A belated welcome to 2021

Last year, cases of Covid began escalating again in early/mid-December and the new normal of outdoor dining and getting a haircut while wearing a mask were shut down yet again. This shut down wasn't as dramatic as the first, since playgrounds and retailers remained largely open, although with reduced capacity; but the first thing we did was get Kai a last minute haircut once we got wind of the news.

We paused our weekly visits with my parents through December and January, although we had a brief masked backyard Christmas meet up with my parents and Matt, and reconvened on video chat as we ate our Hawaiian BBQ takeout at home in the virtual company of family.

Nothing says Christmas like L&L

A few holiday traditions remained intact. In the days leading up to Christmas, I made sugar cookies with the kids and they decorated a gingerbread house. The kids also enjoyed riding around in the car and looking at the various neighborhood light displays.

The kids grazed on the gingerbread house for weeks until we finally tossed it

And though NYE is never much of a thing with young kids, we celebrated with sparklers that we had squirreled away from before Kai was born and had a "cheese party" as requested by Jad. We also watched various fireworks celebrations from different cities around the world on YouTube to help ring in 2021.

Charcuterie plate AKA "cheese party" for NYE

There has been cause for hope as Nik and I are now both fully vaccinated against Covid and cases in our area have been steadily declining. We are also hopeful that the change in leadership in DC will help with logistical and administrative delays that we had unfortunately seen through 2020.

As the shut down eased, we also began seeing our friends again, starting with the Rongs and Ngs, and then on to resuming playdates with Micah and Wally.

When schools first closed in March 2020, it was supposed to be a three week closure. As things progressed, it became clear that schools would not reopen through the remainder of 2020. We were hopeful that schools might reopen in January until Covid cases spiked in December. It's been mentally exhausting to have this constantly moving goalpost, but at this point, I'm resigned to the fact that the kids may not return to in-person school for the rest of this school year. It's disappointing, but that seems to be the direction things are headed as we are now in February.

Kai was offered a spot in the parent participation group, so he recently switched teachers. I was a little concerned that the change would disrupt the routines that he's established, but he's taken the change in stride. Being in the parent participation group also gives him access to more programs and field trips, for instance, today he had a chemistry presentation over Zoom. Kai and Sora also celebrated their 100th day of school.

"The future is now! Thanks to SCIENCE!"

100 leaves for a 100 days of school

Staying active has helped preserve my sanity through these times. I've signed up for various mileage challenges and virtual races to keep active, and ran a half marathon in January. Nik and I have been trying to encourage the kids to get outside as well. We're fortunate to live by Alum Rock Park and various regional parks, so we've been trying to make use of our awesome natural resources.

I perhaps bit off more than I could chew when one of the first hikes I took the kids on was an almost 5 mile descent from Sierra Vista Open Space Preserve to home. For a while "hike" was a 4-letter word for the kids

Half marathon! My first since 2013 :)

SIP birthdays and Christmas in the Park

I had totally thought that we'd be done with Covid and SIP by the time we reached fall, so in the spring, I hadn't imagined that Jad and Sora would have SIP birthdays, and yet they both celebrated their respective 3rd and 6th birthdays during this season of pandemic.

Since Jad was only turning three, we opted for a simple preschool celebration. I brought cupcakes and made goodie bags, and he celebrated with his preschool friends. In the evening, it was our weekly visit to my parents' house so we then had a combined November birthday celebration to celebrate Matt, Jad, Sora and my birthdays.

I think Sora was displeased with having to share a birthday celebration with three others *eye roll*

Since Kai had had a small birthday party with close friends we decided to do the same for Sora. We invited over two classmates over for a painting and jewelry making party. I think she had a good time, and I'm grateful that she had a chance to celebrate with friends in spite of Covid.

Today, we went to Christmas in the Park. I checked back in our photos, and we've basically gone every year since we've had children except for 2014, when Kai and Sora were both little, so it's something of a tradition for our family. This year they've reimagined the spectacle as a drive through event and I have to say that it made me tear up as I was driving past the familiar dioramas in their reimagined forms. That said, the kids loved the lights and their only complaint was that they couldn't drive through it again after we had finished. It was a nice bit of Christmas cheer in the midst of these trying times.

Then (circa 12/2016)..

.. and now 😢

Not the best picture of the kids, but really the best we can do in the light of the situation. A fitting analogy for 2020

As an aside, when we got home the kids played Battleship and Sora lost. She promptly stormed upstairs and slammed the door. In the midst of her post-loss throes of misery, she mourned, "You don't understand what my life is like!" Nik snickered and I had to restrain myself. Six going on sixteen, much?

Reconfiguring expectations

When SIP started I, perhaps naively, did not think that we would still be having to contend with it in the middle of summer. In fact, our neighbors had a wager on when SIP would end and I'm pretty sure the last guess was in the beginning of June. As SIP has dragged on, we've had to modify routines and expectations. Masking is an everyday reality of going out and running errands, everywhere, markers on the ground remind us to maintain social distancing of at least 6 feet, plexiglass barriers protect service employees from errant coughs or sneezes, summer plans and vacations have been scrapped, and we're facing the looming prospect of starting the fall school year with yet another round of distance learning.

Finally accepted the reality of masking being a long-term thing and bought masks for the kids

Checking out the Pokemon card display at Target

Rewinding a bit, one of the last posts I wrote was in regards to Kai's birthday. We had a SIP street celebration on his actual birthday, but his birthday wish was for SIP to be over (me too, buddy) and to have a birthday party with his besties. We decided to reach out the bestie crew and arranged a small get-together with just the besties--no parents, no siblings. Mind you, at that time in the end of May it seemed possible that SIP restrictions would start to ease up soon. It ended up being an awesome time and it was evident the kids missed each other lots.

