Hi guys. Remember me? It’s been a while but I’m (sort of) back! As you may know, on or around March 11th most travel got canceled for the foreseeable future, and about a week later Disney World shut down. But, if you recall, travel wasn’t the only thing that got canceled. I’m sure you all have a long list of what got canceled in your life and how it impacted you and your families. Jobs, weddings, graduations, birthday celebrations, and probably a whole lot more. We were really fortunate that none of these big things affected us. However, we did lose a few critical things: preschool, babysitters, playgrounds, and grandparents. We also lost all of our activities – mommy and me, gym class, sports class, etc. This meant that for the time being, it was mom, dad, and two toddlers stuck in the house all. day. every. day. And as I got more and more pregnant, this became more and more exhausting. Maybe not as devastating as cancelling a wedding, but certainly stress inducing.
In an effort to make the time go by faster while also watching as little TV as possible (ha! We’ve been watching ALL the TV),
I followed every kids play account on instagram and frantically tried to come up with ideas to entertain my children on the cold and rainy days in the beginning. And if you recall, it snowed in May so cold went on for a very long time.
When the weather got warmer and we realized the beginning was just the beginning, and the one month school cancellation was turning into 6 months (or more) of no school or camp, Eric researched all of the cool outdoor toys that weren’t yet sold out and bought them (or asked people for them for Joey’s birthday) as quickly as possible to ensure that they wouldn’t GET sold out.
After 100 days, things are starting to open up again. We haven’t been to a restaurant and probably won’t for a while, playgrounds are still closed, my kids are not enrolled in camp for the summer, and who knows what will happen with school in the fall (set to start like one minute after I’m due to birth this new human), so there’s still a long road ahead. However, as cases are down (for now, as I firmly believe they will go back up with the protests and reopenings) and summer weather is here, we’ve been able to spend some time playing with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins outside which has helped ease some of the stress of this time.
I kept somewhat of a photo journal of my kids during this time because I never have had and probably (hopefully) never again will have the chance to spend every waking moment with them watching them play, learn, and grow as people and siblings. Now, after 100 days, I am going to continue to be home with them all the time, and I am going to continue to take pictures, but I’m also going to mark this as the end of our quarantine journal journey as I don’t feel like we are quite as quarantined as we were when this all began, and if school were still in session it would have just ended. Who knows, maybe I’ll start over with a no camp summer journal. Yeah, I probably will. Okay I already started.
While this was an incredibly stressful three months, I do think some good came out of it, and we all learned a lot along the way. So here it is.
- Landen learned to play independently. This was HUGE. Since the day he was born he was the kid who would scream the second he was left in a room by himself. Playpens did not work. He just clawed at them and screamed louder. He was never a huge fan of ANY toys and he always just wanted to be entertained by adults. Even when he’s watching TV he wants to sit on someone’s lap. It’s exhausting and just super draining. Don’t get me wrong, he still has a LONG way to go and still frequently says “I don’t want to be alone” or “I need a grown up to play with me”, or my favorite “can Joey take care of me if you can’t?” and yesterday he asked me to move my chair to the head of the table with his so I could be closer to him, because sitting next to me but around the corners of the table wasn’t sufficient. But he spent many hours during this time just building quietly with magnetic tiles or creating his own imaginary world (usually based on whatever his favorite show of the minute was). Joey actually always had an innate ability to play by herself, and I actually think it got a little worse for her during this time, but still not so bad and probably mostly just developmental.
FYI this is cheese. 
- Landen and Joey learned to play TOGETHER. This was amazing to watch. Joey grew up enough in these months to sort of understand the games and activities Landen was creating for them, and they really became best friends. Just last week, a glass broke in the kitchen so I told them to go in the basement while I cleaned it up. I didn’t see them again for ALMOST TWO HOURS! It was glorious. They just played together and no one died.
I just noticed the fingers ❤ 
- I got to watch them learn. All of the stuff that is normally done at school was done at home. I tried to set up as many activities as I could throughout the three months to somewhat make up for what they would be missing by having a high school math teacher as their new preschool teacher. I still never want to be a preschool teacher or “homeschool” again, but it was fascinating to watch and see what they could do. Turns out their imaginations are much more advanced than I thought they were.
