Dental smiles

The boys had dental cleanings last week. Niall has always done really well at the dentist (and maybe it's just age, but having him along has made Iver, with whom I struggled for several years just to even get in the door, also handle visits very well).

On the way to the office, I told Niall they'd be asking him if he brushes his teeth regularly and asked him what he'd respond with. He said, "I'm going to say 'No!'" (No is a favorite word around these two-year-old parts).

When the hygienist finished polishing and was painting his teeth with fluoride, she asked Niall if he liked its taste.  He responded, totally seriously, with "That tastes like vomit," which made us all laugh out loud through our masks.    

 

The pandemic positives (still COVID-negative)

I have to be honest that I've been struggling a bit lately with "how the world is."

COVID is not going away anytime soon in our country, despite the devastation and sacrifices that most of us have made in last six months. We had a bit of a scare last week with Iver waking up febrile/coughing, leading to him getting COVID-tested and us struggling with the dominoes that would occur for our other son, daycare, and workplaces (and weekend OB call) were we to actually be exposed or test positive (thankfully, he tested negative and bounced back really quickly, but it was a preview of what our year will look like overreacting to every cold and struggling with the logistics and ethics of calling out of work in healthcare due to possible respiratory illness in any one of us four).

ZOOM kindergarten (administered by daycare) feels absolutely awful for me (more harmful than no KG, in my opinion) and I'm feeling a lot of frustration about having to help Iver complete busy-work type assignments like sorting random items for "math" and watching more video clips in the hours after work (which really takes away from quality time), and pressure to somehow enrich his learning (especially for Spanish language, in which he is supposed to be immersed) which is not happening remotely effectively by Zoom. While I know that the teachers are just doing their best at not having this be a totally lost year, this time is stressful and incredibly painful for working parents who do not know how and do not have the time, energy, patience, or desire to be effective home-school teachers "on the side" along with parenting other children (and just getting through the long, busy days of our own "essential" work).

California (and Oregon) is on fire (again). Even in coastal Humboldt, our air and skies are hazy, and the orange sun in a martian-like sky is eerily glowing through the ash that rains down in flurries on our cars and homes. I can smell the smoke through my mask. The fires are less than100 miles away from us. We have bags packed in case of a need for evacuation.

This is not my photo but is what our sun and sky has looked like the past few days. Niall asks us throughout the day, "Is it nighttime?"

Golden Sun atop World's Largest Totem Pole in McKinleyville

Here's a professional photo of the Carson mansion in Eureka, about 13 miles south of us.  The sky has really looked like this.

I am very nervous about the upcoming election-- that somehow vote suppression, president-led debauchery, and/or a not optimally functioning postal service will deliver the current White House occupant another electoral college victory (or that, even if he loses when the final votes are counted after election day due to vote-by-mail, he refuses to leave office).  I grieved and felt the most hopeless I've felt in my lifetime following the election in 2016, and here we are facing four more years of him as well as all of these additional challenges in 2020.

I have had to try to dig deep to try to find some "positives" amidst all this chaos and pain.  Here's my best attempt at trying to find some "quarantine blessings" or things that, had we not had this crazy 2020 year, we may not have experienced.

Outdoor dinners and backyard time
We've had warm, dry weather for most of the summer (climate change is obvious here in a usually cool and rainy climate, hence the fires raging above). During these past six months, we have had many a meal outside on our deck, which was a nice "quarantine tradition." The kids have spent hundreds of hours puttering in the yard, "catching" butterflies, and riding bikes/walking around our neighborhood.

Neighborhood ducks

Family bonding
Without any weekend socializing or seeing any other family, our family of four has become really tight knit.  The boys are now sharing a room well and actually play well together, loving on eachother a lot. Never being at ease "staying home" with young kids, I've actually embraced the prolonged time (on weekends) with my two boys, who have really matured (weekends, particularly long ones, used to feel more stressful and harder than my usual work-week). Iver, who has always challenged us with his hard-fought battles, has matured into a helpful and much more flexible and rational being.  He is energetic, smart, kind, and funny, and I'm loving the age/stage he is right now. Niall, who admittedly has become a bit more defiant half-way into his "twos" and less "easy" than he was as an infant, is also a really funny, communicative and sweet little guy who keeps us all smiling.

Quarantine piano
I had been contemplating buying a home piano for some time, but had it not been for expected prolonged time at home indoors, I may not have taken the plunge this year to purchase the keyboard as I did in July.  I wish I had more time/energy to play (and that lessons for Iver would be safe), but having it nearby to even tinker with a few times per week has brought me a lot of joy.

