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- I came up from running yesterday morning (our treadmill is in the basement – it’s a little scary) & I found that Braelynn had set Abby up on the couch like this. I had another photo planned to post today, but I quickly grabbed my camera & snapped this photo (that other picture can wait for another week).
- Today is Day 34 of quarantine life. It feels like it’s been forever since life was “normal” – and it literally feels like it’s been eons since we went on our trip to American Dream (when in reality it was just 8 weeks ago). I printed a bunch of photos from our American Dream trip for Braelynn to put in her little scrapbook this week & I was just struck by how long it’s been & how much has changed since we took that trip. It’s mind-blowing to me to think that just a few weeks ago, the “Coronavirus” was something happening on the other side of the world & life as we knew it here in the United States was still completely “normal”. And now, here we are, just a few short weeks later, and everything feels like it’s in chaos.
- This week can be summed up with one word: FaceTime. We’ve been doing a lot of FaceTiming with people since this whole thing began, but I feel like our “FaceTime” time has skyrocketed this week. It has spiraled out of – Braelynn sitting at breakfast on Tuesday morning & breaking down sobbing that she just wants to play with her friends. And, since she’s just 5 years old, she truly does not grasp the concept of why she can’t. To her, life still feels very normal. Sure, we haven’t left the house, but our routines are all still very much what they were before COVID-19 came to town (and I’m very thankful for that). But, it’s hard, and she was obviously struggling, so I suggested we figure out how to FaceTime her friends. Up to this point, we had just been FaceTiming with Nana & Papa and my family – so we got her set up to chat with Cameron (and they have now talked for at least an hour every single day), she FaceTimed with her twin cousins, and we even spent some time letting Leander “chat” with Alethea (which is super hilarious & heart-warming to watch).
- I bought myself a “fitness watch” this week – it looks like an Apple Watch, but with a $30 price tag. I’ve been exercising 5-days a week since mid-January and I found myself wanting something to track my progress. I haven’t even had it 48 hours yet, so I can’t really say whether it’s amazing or not, but I definitely am enjoying the accountability of it! It simply tracks steps, heart-rate, and sleep patterns – maybe if I become super addicted to it and love it, I’ll upgrade to a Fitbit or Apple Watch – but until then, we’ll see how it does over the next few days. (If you’re curious, I bought this one from Amazon.)
- I mentioned last week that Leander officially learned how to climb up onto the couch – well this week, he took that skill up another notch & has learned how to “jump” from our ottoman to the couch (and vice-versa). “Jump” isn’t quite the right word – because as much as he tries, the poor kid still can’t quite figure out how to get both feet off the ground at the same time. This is more like, a “falling” or “half-crawl half-fall” motion – it’s hilarious & he thinks he is such hot stuff.
- Braelynn has been coloring up a storm since we’ve been spending so much extended time at home. In fact, the markers (her favorite method of coloring) that she had gotten about 6 months ago, finally ran dry – we bought her another set, and within a month, those markers were also starting to run out! So, we’re now onto our 3rd set of markers. She’s colored every single page in at least 3 coloring books, plus endless drawings & doodles on printer paper & construction paper. In other words – if you’d like to light up Braelynn’s life right now – just send more plain paper & markers this way.
- Leander has also figured out that markers are a lot of fun to play with – Braelynn is usually very careful about not letting her brother get ahold of her art supplies, but every once in a while he gets really sneaky when she is distracted & Mommy is in the other room. In fact, he decided to make some “art” of his own this week – on two separate occasions placing some beautiful drawings on our ottoman, the couch, and the floor in the dining room.
- Which led me to thinking: “Braelynn never did anything like this! This must be a second child thing!” But then I realized, at 16-months old, Braelynn did not have access to markers – in fact, I don’t think we even owned markers when Braelynn was the same age as Leander currently is. So, of course she never drew on my couch or the floor. Which, of course, then led me to thinking, “Geez, second-born kids sure get a bad rap!” They constantly are compared to their older sibling and there truly is no comparison! I’m sure if I had put markers in the hands of 16-month old Braelynn, she probably would have doodled on the couch too. I guess, that was just my epiphany for the week.
- Needless to say, I did a bunch of scrubbing & magic eraser-ing this week – and of course, one thing leads to another (after all, if I have the magic eraser out to wipe the marker off the floor, I might as well see what else I can wipe down with it) and suddenly I found myself wondering around my house, magic eraser in hand, seeing (for the first time?) just how dirty my walls & trim were! How had I never noticed this before?! Needless to say, my house feels extra sparkly now.
- I re-capped our “quarantine Easter” this week – did you see it?
- I’m super excited – I went ahead and bought some new “toys” this week: a bunch of studio lights! I won’t be using them for photography, but I will be using them for videos! Ever since doing a bunch of research a few weeks ago in trying to help one of my couples find a photographer for their rescheduled wedding that I was (heartbreakingly) unable to shoot, I have been super inspired to create video content for my website. The photographers I found to take over their wedding stood head-and-shoulders above the crowd (I looked thru at least 50 websites) and it was all because of the little videos they had within their website. It definitely got the wheels turning in my own head & I’m super excited to put some video content together!! Stay tuned!!
- Next week is kind of a big week in Derrick & I’s life – do you know what it is?
