It’s hard to remember what we were doing in May. The time all blurred together as Pandemic Life settled in to Weeks 8-11.
I think most of our May involved staying home and getting on each other’s nerves. My memory has four days that stand out:
May 1 – First day of mask mandate in all public places in San Diego.
May 9- Visited Huntington Beach to see Johanna and Matt!
May 18- Dallin’s 7th birthday.
May 25- Murder of George Floyd.
Also, I made a long post on FB to advocate for moms like me who were struggling during this time (maybe I’ll add it to the blog later). And we tried looking for a family therapist. For a more complete report, I’ll rely on the following photos to show what we did!
Monday walks on the beach helped us stay sane!
Sign says “No Stopping, No Sitting. Keep 6 feet social distance.” First time in my life seeing a sign on the beach that says you can’t sit on the sand!
My first mask was a bit unique. It was hard to find any normal ones because they were either out of stock, would take 4 weeks to ship, or really pricey. I wasn’t too fond on the idea of wearing a mask, so finding this was exciting. The county and city guidelines said “any fabric” was acceptable. While I got some weird looks here and there, I was never turned away by store officials in this mask. And funny thing that I didn’t need this sooner. That’s because Jeremy did all the grocery shopping (he’s my hero!)
Reading Minecraft books…
More Minecraft books…
Working out with Daddy.
Zoom classes continued. I was really impressed with the different ideas that our teachers tried with their classes. Top activities on zoom that the boys really enjoyed: directed drawings, story time, scavenger hunts, show and tell, and music time with Mrs. Zavoral!
Looks like a whole week went by without many pictures. That means not a lot happened other than being at home! This is low tide after getting our school lunches.
I was mesmerized by this rock and little pool. You can see the red tide is still present! All the things that look like little pebbles stuck to the rock is actually squishy sea anemones. They hang on to the sand and shells when the tide is low.
One lone crab had me fascinated. He was making bubbles!
Teacher appreciation week happened. I cried a lot because my kids missed real school and seeing their teachers in real life so much. I felt like they missed out on so much with the end of the school year. It was also hard to show our teachers the appreciation they deserved. We managed to make them these acrostic poems.
Tanner’s poem for Mrs. Honma says H- happy to help, Obviosly smart, Never gives up on us, Most awesome teacher ever because she is…Always fun.
Dallin made a sign and Poem for his teacher.
Dallin’s poem for his teacher says: Leslie Mellos. Laughing, Explaining reader’s workshop, Sleepy on Mondays, Likes coffee, Interesting lessons, Excellent at teaching, Makes… Everything fun, Loves…daLlin, Obviously Smart.
We had a couple of weeks where the Gelatto truck gave me motivation to get through another day. The pistachio is especially phenomenal at this little place.
See Dallin’s splash!?
Butterly songs with my students online.
Chipotle food never tasted so good! Dallin devoured it and immediately got tired.
Huntington Beach!! I’m pretty sure this was our first time seeing Matt and Johanna during the Pandemic. During our visit, we didn’t go in their home except to pee and we tried to keep social distance (no hugging). The boys had so much fun boogie boarding with their Uncle Matt. We all tried our hand at spike ball and enjoyed it. There was nobody at the beach, but once we got dinner closer to downtown, there were quite a bit of people around. That’s when we learned that HB was much less lenient about Covid rules than San Diego. First time we saw tangible evidence that Covid really was taking on a political twist.
The Lego City Project
These 3 friends spent a couple hours every day for two weeks to make this masterpiece. It was very serious business and they were so creative in their finished products!
Another Monday walk on the beach. Super sunny, beautiful day!
Jeremy tried going back to the office. It worked out super for us, but it was short lived because of more rules.
Legos everywhere!
Jeremy spent some time on family history.
Spelling work for school on the driveway.
This hoop was out for a little bit with the other one. The kids made a full court with it.
Feeling snuggly? Actually, the boys were realied on their sstuffed animals and blankies a lot during April and May. I also bought them a stuffed animal to help them during Covid. We noticed regression in their independence and just basic skills like following directions, getting themselves dressed, getting out of bed at night time, etc. They did a lot of baby talk, and Tanner argued with everyone constantly. I even timed how often he argued to see if my mind was making it feel more often than reality. Nope. He really was arguing about things every 2 minutes. It was a really rough time for them and us with trying to navigate constant changes–changes that were only supposed to be a few weeks. I was so glad they found a lot of comfort in their stuffies and blankies.
Family hot tub trip, which helped us all remember the good things in life.
Look at that ginger beard!!!
Oh yeah, the kids had trouble going to sleep at night, too. Tanner had really bad insomnia. Dallin didn’t sleep well either, which is why he crashed here one afternoon.
Dallin was excited to get on zoom for his class to sing him Happy Birthday! I took a picture because I could tell it meant a lot to him.
Dallin’s Minecraft Birthday party was really fun!! I will post about this separately.
Boys and Jeremy exploring the canyon.
Coloring on the swing with pictures that the cousins drew and sold to people!
Jeremy added his own style to the pictures.
Our chance to sit indoors at a restaurant with a server at our table. First time in 10 weeks! Also, the last time for another 10 weeks or longer.
Jeremy begged me to cut his hair for weeks. I finally got brave enough to try without the buzzing machine, just plain scissors and a comb. It took me over an hour, but we both like the way it turned out!
Before…
After!!!
Boys did an outing with Daddy on Memorial Weekend while I got some much needed alone time.
Both boys had a hard time falling asleep at night. Dallin found comfort in reading before he slept.
Jeremy worked hard on a new product called Protein on the Run.
Another great day at the pool. We were so thankful they reopened it.
The boys created a fun bull fighting game.
I bought some water beads for the kids.
I forgot about this, too! At the beginning of quarantine, we decided to help the kids memorize a few Articles of Faith. Soon, we found we were working on a new one each week. It was weird getting to week 11 and Article of Faith 11 because I never thought we would get that far. And there was still no end in sight with the lock downs. To spice up our practicing, we got cookie monster (Jeremy as the puppeteer) to help us during our home church one Sunday. We made a video of it to share with the cousins. The boys giggled and giggled. So funny!
Seems fitting that my May day post ends with this cute picture taken on the last day of May, cuz I have no recollection of this at all!
