Coronavirus Diaries - July

July 3rd

Daniel and Kelsey arrived from California. They flew on Delta. The plane was only 60% full, and all passengers wore masks. They took off their clothes in the garage and and took showers before we even saw them. It’s strange, but it’s what you have to do nowadays. The dogs are had a total fit because PEOPLE ARE HERE! But they were not allowed to greet them  until they had finished their decontamination routine.

July 8th

Daniel and Kelsey have been here since Friday. Its really nice, they are working during the day remotely, and because of Covid no one has any expectations that we are going anywhere or doing much of anything. So we are mainly just living our lives, but I’m doing it with my son and his girlfriend right here. Its great.

On the 4th we took the boat out on Minnetonka for a little while. It was really hot, and busy, but that’s to be expected. We found a quiet spot behind a little island where we could drop an anchor and jump in the water and get wet. It felt great.

Leo had some nap struggles earlier in the month but now he seems to have settled down again. He was a mess on the 4th; fell asleep in the car on the way to our house, then couldn’t fall asleep later until Grampa took pity on him and laid down with him. THEN he had to be woken up and didn’t fall asleep until almost midnight! Poor guy….and poor parents too.

The last two times he’s been over they forgot Elmo. But a nice clean and soft Westie blanket made a pretty good substitution. The trick is to catch him right when he’s tired, not too early, not too late when he’s over-tired either. Right now that’s right around 1:30 PM. Hopefully it will stay like this for awhile, before things change again.

We got Leo a Strider bike for his half birthday. We wanted to get him one for Christmas but he wasn’t tall enough for the littlest Strider then. He’s barely tall enough now, even with the seat at the lowest setting. Its very interesting watching him get the hang of it. He’s very gung ho to learn, but its harder than he thought, or that we thought, to figure it out. Even with two feet on the ground balancing a two-wheeler is a challenge at first. But in just two days he’s getting the hang of it, starting to glide just a bit. He’s not sitting on the seat yet, but they say that will come and he sits on the edge of the seat sometimes. Its kind of fascinating to watch the process.

Its been so hot and humid. I get up crazy early to run but the lows are still in the 70’s with 80% humidity. Well one way or another I’m going to be done with this training cycle in another week. I wonder what I’m going to do at the end? I really have no idea.

July 15

I’ve been really tired the past couple of days. I slept til 6:30 am this morning. I’m not sure I will even bother to do the 3 mile shakeout run tomorrow. It’s more important to carb load, rest, and hydrate.

Leo is doing better on his Strider. He is now sitting on the seat! Lee took him to the playground yesterday. He’s so happy to be able to do that again. We figure it’s safe as long as other kids aren’t there.

Our yard looks so nice this year. I love sitting out on our back porch, listening to the birds. Someday even the rain garden will look nice.

The wildflower garden is amazing. After the primroses were over several different varieties of Susan’s have been blooming. There’s a little monarda, and some milkweed and Joe Pye weed too. And now the old fashioned balloon flowers are coming up in droves. I was wondering when the phlox would start blooming and guess what, it’s just starting. I know that later we’ll see purple asters and goldenrod. And of course the tiger lilies. The roses are still only blooming fitfully but I’ll keep weeding and giving them more space and maybe eventually they’ll come back.

We were going to take the boat over to Wayzata on Lee’s birthday and get carry out brunch from Bellecour, but they’ve had someone test positive for the virus so they are closed while they deep clean. Bummer. If they aren’t open I guess I’ll make him brunch instead. NOTE: Bellecour closed for good shortly after this. Very sad.

July 18

It’s very quiet here today. No Leo, Kelsey and Daniel are over at Sarah and Erik’s. I’m recovering from yesterday, but really I feel pretty good. That was one hell of a challenge. I’m really glad I went ahead and ran my virtual marathon, but I think I’m one and done on that count. It was incredibly hard, mentally and physically. 

July 23

Leo and I went to the Arboretum this morning. They have worked out a method to be open but keep people safe and socially distant. In order to enter you have to buy tickets in advance for a 1/2 hour window in which you are allowed to enter. Once in I believe you can stay as long as you want, but we only stayed an hour.

Once inside they had paths marked with arrows so that you could walk without running into people going the other way. It was easy to stay socially distant and find a walk that was appropriate for a 2 yo.

Once we parked the car, we left the parking lot and walked toward the main building. There was a lady sitting at a table, masked, able to answer any questions and point us in the right direction. Usually Leo is kind of reticent with strangers but not this time.  “Hi! We’re going to see flowers!” The lady was charmed and they proceeded to have a little conversation.

He really enjoyed it, taking a walk, following the arrows on the paths, looking at the flowers, smelling the herbs. He is a child of the coronavirus and has been well taught, at only two and a half, that he has to stay away from people he doesn’t know. When other people would get too close I would have him take my hand, and as we would decide which way to go he would look down a path and if there were people on it he would say, “oh no, people” and we would either wait or choose a different way to go. It was kind of sad and kind of funny. He’s not afraid, and he doesn’t really understand about the virus, but he knows that’s the rule.

We went through the herb garden and smelled the herbs. He said they were “spicy” and started making a game of smelling things and going “yuck!” A person that worked there overheard him and said, “is he saying yuck?” I said, “yes he’s making a joke. He’s playing. He’s 2!” But I think the worker's feeling were hurt, lol.

Leo’s car seat has been turned around so that he is now facing forward. It is seriously a whole new world. We talk about stoplights, what I’m doing as I drive, the bigs trucks. He’s enchanted!

July 29th

It’s Wednesday of week number two of watching Leo full time. Lee has had to work a lot this week so it’s mostly been me doing the watching, although Lee has been free around nap time each day so far.

Monday was a good day, we had fun popping plastic bags, playing, making bagels. I was able to entertain him by letting him help with whatever it was I needed to do. I was tired yesterday and struggled a bit, I didn’t really want to play with bubbles, and it was hot down by the sandbox. 

So today I made sure we had some good activities. We went directly from his house to Freeman Park and spent a good hour at the playground. Another two year old and his mother were there, so I talked to her. They were being careful so we agreed that as long as the two little boys stayed socially distant it would be ok. And it was. All they really wanted to do was say hi and stare at each other anyway.

Leo climbed a ladder (with me right there) and either slid down a slide or a pole (with help) over and over again. He got into the little kid swing and I pushed him for a lonnng time. He went down little slides, big slides, and crawled through tunnels. He picked up rocks and put them in holes, and saved one rock for his “collection”.

Then we came home and filled up the wading pool. And enjoyed the cold water until lunchtime. He’s had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches two days in a row. 

I also sat down with him and picked out some toys and activities to have at our house. Little fire trucks, simple puzzles, refrigerator magnets, blocks, construction paper, washable markers, blunt scissors. He was intrigued by shopping online. At first he thought it was a video and wanted to watch the trucks. Then he didn’t get the concept that this was an AND process and was very fixated on making sure we got the fire trucks above all else. And finally he had a little trouble grasping that none of these things would come until tomorrow. He wrinkled his little brow trying to figure all of this out.

Apparently he had a bad night last night again. Sleep issues...he still needs a nap, but it’s pushing his bedtime pretty late. He’d still be a bear in the evening now without one, but I bet sometime in the next couple of months he’s going to give it up. NOTE: by the end of August his parents have just given in to a later bedtime for now. Whatever works!