Adam recently concluded preschool for the school year, and toward the end he received an invitation to a pool and splash pad birthday party at a public outdoor venue. Birthday parties are a big childhood thing he’s missed out on thus far due to COVID-19, so given that it was a classmate who he was already being exposed to and the outdoor nature of the event, we decided it was safe enough to take him. The morning of the birthday we learned that the birthday boy was sick (not COVID) so couldn’t attend, but with everything ready and paid for, his mother moved forward with the party for his classmates. It was during Aaron’s nap time, so MJ stayed home with him and Adam and I drove to the next town over to attend, and we had a lovely afternoon there. Both of our boys really, really enjoy playing with water, so it was a great fit for Adam.
Both boys also enjoy books. I am certain it helps that they see me reading books and magazines a lot, and I buy them books aligned with their interests pretty frequently. They’re both used to the nightly routine that includes having books read to them. But it also means that we have a growing number of books for them, so when I saw a reading nook on sale I ordered it, and then assembled as soon as it arrived. Being 1.5 and 3.5, they do a fair amount of playing around it, but there are books in it (most of the time) and it has been used for the intended purpose of sitting and looking at books. It’s definitely the last piece of furniture we can put in the family room without taking something out, but I think it was a good choice.
We also recently got a new clothes washer and dryer. The ones we had came with the house, and while they weren’t extremely old, they were a bit troublesome. The washer would frequently go off-balance and so we could only run it on low. The dryer was just loud. It was repaired twice by me (with my YouTube co-pilot) and once professionally, but after a few months it would find a new way to be loud. It got to the point that we couldn’t run it at night, or while the boys were taking naps, which was a logistical hassle. Plus, who wants to listen to a loud dryer anyway? The new set is nice and quiet. The only downside is that I have about a month’s worthy of laundry to do because I was so eager to avoid using the old one once we had plans to replace them. That a huge amount of laundry is waiting for me this weekend.
Outside of kid and home life, MJ and I finally got to celebrate our 9th anniversary this week. Our actual anniversary is on April 28th, but we were both in the midst of a nasty cold on that date, so we decided to postpone. As colds circulated the house and other things came up, it ended up being a full month before we could plan something else, but on June 2nd we finally made it out! We stuck with our original plans of having a nice dinner at Murray Circle at Fort Baker in Sausalito. They have always had outdoor seating, it’s quiet, has amazing food, and a beautiful view of the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a beautiful night. We enjoyed our food, ordered a bottle of bubbly, and relaxed on this incredibly rare evening away from home.
My continued hope is that a vaccine is made available for the little ones soon, allowing us for more options when it comes to going out. Once we feel safer about having a rotation of babysitters we’ll be able to do more date nights together, instead of just going out once a year on our anniversary, which is what we’ve been reduced to in pandemic times. I have enjoyed the growing number of places that offer outdoor dining though. Like the rise of tele-medicine, this is one of the few silver-linings of this pandemic.
Unfortunately we’re not out of the woods yet even with general transmissibility. A mask mandate for indoor spaces went into effect again today for our county as COVID-related hospitalizations are on the rise again. We’re continuing to have fun at uncrowded outdoor events, but there’s definitely a risk analysis that happens with each one. This includes MUNI Heritage Day, which at least Adam and I will be taking the train to San Francisco to check out this weekend. I’m excited about it, we’ll be cautious, but there is definitely apprehension too.