First Day of First Grade!

 

More than ever in my life, I am trying to live in the present.  We can't change the past. We can't predict the future (as COVID has shown us the best of us planners over and over) and worrying about what it holds is not productive nor helpful.  You cannot fix all the world's problems or save all of its people. You can only be where you are, forgive and forget, and try to move forward (as hard as that is to do in practice). 

Today was Iver's first day of First Grade. He was one of ~ 340,000 American kindergartners and many more schoolchildren who, due to many public schools' decisions in 2020 to start the year doing "distance learning" (a phrase I try to avoid saying or hearing as it still makes me shudder), missed out on in-person school last year, which affected me deeply.  Here's a recap of the last school year for our young son which I am still trying to move past (even though he seems fine and well-adjusted, mainly because of our privilege and his access to high-quality childcare, which stayed open and very safe).  I know and understand that teachers, administrators, and many parents were scared about illness in themselves, their kids, and for their families last year; however, I still maintain that schools (at least locally) should have never been closed; it made for an incredibly stressful and traumatic experience for many working parents (and, more importantly kids) in an area with low disease prevalence (to put 2020 in context, infection rates of COVID locally at that time were a mere fraction of what they are now [over 100 cases and a few deaths per day, currently with our rural ICU beds full]). It is now obvious to more people that huge educational and social costs (some that may never be able to be regained) come from keeping kids out of school and using screens and "distance learning" as a (sorely suboptimal and downright harmful) substitute for actual face-to-face education (or just play). 

Iver has been excited to return to his small school and see the friends he made in two short months of in-person instruction last year. We still have to submit "symptom/exposure checklists" daily, and there unfortunately is no current before- or after-care due to teacher staff shortages (so he'll still have to be shuttled to his childcare in the afternoons), although we hope it will change sometime in the near future. Nevertheless, just having school open (and the choice to send him) still feels like a HUGE improvement from last year this time, especially because CDPH guidelines don't automatically quarantine a faithfully masked kid from school with a positive school COVID contact nor automatically shut down a classroom/school when there is a positive case (I will be so relieved when kids can get COVID-vaccinated but I personally do not think that asymptomatic or mild COVID cases in kids need to sound any panic alarms when all adults have had ample and free access to life-preserving vaccines and because kids.are.good.at.masking. They should not be hostages for irresponsible adults any longer).

Sunday before-bed reading

He made this sign all by himself.

Flashback to Kinder start in 2020 (when he had all of his teeth!)

We tried to "burn" this ZOOM SCHOOL sign, because we want it to flame out in the realm of our consciousness; however, it would not light (and it is probably better due to nearby California wildfires to not actually try to light anything on fire).

We maniacally ripped it up instead. 

School handwashing station.

Iver had a great first day at school (his favorite parts were apparently arte y recess). Here's to a do-over first day, a new year, a new start, and all the learning (including immersion Spanish!) that these kids expect and deserve (and that this parent could not adequately provide). Here's to this Año Nuevo. Bienvenidos a Primero Grado!    

Vaccine (Car) Talk

We are obviously a super pro-vaxx family in these parts. Our FQHC now thankfully has a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for employees. We are disappointed that kids' COVID vaccines don't seem to be on the horizon at least for another few months despite the urgency with the Delta variant and kids returning to in-person school (for which I am sooooo grateful).  Kelvin (who I call "MV"-- short for "Mr. Vu"--in our house) and I (as well as many in our family and friend group) can't wait to get our vaccine boosters. You might be talking a bit too much about vaccines in your house when a car conversation with your oldest (age six) goes like this:

Iver: Mama, why do you call Papa "MV"?
Me:  Why do you think?
Iver: Is it short for "Mr. Vaccine?" Or maybe "Moderna Vu"? 

Super Fam

The kids have matching Superman shirts (and Kelvin has two; Pepper also has a costume from one of the first years we got her!).  Niall woke up first on Saturday and requested that everyone dress in matching fashion (like they did in January 2020. These are the same shirts, but a pandemic later). 

