Day Twelve Home

(I think. Maybe day eleven, maybe thirteen. Who actually knows).

Lanie's best friend walked by our house and said hi through the window.

After 4 "snow days" by the state, we are in full swing of attempting to get kids online to learn virtually. The "snow days" were granted so that we did not have to make up the time. Now the state of Massachusetts wants some form of children doing review work or continued learning. There is also a huge disparity already forming with kids from lower income areas versus (mainly three) economically advantaged towns. They are providing distance learning, while places like Lynn and Fall River cannot provide devices for children to learn on or from.


Our district wanted us to check on the families, asking three main questions:

1.) are you well and safe?
2.) do you have food?
3.) do you have technology and internet?

Me spending hours on the phone on text and three way calls with interpreters trying to get people  onto computers and into programs.

Lanie pitched right in.

  For most of the families we are down to question 3 and then working on getting devices out and operational. Meanwhile, grade level, department, administrative teams are meeting figuring out available resources and meeting as a class community.

Simultaneously my own children are doing the same.

Every time we try to leave the house to get some fresh air, someone has a huge fit. Today was Lanie's turn. This is when she "HATED GOING FOR A WALK" and "WASN'T PUTTING SOCKS ON!"

Everyone found a walking stick and no one got hurt.

Virtual Meetings

I'm figuring out this whole work from home while parenting/schooling thing. It's really interesting. Today the kids had way, way too much screen time because most things recommended by their schools is virtual learning and for the most part they can be self sufficient with it. Plus it was really cold out, so outside time didn't last long.
I also woke up to emails that I had meetings scheduled, that were scheduled after 2:00 yesterday, which was the last time I checked my email.
I have a better schedule for them tomorrow so that will help break it up. I also have some activities set out.

Sam and Vivian have rediscovered an online math learning game that they want to do all day, which is great until I realized how long they have been online for.

Today, while I was in a grade level meeting, which my principal was in, Lanie came to sit on my lap and color, then she left. Vivian appeared behind me and disappeared, Sam wandered in and out. I have developed a swat that I can do without my upper body moving when they start getting noisy or need something.

At one point I sensed movement to my left and out of the corner of my eye I spotted Vivian, then she appeared behind me on the screen. I looked down and Jack was resting comfortably with a Fedora on his head. I didn't even crack a smile.

I did leave a recipe for the big kids to make chocolate chip cookies. Which they did, fairly self sufficiently. I went to drop something off for tutoring and came back and Sam's were a little oversized, and had dripped over the bottom of the oven and burned, so the kitchen was full of smoke. But they were good!

Jack with a fedora. Vivian hovering.

The children making cookies.

They were a little large.

Sam and Vivian filming me for a virtual story time with my students. We were working on camera angle.

Playing around after a virtual meeting with the fifth grade team. We took a photo for the students. The one meeting my children did not interrupt naturally.

Day Nine Home

Local repercussions and closures.

Day Eight Home

Tried to stock up on last minute things after several rumors about a state lockdown. The National Guard had been called in the day before. Unfortunately Chris was not home until just before the Governor's press conference, when everyone panicked and ran out at the same time.
Then we escaped to beach with Nana and GrandJoe for a few hours while it was warm out.

GrandJoe social distancing on closed seats.

She had to get sand in her eye like her sister on the way home.

Day Five Home

Day of the meltdowns.  So much crying.

• collision on bikes
• collision on bike with a trash barrel (it was trash day so it was inconveniently on the sidewalk)
• crying when Sam figured out his birthday party might not happen as scheduled
• crying when they rough- housed
• crying when Sam gave Vivian an ice pack instead of Lanie giving Vivian an ice pack
• crying about schoolwork
• I did not cry, but maybe I should have

Highlights of the day was a surprise birthday/art supply delivery from a family friend, a surprise wine delivery from my friend, and Lanie and Vivian riding around the block and Lanie realized the seat on her balance bike had been raised.

Lanie: "Vivian, did you notice I am bigger and stronger because I ate all my vegetables?"

Vivian: "Yes, Lanie, you are bigger and stronger."

Lanie: "Yes, and a little bit faster."

Vivian: "Yup."

Lanie: "I am bigger and stronger and braver. I am a little bit braver."

Vivian: "that's called a growth sprout Lanie."

  

Mo Willems lunch doodle.

Don't let the smiles deceive you.

Day Four Home

We:

Breakfast in a very, very smoky kitchen

• had a drawing contest while mom was asleep and some people cried about it
• 
  
  
  

  

  Watercolors

  
  

  

  Watercolors

  
  

  

  Facetiming Nana and GrandJoe

• made waffles and French toast for breakfast
• had "school" for two hours. Lots of whining, one tantrum when Sam teased Vivian (I was making coffee) until she cried because she was feeling crappy
• kids biked
• Lanie baked brownies
• girls did watercolors
• Sam played online Battleship with his friend 
• girls did doodle time with Mo Willems

Mo Willems Doodletime

• kids washed a pan each
• played "Just Dance"
• walked Jack around the block twice (dog parks are closed)
• checked our seedlings (it's 36 degrees so I'm imagining the ones we left outside are done)
• Facetimed Nana & GrandJoe
• read books
• fought
• ate meals
• cleaned our rooms
• counted in Spanish
• used learning app
• some people cried



Just Dance

• took people's temperatures- Vivian only had one this evening 

Day Three Home

Last night just before bed Vivian (who had been having a horrible headache all day) started crying about her head again. I felt her forehead and it was warm. I gave her Ibuprofen and she went to bed and immediately fell asleep. She woke up an hour later (the others were still awake), crying and taking her clothes off because she was "so hot." I helped her get undressed and took her downstairs and got a popsicle while I searched for a working thermometer. Her temperature was 101 F, which wasn't bad, but she had already had medicine so it was clear she had a fever.