- I also liked that I got to decide on the activities and how much time was spent indoors and outdoors. I love Landen’s school, but my only complaint is that they don’t spend enough time outside or just moving their bodies. He came home bursting with energy some days, and I was frustrated trying to contain it (especially in the winter months when I was in my first trimester and basically stuck indoors with his energy). We were able to spend hours outside whenever the weather was good, getting some fresh air in and energy out. We obviously spent a lot of time in the backyard, but we also went to all the parks and did a whole lot of empty parking lot scooting. And when we weren’t outside he was still able to run, jump, and roll around on the floor to get his energy out.
- Speaking of activities, I learned from Busy Toddler (one of those million instagram accounts I began following, and easily one of the best) and then through my own experiences, that activities are nothing more than a tool. I set up so. many. activities. that either barely got touched or got played with for like 12 seconds. The set up took way longer than the activity in almost every case. BUT they changed the whole mood of the day. Kids are fighting? Pull out some baking soda and vinegar. Make one explosion and the fighting stops and they go play with their magnetic tiles for an hour without any mention of whatever toy they both wanted to play with. They are screaming for more tv? Pull out some glue and popsicle sticks. 2 minutes later the house they’re building is done and they’re playing with magnetic tiles for an hour with no mention of tv. Everyone is running and screaming and someone is probably going to fall and smash their head? Grab some scissors and make a dotted line on paper to practice cutting. 1 minute later the paper is cut and they’re off with magnetic tiles for an hour (they really like the magnets, which also made for some of the best set up activities).
- We’re still learning about the beauty of toy rotations. There’s a lot of research (or at least a lot of play instagram accounts which is where I get my information these days) that says that less toys are better. It allows kids to focus their attention and really play and learn for longer. Their attention spans are expanded by letting them spend time with a few things that they really love. We have way too much. We’ve done some rotating, moving things into different rooms and swapping things in and out of closets and I noticed that a toy that didn’t get touched for months and then put away was all of a sudden a new favorite as soon as it was taken out of hiding. Just having a few favorites out is really beneficial to learning, playing, and peace and quiet, and we need to make an effort to declutter a bit to expand on the independent play.
- And for myself, I actually learned to enjoy cooking a little bit more. Don’t get too excited. I don’t love it, but I find it easier to throw some things together and make a healthy meal with less stress. Being home all the time gave me more time to cook. Rather than being out with kids or myself while a babysitter was here until dinner time, we were home. All the time. So I was able to prep and cook more during the day with a little less stress about timing. Oh, and they liked cooking with me too with their brand new cooking stool.
Don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t all fun and games. There was a lot of stress and a TON of tantrums, especially in the beginning. But the most important thing I learned was that kids are resilient. In the first month, there was a lot of whining, crying, asking for school, asking to see friends and grandparents and cousins. There were lots of sad middle of the night wake ups and introducing new foods went out the window because only grilled cheese was consoling. It was really hard and frustrating and somewhat heartbreaking. But as time went on, we developed a routine, ate more fruits and vegetables, slept better (although there is still much room for improvement here), and began to appreciate our time home together. The tantrums obviously didn’t stop, but they got better, shorter, and there were less of them, and we learned how to better manage them. There was all around less stress and yelling.
I was going to try to relate this to travel somehow. Maybe talk about kids being able to entertain themselves on a plane with their new independent play skills. Or how to handle tantrums when you’re traveling and kids are more exhausted than usual because their routines are thrown off. But honestly nothing about this was similar to travel. It was actually the exact opposite of travel. And nothing about this was similar to any form of real life in any way. So this is just a writing opportunity for me to get back into it. And I hope it lasts, because back in March I did go to Disney world and I have some things to say about it.
So, for the time being, that’s what I’m going to do. Write, and maybe research. I am now almost 7 months pregnant and still mostly home with two needy demanding toddlers. I don’t have time or energy to book and plan those trips that are inevitably still getting canceled. Disney isn’t even taking new bookings for 2020 right now, and their whole experience is completely different. There are no parades, no fireworks, no character interactions, and you need park reservations and masks to enter the parks. This is not the Disney we know and love, but Disney was my favorite trip to plan and book so I’d like to keep this as my focus moving forward. Just not right now.
So I’m going to take a step back from booking trips for now and just focus on being home and figuring out this new life and eventually this new baby. So look out for more posts about that trip to Disney in March, and maybe some other past travels that I’ve done. But don’t ask me to book you a trip before 2021 because I’m not interested.
TRAVELING WITH ARDEN 
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