It was challenging to get all to cooperate/participate but here are the photos we took. 

If only we could all summon some/have superhuman strength to get through this pandemic! 

Signage (six-year-old spelling) and sweet art

We came home from our getaway last week with Iver itching to re-create an RV-like interior in his "fort area" in the garage. He made this sign with minimal help from us (he didn't ask us about how to spell the verbs!).  I think he has great handwriting for a six-year-old boy, with only minor extra-Es.

To retaliate, his brother (3.5) wrote his own sign to "keep Iver" out of the office: 

On his own, Iver came up with the following:
(kangaroo)

Card for Mom & Dad 

The spelling will come around with time and experience but I loved the initiative and sentiments in all of these writings and drawings and didn't feel it was important to correct a single thing!

A Change in Mindset

"We can't change the world, and a lot of the time we can't even change people. No more than one bit at a time. So we do what we can to help whenever we get the chance. We save those we can. We do our best. Then we try to find a way to convince ourselves that that will just have to be enough. So we can live with our failures without drowning." - in Anxious People, by Fredrik Backman (an absolutely wonderful book I just finished. Please read it if you haven't). 

More wise words from Arundhati Roy:

And because it seems we won't be going anywhere for a good, long while this fall/winter unless things look up dramatically...

Great Cats World Park

 

Apart from curvy roads, redwood forests, and tiny towns, there's not a ton of genuine "tourist attractions" in northern CA between our house and southern Oregon.

We'd driven by the Great Cats World Park (a bit randomly located, about two and a half hours from our house south of Cave Junction and in the middle of nowhere) several times on various road trips but never stopped. I think the park was closed for much of 2020. A bleeding-heart animal lover and conservationist, I am also not a big fan of seeing animals in cages/zoo-like attractions. Nevertheless, the center seemed really big on animal protection/conservation and we decided to stop as a half-way point in our drive home as I knew the kids would enjoy visiting it.  Iver has an incredible memory of all animal-related facts he reads or hears, and Niall adores all things lion/Lion King. (Disclaimer: there is a small possibility I have misnamed/mislabeled some of these cats. I am not a feline scientist. I did my best from what I could remember from the order of and information from the tour!).

The Bengal tigers were amazing to see so close.  Apparently many of these species (including the tigers) may be extinct in the wild in as little as two decades. 

White tiger

Leopards (we found out that there's not actually such a thing as a panther or "black panther" even though some are almost entirely black-appearing [they still have spots under their uniform black-appearing coat]!)

The Amur Leopard is the most endangered leopard species in the world (mainly due to demand for its gorgeous coat), and only a handful are even viewable in captivity across the world (the wild population numbers around ninety total). 

Snow leopard, which is incredibly endangered (I'd never seen one before even in captivity! It's so rare some call it the "ghost cat.")

Puma (one of about thirty names for "mountain lion")

Caracal (which looks like a mini mountain lion)

Lynx

Fisher cat (which hunts under water) and has web-like paws.

Jaguar (one of the most powerful animals in the world in terms of bite strength)

Serval (almost as fast as a cheetah)

Lions!

This little  Simba-lover even had on his Lion King hooded sweater! 

Cubs (three months old)!

Ocelot (this one was rescued from a bad pet-trading operation and has a lot of health problems, including arthritis and hydrocephalus)

African wildcat (which looks very much like a housecat).

NOT A CAT: Indian blue peacock (we also saw some baby otters at the end of the circuit).

The kids had a great time seeing all the big cats (and of course wanted to bring a stuffed white tiger home).  While I didn't love the gloomy information about these cats' diminishing numbers in the wild or seeing them caged up, the kids and I did learn a lot about the different species and hope that they will also assume a lifelong responsibility to help preserve the precious wildlife that remains on our fragile planet.