Cooking at home
With more time around the house, Kelvin has taken up the cooking on weekends around here, leaving me far less burdened about feeding our family of four. He's even been watching Youtube links and has perfected some very tasty Asian dishes, including Pad See Ew from scratch. I am really loving the more equitable division of labor in the food department (me doing the meal planning and weekday cooking, and him doing the grocery shopping, weekend cooking, and the packing of kids' lunches).

A slow-paced life without plans
I have always been someone who thrives on task-completion, productivity, and efficiency and have always loved the orderliness of planning. This year has really helped me become more comfortable with the "unknowns." With no trips to plan, and nowhere to really go, I've become far better at just "being," relaxing, and living the slow life hunkered down at home (ever the introvert, I actually don't miss at all the pressure to attend various social gatherings, although I do miss face-to-face time with a few friends). Instead of constantly thinking "I should do x, y, or z," I've been far better about giving myself permission to doing what I want to do when given the time and space to relax. I've read a ton of great books. I've caught up on some totally frivolous Netflix series (New Girl was the most recent one that I really enjoyed) that I never had much time for in the past.  I didn't feel at all guilty about watching hours of U.S. Open tennis this past weekend.  We all need calming, enjoyable things to take our minds of the grind of work especially in the field of healthcare these days and in such troubled times.  I hope that I will continue to do more guilt-free "relaxing" going forward, even when this pandemic is behind us.

What joy have you unexpectedly "discovered" during COVID times? What positivity will you carry forward in your life?

Pandemic Pear Picking

Friends of ours have a backyard full of pear trees, apple trees, blackberry, and huckleberry bushes, and they let the boys come over to do some outdoor fruit picking last weekend.

We missed out on local blueberry picking this year (apparently the farm we've gone to in past years was open, but we missed it this season), but how great is it to have friends with their own bushes/trees with bounty to share?!

Sweet Unicorn Dreams!

Iver is really into unicorns (and all things rainbow-related).

When we asked him if he wanted a new backpack for "Kindergarten" so he could pass his old cat backpack down to Niall, he requested one with unicorns on it (and he got it).

Niall officially outgrew his crib (escaping constantly) a couple of weeks ago, so we moved him to the full-size bed which was already in the kids' room (formerly Iver's bed). Iver has actually been sleeping in the guest room for the past several months which has worked out well, as he goes to sleep a bit later and often wakes up earlier than his still-napping younger brother (now that we're in a great place with family sleep, we really don't want the kids waking each other up!), and we haven't had any guests any time in the recent past nor are there plans for the intermediate future.  However, we really would like the boys to share a room and sleep (they did share a room for some period of time, but I can't remember exactly when or for how long), and we thought that this was a good time to try to re-visit the arrangement.

We considered getting bunk beds, but Iver got a bit gun-shy after he remembered the story about auntie Vanessa falling out of her loft bed as a kid and preferred a closer-to-floor-level bed (we figured two full-size beds also allows some flexibility if we have other guests or sleepovers in the future). Iver was enticed by the thought of special unicorn sheets for his new bed-- here they are.

One of his sweet teachers, Cila, knowing how much he likes unicorns, gifted him this unicorn nightlight, which complements the room decor well (since Niall loved it so much, she even got him one, too!).

Gloria, another teacher, also got him a water bottle, which he keeps at school. 

It's been a couple of nights of pretty peaceful room-sharing and sweet (unicorn) dreams for the kiddos!  We hope it continues!

Holy Snakes Sunday!

We had lovely sunny weather this weekend and went for a neighborhood stroll on Sunday which was rife with critters!

Iver (who was riding around with Niall in a wagon) spotted a "green thing" crawling along the road, and asked to get a closer look... it was a praying mantis, which he'd never seen before!

On the same walk, we saw three additional snakes. I've seen the occasional salamander or critter on walks, but never had I seen so many reptiles on one walk.

One was splayed across the sidewalk on the hill up from our house, with its guts out, from unknown causes (? a hawk or other). It appeared to be dying, but was still moving a tiny bit.

Niall was fascinating and still talks about the "snake with its guts out."

We saw another tiny one slither across our path into a wall crack.

And then, right in front of our own house on our return, we saw this striped one making its way across our lane.

Kelvin's parents were really freaked out at seeing pictures of the kids so near these snakes. To be honest, I am not very keen on reptiles, and don't know much about snakes except to avoid the ones with triangle heads (we were scared by a rattler a few years ago hiking in Willow Creek). I'm pretty sure that these were all harmless garter or other snakes, but I am sure glad they were outside! I can't believe we came across so many all on one walk!