So Thursday was Emily's birthday. Six years old already, I don't know where the time has gone. Just yesterday I was holding my little baby in the hospital, trying to calm her as she screamed bloody murder if she was anywhere but in my arms.
So that morning she woke up to streamers covering her bedroom doorway like a curtain. Not actually streamers....I got it off Pinterest. You take 3 colored plastic table cloths, hang them up on the doorway and then cut them into strips almost to the top. Then you brain the top foot or so, and let them hang. I usually fill her room with balloons the night before, but I thought I would try something different this year.
She liked it, but I think she prefers the balloons, lol. I also hung up signs all over the house with Minnie and Mickey on them, and the first one said "I have loved you for six years...", and then she had to find the next sign saying how many months, then weeks, days, etc....it was also kind of a little reading exercise since she needed to find the correct sign with the next measurement of time.
I also hung up the Minnie and Daisy Happy Birthday banner that we bought for last year. So the day was pretty laid back...without being able to go anywhere, we just hung around at home. The previous day, in addition to working my usual day, I also worked two hours that night, and then I worked two hours Thursday night as well so I wouldn't have my full load of work during the day so I could spend more time with her. So I worked in the morning and I got done around 12:30. We had a little cleaning to do, and then we played Life. She loves that game...I hate it. It's such a pain to set up and she doesn't understand the ins and outs of it, so it's even more of a pain to set up considering how much she actually gets out of it.
But she loves when her game piece gets married and has kids. So that was my gift to her, we played Life on her birthday. I stupidly played it on the floor, and then I could barely walk after a while of getting on the floor. It reminds me of when we went to Disney World. We went to see this Disney Jr. live show. It was on stage but it was just floor seating. The show was about 30-45 minutes long. Ryan went to stand in the back because he wasn't even going to attempt sitting on the floor. Now, there were surely younger parents at Disney, but being in our mid-thirties, we were definitely in good company of other parents in their 30's and 40's with small kids. When the show ended, you could hear all the parents groaning and grunting as they stood up, lol. My feet were so asleep I could barely walk.
So that day after Ryan got home from work, he picked up dinner at Olga's and a small cake and he came over and we had dinner. Em blew out the candles on her cake and then she opened her presents which was the Nintendo Switch and Super Mario Deluxe U. Her reaction wasn't as amazing as I expected, but once we set it up and started playing, she was squealing with delight and jumping around. We definitely knocked it out of the park with that gift. She played a lot that night and has been playing a lot every day since. I played it some too, it's fun. I just we could use the Wii controllers, I'm having a hard time getting used to these.
So today we had her "party" which just consisted of her and me and my dad, stepmom, and stepsister. But I am thankful they could at least make it, and she seemed to have a lot of fun. I ordered balloons last weekend to pick up at Party City this weekend, but the store has since closed. So then I went online and ordered some....I still have a smidge of helium left in a tank, so I figured I could at least blow up a couple to float, and then hang the rest. Before I ordered them, it said the estimated delivery was Friday. By the next day, they estimated Saturday. I thought oh crap, I hope they get here before 2pm. Then by Thursday, it says estimated delivery is Tuesday. Ugh,
So I currently have two orders of balloons and had no balloons for her party. But my dad to the rescue, he stopped at the dollar store and picked up a couple so she at least had something. If they do indeed get them by Tuesday, we can use them for Kayla's I suppose.
So they came over and I put out some chips and pop....I had bought stuff for 15 people, so we had way too much. Oh well. Emmy opened her present from them which is a Minnie Mouse in a remote-controlled car. She loved it, she's been playing with it all day and chasing the cat with it. So then we had the cupcakes that I made and some ice cream. Em said at least a few times that it was the best birthday ever, so I guess I accomplished my mission. She still had a great time, which is all I was after. I didn't want my baby to feel any of the effects of this and to still have a great birthday and it sounds like she did. And when all of this craziness is over, we can go to the aquarium and the Rainforest Cafe and do all the fun stuff we had planned.
A part of me feels so good when I think this could be over soon....when I think week one is already done, and according to everything thus far, we should just have three weeks left of being quarantined and the kids out of school. I think of how happy I will be when the world can get back to normal. But then I hear how some states have already declared that school is canceled for the rest of the year, and this could go on for months and months and months. I try not to think of that, because at this point it is all speculation. At least with Emily, I am not as worried about her education as a parent of an older child might be. But it does make me worry. Does she have to miss out on her last 3 months of Kindergarten? Her last 3 months with a teacher she absolutely loves?
Will she just go on to first grade if they resume school in the fall? Will we have to choose if they go on to the next or hang back? As much as I hate the idea of her missing the rest of her kindergarten year, I also am sad at the idea of her having to repeat kindergarten. With all the crap of losing teachers and getting new teachers and then her preschool closing last year and having to start at a new one mid-year, I was looking forward to stability this year and knowing each day would be as certain as the next.
I mean, on the one hand, this isn't all that bad. We're whining about being quarantined in an age where we have internet, TV, Netflix...every TV show and movie we could ever ask for...e-books, etc Imagine being quarantined back in the late 1800's during the smallpox pandemic. And at least with this, if you're youngish and relatively healthy you don't even have to fear the virus itself all that much but something like smallpox, if you got it, it was pretty much game over.
In many ways, not much has changed for us lately. I already work from home, so that is nothing new...and normally I would be thrilled to not have to go into the office a couple days a week. Emily being home is no different than it would be in the summer, except she has school work. But honestly, after a few days of doing it, we've got a routine down so it's not even all that bad. I get my groceries delivered, so aside from my weekly trip to Target, and maybe occasionally meeting my friend for drinks or dinner, nothing has changed all that much.
But it's the uncertainty of it all. People talking about it non-stop on Facebook, people posting stuff that you just cannot decipher whether it is the truth or lies. Will we be back to normal life in a month....or will it really be a year or more, or somewhere in between? Will things change again and the virus will become more threatening to everybody and not just the elderly or those with underlying health conditions? And of course even if you don't go out a lot, the minute you're told you cannot, it's all you want to do. How long will the economy take to recover? Will it recover? I know we have it pretty easy compared to other times our country has experienced something like this, but it's a first for many of us and it's unsettling, to say the least. I pretty much walk around with a constant feeling of just....heaviness I guess. And it's not even something I can pinpoint like I said above. It's just the general feeling of uncertainty weighing on me as I am sure everyone is experiencing something similar. Normal life was less than a week and a half ago, yet it seems like it was ages ago.
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