Meanwhile, Chris was playing one last pick-up hockey game before all the rinks closed.

Vivian was also complaining it hurt to breath. She often gets croup so I put her back to sleep on a crib mattress that we still have on the floor in the living room. I tried to fall asleep on the couch, while I googled symptoms of "children and coronavirus" because that helps when you need to sleep.

We were up multiple times and I called the pediatrician at 4:11 am to get advice, with no call back. I called again at 7:30 am, with no call back. Vivian slept on and off fitfully. All the kids were up naturally by 8:00 am. I was starting to panic that the pediatrician overnight had been overwhelmed by an alarming amount of emergency calls due to Coronavirus.

Finally around 11:30 I called the pediatrician again and said I had called twice before and she was still complaining that it "hurt to breath." This time they called back within 20 minutes. 

We had an appointment early afternoon. Just as we went to leave the house Sam said, "hey Viv, I hope it goes well and you feel better soon. And I hope you don't have Coronavirus." That apparently had not occurred to her yet. Getting in the car was really, really fun.

At the appointment, they tested her for Strep because her throat was red- negative (she has never had strep), ruled out Croup because the cough was not Croup-like, asked if I wanted a flu test, which I declined, and ruled out testing for Coronavirus. 

The questions at this point for triage calls are based around, fever, cough, travel (outside of US- Puerto Rico gives pause), and contact with Coronavirus confirmed patient. 

In our town, we have three confirmed cases, all Biogen employees, in self-quarantine, all with school aged children. So I have to answer, "no known contact, but would we know?" which is like Puerto Rico, a gray area.

So no Coronavirus test, which wouldn't really change anything anyway, except for peace-of-mind and absolute isolation of the entire family for 14 days. They did test two other children today though at the office.

No way to know what is right and wrong, other than there should be more tests more readily available if community spread is meant to be stopped.

Vivian is up and walking around, has a refill on her inhaler, fever is currently down, she is comfortable and hydrated.

Super grumpy, hot and frustrated, and the "mask smelled so BAD MOM" that I let her chew gum so she would keep it on. 

 In other news of the day, Sam rode his bike up and down the street to and around the block for hours and is super excited about riding it. Lanie wiped out on her scooter and has two huge bruises on her leg and scraped knee, and it "wasn't fair that Vivian got to go to the doctor." I got them all fabric hats and puff paint from a craft store going out of business, for a total of $8.99, thinking I'd get at least an hour out of it. It lasted 10 minutes total.
Jack didn't eat anything odd, or puke, and really enjoyed Vivian sleeping downstairs, so that was nice.

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Tonight the governor closed schools through April 7, restaurants except for take out, and bars for Saint Patrick's Day. 

Governor Baker's address

Meanwhile the kids are mostly enjoying each others company and not asking too much about friends. They seem to have accepted this is the current norm. They are in touch with friends and not super anxious, which I wish I could say for myself. They have ideas for things that they want to do and are generally accepting of news, such as, "oh, you're off school for an extra week!" Sam did throw at fit at that one though, because it's the last time his birthday is announced in the elementary school on the loudspeaker.
We've had conversations about how lucky they are to be home in a house, not apartment, to have books to read and food to eat, plus each other to play with. I'm also so, so happy that they don't have phones to be on seeing what other kids are doing. I occasionally see groups of kids walk by or we pass a playground with children playing. In some neighboring towns playgrounds are closed. In the city of Boston, they are cleaning them while wearing Hazmat suits.
Counting my blessings.

Day Two Home

7:45 am- Lanie wakes me up to ask if "3 weeks is over yet?"

We did school work.

We argued on and off for about 2 hours about a walk we took that lasted about 35 minutes.

We planted seeds in pots to grown indoors. Many seeds may have planted themselves when they all blew away.

Some people have blue hands from "making pens" with sticks they found on the walk they didn't want to go on.

Some people practiced their piano. Some keys now have blue fingerprints.

This oddly popped up on mom's phone. In case of a crisis perhaps.

One sister hid under the dining room table after making her sister cry.

About 75 photos appeared on the iPad and phone after I let the kids FaceTime with their friends and grandparents.

During this, Jack may or may not have eaten an onion that was starting to sprout that the kids wanted to plant. But he is still alive and well. Though he does occasionally cough and the kids yell, "he has coronavirus!"

I gave them each a book that I had gotten from the library yesterday an hour before it closed for two weeks. Then I read that we could "hold onto all books as they will be sanitizing them before redistributing when they reopen." I'm still trying to wrap my head around that. I may have sprayed the books with Lysol.