Monthly Archives: March 2020

Day 2. How many days do we get to be on this adventure? Play-dough nearly broke me- there’s gonna have to be some limits. But overall, day 2 was a success.

We stuck to our schedule pretty closely, so that’s been helpful to my sanity. We started the day outside- first with bubble snakes, which is a project I’ve done a few times at camp. You cut the bottom off a plastic bottle and wrap a sock around the opening. I also used a rubber band to keep it in place. Squirt a little bit of dish soap and a bit of water (I didn’t measure, I just did a few squirts of soap and a little bit of water). Dip the sock side into the soap/water and then blow. If you do this activity with 2 year olds, be very clear to blow, instead of suck, because Augustus ended up with a mouth full of bubbles, which I hadn’t seen when we did this with camp kids.

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After bubble snakes, we colored with chalk. I was eager to try the project I’ve seen on facebook, where people use tape to make geometric shapes, and then you remove the tape and it looks awesome. Xander colored for exactly 2 minutes before he was bored and Augustus mostly ran laps up and down the sidewalk, so yes, this is my project. At one point, a truck pulled over and a man yelled, “you should let the kids do that”. Ha. Ha. He was being friendly, so I didn’t throw anything at him. I like the ones people have done on black driveways, because they are a little more dramatic, but ours turned out cool and it’s supposed to rain tomorrow, so I wasn’t going to be too much of a perfectionist.

I have a VERY high tolerance for messy things- paint, glitter, getting dirty outside. I love all of it. But I hate play-dough. I hate when the colors get mixed. I hate that they can’t independently use the toys and they get frustrated. I hate everything about it. But when they asked to do play-dough, I said yes. I was scrolling on my phone while they were play-doughing, and I saw this meme, and thought, “AMEN! YES. ME WITH PLAYDOUGH.”

Luckily, play-dough, like most activities, lasted only about 20 minutes, and then we were on to lunch time.

After lunch it was rest time. I am not sure what kind of magic the teachers at daycare have to keep a bunch of wiggly toddlers on a cot for 1.5 hours, but I don’t have that skill yet. I said they had to stay in their room for a little while. I was sitting on my bed, attempting to do some work, when I heard them both creep out. I could hear them in the living room, Xander saying, “mommy is gone!” But they found me quickly. And then proceeded to come back out of their room 17 more times until the broke my spirit and we ended quiet time. We’re going to have to work on that, because I need more rest than they are giving me (and so do they!).

Next on the schedule was rock salt ice cream. I have done this at camp a few times and I forgot what a terrible activity it is. It’s great on paper. But in reality, to get the cream to solidify, you have to aggressively shake it for 20 minutes. My children shook it for 2 seconds. And then I forgot that the salt and ice get too cold to hold. And then the ice melts and you have salt water everywhere. And in the end, you get soupy ice cream at best. And it actually just tastes like sweetened heavy cream. And the kicker to all of this is that I’ve done it before I knew that’s how it goes! I do not recommend this activity. I should have had some real ice cream hidden in the freezer. The boys covered it in chocolate sauce and sprinkles and they said they liked it, and were excited to tell Nate about the ice cream they made, so maybe it was a success based on that, but I DO NOT recommend.

From ice cream, we went back outside. It’s upper 50s today, so we are taking advantage of as much sun as we can get. We did a scavenger hunt, finding items of each color I imagined it would be things in nature, but instead it was backyard toys. It was another 10 minutes of fun.

Then we hopped in the car and headed to a big tree filled field across from a park. I used to take Olivia here to play with the ball. We ran from tree to tree, swinging sticks, yelling, “there’s a bad guy, HIDE!” over and over. We tip toed from one tree to the next. Then we zig zagged. Then we ran fast. It was kind of like red light green light. It was actually really fun.

They were exhausted when we got home, so I broke my rule (I think it’s a rule I’m going to break a lot) and they got 30 minutes of ipad time.

Then we went back outside for the part of the afternoon where I sat on a chair and they played.

Thankfully Nate got home after we’d been outside for a while and he took them inside to play and give me a break. I am 3.5 weeks post surgery and still supposed to be resting. Thankfully I haven’t needed the full 6 weeks of recovery- I feel pretty good and almost normal. I definitely notice that I get tired more quickly though, so that’s kind of a challenge in all of this.

Dinner- ribs, mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables.

Bring on bath and bedtime!

It was our first Monday at home and it was a great day. I made a schedule for us and the boys checked it several times throughout the day to see where we were and what was next. Xander is pretty “type A” so he liked having a structure to the day. And we stuck to it all day.

The weather was awesome and we were outside right away, and spent a full hour riding bikes, throwing rocks, and running around fighting bad guys.

After playing outside, we went back inside the house and the boys played while I had a facetime interview with a potential summer staff. The boys were very cooperative and didn’t interrupt.

For lunch, we had a picnic in our front yard. We live on a pretty busy street, so there was a lot going on for us to watch. We saw about 10 people out for walks, 5 or 6 dogs for walks, a garbage truck drove by, lots of good cars- the boys waved to every person, animal and vehicle.

After lunch is was time for rest time. Overall they did pretty well, although we added some rules as we went- no arguing and no coming out of their room. 

When quiet time was over, we worked on a few different projects- we practiced writing ‘A’s, painted letters for their wall, and played.

Then we headed back outside for the rest of the afternoon. They took turns driving the jeep up and down the alley. For the first few laps, Augustus chose to run after it instead of riding or driving. I was also running along, and after the 15th time up the alley, I thought maybe there’s hope that I won’t gain 100 pounds during this quarantine. Not pictured, Xander changing into shorts, then taking off his shirt. He is VERY ready for the summer.

Xander helping Augustus steer

It was a busy day and I think I am more exhausted than either of them. I’m going to have to build my stamina for our daily adventures.

One of the challenging things about this whole experience has been that usually on the weekends, we have a lot of fun things to do. There are play-places, the Children’s Museum, the zoo, playdates, Xander’s dance class and so many other things we like to do. And they are all closed. Even the playground is supposedly off limits because the virus can live on surfaces.

In the early years of camp, our budget was limited to basically zero, so creating programming out of nothing is something I have a lot of experience doing. Although the boys have been going to school these last few weeks, I have been preparing for having them home. I have long lists of activities, divided into different categories. I have been shopping for basic supplies. I re-configured their room, clearing out their closet to create a “cozy corner” and organized all the art supplies into one area. I sorted books into categories so that I can change the display books to match the theme of our week. And I’ve been mentally preparing to try to work full time and keep them on a good schedule.

We tried on lots of different costumes, but ultimately went with Buzz and Woody. On Saturday, we had a zoom call with the pre-K kids. All of the kids came in costume and got to show off their look. Afterwards, Nate and I stationed ourselves at the front and back doors and the boys got to go back and forth to trick or treat.

https://www.kare11.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/day-one-of-mns-stay-at-home-order/89-d74da012-4dc3-491f-988d-19f8311b3009?fbclid=IwAR1X7DBxnAR4mP6W5Jwx0WZt95QEleHn–74HvyYwyR5KWwkVpmuffsLy6A


Halloween fun ended after lunch and then we switched to non-theme activities. We baked banana bread.

And then we did a scavenger hunt that I found online. I hid the clues all over the house and the boys were pretty good at figuring them out. The prize at the end was 2 little painting kits, so that was our next activity.

We played outside. We played in the basement. We read some books.

By the end of the day, I think I was more exhausted than either of the boys. I have a lot of free play time built into the regular schedule- I am not going to camp-direct all day every day. They play pretty nicely on their own, so hopefully we’ll find a good balance that works for everyone.