Determining your risk tolerance and taking calculated risks is part of being social in this time of Covid. We stayed away from my parents' house for almost three months until my Mom's birthday at the end May. Since then, we've returned to having semi-regular visits and family dinners.

My Mom's dog, Brownie, recently passed away. I'm grateful that we are able to live close enough to my parents that we can easily visit and support them

Another integral social outlet has been our neighbors, twice-a-week cocktail exchanges and weekly Houseparty hangouts have kept us sane.

Ice out! Love our neighbors <3

Epic water balloon fights in the street are a socially distanced activity, right?

In spirit of preserving our sanity, we decided to create a social bubble with the Halls. The freedom of being able to hang out at each others' houses unmasked and without having to worry about social distancing has been liberating and the kids took to it immediately. Kids playing with one another is so natural and the physicality of their play just doesn't translate into a great virtual experience. Sadly, the Halls are moving in less than two weeks and will be sorely missed.

As the weather has warmed up, we've had a few opportunities to swim or play in the water. We've broken out the inflatable pool a few times and Kristy invited us over to swim on some of the really hot days in June. So nice to have a neighbor with a pool, though you can't just invite yourself over to swim all the time. We've also escaped to the beach a few times: once with the Ngs and the other time, with Micah and his family.

First visit to the beach was in early June when times were still restricted between noon and 5

A much more laid back beach visit in mid-July when beaches had mostly reopened

And let's not forget the creek and the perc ponds, we love living near such an awesome natural resource. The kids love wading in the creek and exploring. We even went on a frog hunt with the Connicks.

We rescued a bucket of baby fish when the creek was suddenly drained and a bunch of unlucky fish were stuck in a rapidly disappearing puddle

Yes, that's Kai holding a frog O_o

We've also visited Alum Rock Park a few times since it reopened in June.

Everything that I've written is not to say that our lives haven't been completely and utterly disrupted by SIP. Our first outing after the beginning of SIP was in May, when we ventured out to Brentwood to go cherry picking. I remember feeling euphoric as we drove out to do something other than go grocery shopping or pick up take-out. The kids had a wonderful time doing something novel (for a change) and we had a huge haul of cherries to bring home and share with our friends.

Over 10# of cherries and we barely had enough cash to pay for them

Our holidays have looked like this:

Cinco de Mayo. I saw the line, took a picture, and drove home

Social distancing front yard picnic for Memorial Day

Fourth of July. A not quite socially distanced picnic in the park, but so nice to see our LSCC family

And the end of Kai and Sora's school years looked like this:

EOY pick up at Toyon. I'll really miss Mrs. DuBose and hope that she'll still be around when Jad starts TK in 2022

Kai really enjoyed his weekly meetings with Mr. Diamond

Jad's daycare reopened in June, but unfortunately due to low enrollment (only four kids returned, including Jad) and an increase in Covid cases, they will be closing again at the end of this month. It was a difficult transition for Jad to return to Bright Star after he had been home for nearly three months. He cried at almost every drop off for at least two weeks. He will still sometimes say, "I'm scared Lao Lao," but as long as we go through his usual routine of having him get out of the car "by myself" and ring the doorbell "on my own" he will now walk in without any hesitation.

I was disheartened to hear that Bright Star would be closing again, it's such a sad and strange way to close out our time with them. This is the same daycare that we sent Kai and Sora to, so Xiaoyan and her mom have essentially raised all of our kids.

We have relished in this brief respite of having only two kids at home and have managed to few things here and there with just Kai and Sora.

Biking at Ed Levin Park

We've had (somewhat) socially distanced hang outs with LSCC friends here and there. As I mentioned, we saw many of them on the Fourth of July. We've also met up with the Shaws and Ngs, and we've had members of our church family just randomly stop by to bless us with treats.

Tim came by to help Nik assemble his new bike

Really feeling the love. We need to get our act together and do a treat drop off as well

There have been a few notable distractions during SIP:

SpaceX Dragon 2 launch. Jad thought the capsule looked like a ghost

Nik took the kids up Suncrest to see if they could see the Comet NEOWISE. They really wanted to see the comet since Kai said "I'll be dead when it comes back," but there was too much light pollution to see it..they did however catch a nice sunset

Goal setting and hobbies are also helping us get through this time. I've been diligently keeping up with my running and exercise (since March!), and did run in July where the goal was to run a 4.167 mile loop every hour for as many times as you can. I ran 5 loops.. a bit short of my goal, but I still felt pretty good about it. The kids also did their own mileage challenge and though I felt like I was nagging them incessantly to get them out the door, they did a great job and it was great motivation for them to stay active.

Kai really wanted a fish tank for his birthday and my Mom was happy to oblige. It took more time, work, and money to set it up than we had anticipated, but now that it's set up it's become a nice diversion for the kids.. and me. Nik has told me that I've become obsessive. -_-

As for Nik, he built a zip line in the backyard for the kids and recently got himself an e-bike.

We have no idea how long SIP will continue on, we're tired and the days are long but we are trying our best to make the most of this time and stay sane. We're playing board games a lot and are more gracious with letting the kids have screen time than ever before (weekly movie nights are a thing). I am not looking forward to the return of distance learning in the fall.. but this is our (and for the most part, everyone else's) life now.