Stay at Home Update

I heard something the other day that said we'd been shut in for a month now.  I don't feel like it has been that long.  Spring break basically started Friday, March 6th.  Gib5on was held out of school the following Thursday and Friday I think, so he's been home since 3/12.  That's just about when they called things off for us at CMU for the following Monday - and also when they closed Sabian's daycare program.  That means we've been at home as a group since Monday 3/16.  Today is April 13th - so yeah, about a month.  Although we didn't get the stay at home order until after that, so more like 3 weeks - but I guess there isn't a bright line in this case.

Of course Mrs. TANBI works from home without the stay at home order, so she's been in longer than that.  Her schedule usually includes travel every six weeks or so and weekly trips to a shared office about a half hour away.  None of those trips have been happening.

For the most part my wife and kids really haven't been... anywhere in that time.  They've been out of the house for walks but that's it.  The last family excursion was to a comic book store so Gib5on could show mom the discount Pokemon cards on, I think 3/14 - I wasn't writing it down.

In that window I have been to Costco, Giant Eagle, Staples, Trader Joe's, Uncle Sam's, and my office twice.  A couple of those came before the stay at home order, but most have been after.  Trips out have featured left over N95 masks and nitrile gloves from our renovation flotsam.  The boy came with on that lunch run to Uncle Sam's.  That felt like a mistake in the moment.  He can't keep himself from touching things.  Since then we've had him take a pair of kids gardening gloves on trips out of the house.  On that run I just hand sanitized him over and over.

I felt stupid with a mask and gloves at the grocery the first time.  I brought both but only used the gloves.  This was more than two weeks ago and pretty much nobody else had masks that trip.  That's been less of an issue more recently.  The governor has issued an order to wear masks in public and so lately you could do so and not feel dumb.  The was a huge increase of people wearing masks end of last week.  But then this weekend the weather was nice and there were many, many people out and the number of masks seemed low.  I guess we'll see if it mattered when we hear the hospitalization numbers in two weeks.

I'm working from home.  I've got six class sessions each week and a handful of meetings.  We're using the Zoom platform and it has been going ok.  I was fortunate this happened in mini 4 and not before.  Most of my content in this mini was easily transferable to online.  We've just been asked to look into what being in this mode for the Fall would be like.  I think my content will be fine as online, but I am going to have a lot more work to do in order to get it ready.

Sabian's schedule is the same as it was with daycare except we're no the daycare.  She's up around 7am.  There's a nap at 10am and another at 2:30 (if we're lucky).  On good days when she's awake we can put her down.  On less good days she needs constant attention.  She's skipping crawling altogether and seems to be days away from walking on her own.  She's been cruising pretty much since the stay at home started.  If there's an upside we're getting to spend a lot of time with her.

Gib5on is having a tougher time.  He's also up around 7.  We're trying to put him on a schedule:

7-8 Breakfast, Screen, Get dressed
8-9 Free play
9-9:30 Morning work
9:30-10 Active play
11-12 Play with Dad
12-12:30 Lunch
12:30-1 Chore
1-2 Play with Mom
2-2:30 Reading
2:30-3:30 Screen
3:30-4:30 Snack and Neighborhood Walk
4:30-5:30 Creative Play
5:30-6:30 Free Play
6:30-7:30 Dinner
7:30-8:30 Get ready for bed, books
8:30 Lights out

As you can see, it is a detailed plan.  Most days it works pretty well and we can juggle slots if we want - or if he wants.  Lately the formative parts of the schedule have been becoming more difficult.  He's feeling cooped up and it is making him impatient.  Thursday of this week he starts official distance learning with his school.  So far we've been getting the worksheets we've been using for his morning work from them, but there hasn't been much contact.  They did two Zoom sessions for some story time.  The whole mode is changing this week.  We're waiting to see if he can handle it. And if we can handle it.  We're hoping more school for him doesn't also mean school for one or both of us.  I guess we'll see.

We're all in good health.  I'm putting on weight.  I'd been on a diet but I dropped off it when the stay at home began.  I restarted today as I was up almost 10 pounds.  As I am sure that would indicate we have plenty of food around.  We're well supplied with other things and there have been deliveries almost daily.  Stores being closed hasn't effected much of the online shopping (although it has slowed down some).  The biggest problem there so far has been gas cylinders for the SodaStream and if we get through this with that being the biggest problem we'll be pretty damn thankful.

More to come.