE is surviving this time through baking- I've seen more photos of sourdough bread in the last month than I have in my entire life! Jordan is always asking me to make oatmeal raisin cookies but I HATE raisins so on Sunday he decided to make them himself for the first time. He experienced what many new bakers experience- the phenomenon of placing spoonfuls of dough that are too large which spread over the whole pan when baking to create one melded giant cookie. Luckily, it was still delicious. Who cares if your cookie is a square or a circle anyway?! And because he loves me, he made some without raisins just for me. What a guy.

Oatmeal raisin cookies - square edition!

Best breakfast.

I ended up bringing some over to my friend, Carrie. And she had recently made cookies too, so we did a doorstep cookie swap. Quarancookies! And then a few days later, Carrie dropped off some Doritos on my doorstep too. I have the best friends. It's weird that this has become the new normal- dropping things off on people's doorsteps and then waving through the window. We also made some peanut butter cookie brownies this week and I got a before-baking photo but no after-baking photo. And we made banana bread. No pics of that either. Clearly we're eating things as fast as they come out of the oven.

Is there anything better than peanut butter and chocolate?

Innocent people watching or creeper?

This bag was demolished in two days.

Noah continues to be unfazed by this whole experience. I do think he misses his friends from preschool though, even if he really enjoys being home. His daycare had all the preschool kiddos send in videos of themselves saying hi and then complied them together which Noah really enjoyed watching. I think next week they're having the kids do show-and-tell videos which will be fun. We're continuing to do lots of activities around the house and have been getting outside more and more. I am thankful that we are getting to have this time together as a family, even when we're driving each other a little nuts.

These two are my favorite.

Budding guitarist?!

Laundry day! This kid has more clothing than anyone else in the family.

Working out those tough math problems...

Solved it!

World's largest baby? Call Guinness!

This is typically what family time looks like.

Me and my kiddos.

Happiest baby (for the moment!)

Lots of family walks!

Gang's all here!

Check out that pollen

Blowing bubbles for his brother.

Another kitchen experiment

Perfect example of the Parker Scowl

Licking the spoon = best part of baking!

We managed to clean out the garage!

I love this baby.

Watching videos from my awesome colleagues!

Waterbeads made another appearance in our activity rotation this week. Can you spot the marble interlopers?!

Just a kid and his tractor. Surveying the neighborhood.

Mom is going to stop facetiming with me if I keep taking pics of her!

The A-Team reunites virtually!

If you follow the news, then you probably heard about the awful election that still happened in Wisconsin on Tuesday despite the governor trying to postpone it. Jordan and I had already voted by absentee ballot, but any WI resident that didn't was forced to choose between not voting or risking their health to go out into a crowded space to cast their ballot. In Milwaukee, our state's most populous city, there are typically 180 polling stations. On Tuesday there were 5. FIVE for nearly 600,000 people. In Green Bay, the third largest city, there were TWO. This is exactly what voter suppression looks like. It's embarrassing and disgusting. The results should be known by April 13th, but who knows if they will even be legitimate because of this fiasco. 

Sigh. Here's a picture of our cats being weird. Clearly Jack is the dominant one. Gas is $1.50 by our house right now, this is the lowest I've seen in years. But it's not like anyone is going anywhere for awhile. See you next week!