Not-So City Mouse: Self-Isolation: Week 5 (4/12-4/18)

Not exactly the family portrait I was expecting to take on Easter this year, but it works.

We're into week five of self-isolation now and it feels like we're deep into a time warp. The days are excruciatingly long sometimes. The week seems to crawl by without any appointments or plans. Do you remember what it felt like to just stop by the grocery store for a couple things? And you didn't wear a mask or have to wipe down the cart six times? And you could take your kids shopping with you? And you didn't worry about getting too close to someone else when walking down the street? How are we going to survive another month of this? (This week Governor Evers extended the Safer At Home order in WI until May 26th which we expected. This is a good thing.) How have we already survived over a month of this? What is the new normal going to look like as things start opening again? It's weird how this disruption in our lives feels like SUCH a big deal, and then when I think about it, all we really have to do is stay home and that's not such a big deal, right?

I definitely had a few breakdowns this week. I don't know if this whole experience is getting easier or harder. I guess it depends on the day. I know that the unpredictability of having an infant during this time has made everything more challenging and even the most simple and small plans can get easily thrown off by a bad nap or grumpy baby that won't settle down. Evan demands near constant attention, as babies do, and it's so difficult to provide him with everything he needs while also caring for Noah and his needs, and making sure that Jordan is able to work effectively from home. I have some deep grief over the fact that this is NOT how I was expecting to spend my maternity leave with Evan. But there is also gratitude that we're getting to have all this time together as a family and that Jordan and Noah are getting to spend hours and hours with Evan that they wouldn't have had in our normal work/daycare schedule. A couple days ago I was really struggling with our current life situation and there were a lot of tears. And then today the sun is shining and we're all in good moods and things feel okay again. And this is probably how things will continue to go for the foreseeable future.

There are people that think the state should reopen soon because we have had a (so far) manageable amount of cases of COVID even though the reported number of cases is certainly lower than the actual total due to lack of testing. This makes me so angry. There is a planned protest against the Safer at Home extension at the Capitol building at the end of this month in Madison and I just saw there was a protest yesterday at the governor's residence in MN. Why do they think we've had lower numbers than expected? Maybe because the measures that are in place to slow the spread are WORKING? What do they think will happen if we stop those measures? What kind of medical treatment are they expecting if/when they get sick? The lack of compassion and gratitude for medical professionals makes me sick.

Argh. This gets me all riled up. So, let's look at what we did this week instead. Easter was on Sunday and we did our annual Easter basket hunt and hid eggs around the house. It was a pretty lowkey day, which is true of most days now I suppose. I took both kids out for a drive and we stopped by Keith's apartment to wave and have a short hello conversation through the window of the car while he was on the sidewalk. We also drove to church for their Easter basket pick-up. They had a pretty easy set-up to give them away. We drove up to the entrance of the building and a person in a bunny suit delivered the "basket" to us inside a box that was on the end of a six foot pole. Times are strange, man. But Noah was excited for the candy bracelet and goodies inside.

Putting the clues together from the hunt...

Checking out what that bunny brought!

Our Easter bunnies

These two melt my heart.

Easter morning. Eating candy, playing with toys, watching church streaming on Youtube.

Happy Easter, uncle Keith!

The rest of this week has been mostly making plans for activities with Noah, and then Evan not really going along with them. He is still going through his four month leap which has brought some new milestones- he rolled over this week and loves to practice standing!- and also plenty of weird sleep patterns and crankiness. We're lucky that Noah is pretty happy to just go with the flow so I think I've been the one most frustrated with the breakdown of our "schedule." Here are some pics I managed to get of our activities.

This was a lot of mornings this week: Noah playing with something while Evan watched. Noah's current fave toy: Botley the robot.

Reading in sunshine with the cats

Hot chocolate after a blustery walk!

More playing while Evan watches. Evan's getting more interested in the doorway bouncer as his coordination improves.

Playing under a parachute!

Naked time usually cures some crankiness.

Trying out his golden egg bath bomb!

Quarantine hair = long enough for a ponytail?!

Hey, I can stand!

World's strongest baby!

In love with his own reflection

Getting some video footage on his helmet!

Basically a filmmaker. Good to go, crew.

The weather this week was crazy. These were taken about 10 minutes apart. No filter.

Another cold walk around the block

Talking with friends while distancing

Noah bought a camera for himself a couple weeks ago and has really enjoyed taking pictures and videos of whatever he finds interesting. Usually this means about 20 images of the same thing. We talked about editing after he saw that he'd taken over 300 images in a couple days. I've enjoyed seeing what he deems worthy of photographing or recording. In the pictures above you can see where he decided to mount he camera to his helmet and videotape himself driving his tractor around the neighborhood. I asked to see his footage when he was done and he said he already deleted it. I asked him why and he said, "Well, I watched it already." Fair enough. After our editing session, here are a few of the photos he took that I especially liked. Titles added by me :)