While we were keeping track of latest developments of Covid, it still came as a shock when the 1st lockdown happened. Work, school, schedules, daily life was now uncertain. Grocery stores had lines of shoppers buying everything off the shelf. We didn't panic but prepared for a long haul at home.
Liam built an army of paper malitia to guard the compound.
Adapting wasn't the easiest, and took some iterations of logistics. Ryan and I had to keep tabs on the kids and help with their schedules and school work while juggling our own.
Having the kids as my new office-mates was quite distracting.
With anything, there's always ups and downs. One of the upside of this was we finally we put the home gym to good use.
We started off lockdown with keeping our weekly tradition of family climb time... that lasted a couple of weeks. =P
The start of lockdown was okay, but as time went on, obviously there was still quite a bit of adjustment and adapting. Kids missed friends and school. They missed going out and being active. In fact, I found both of them one afternoon, just sitting in the car, in their carseats, hanging out and reading. They missed being in the car!
Web surfing has gone up and kids have discovered Mark Rober, a former NASA engineer turned gadget inventor. His YouTube video on squirrel ninja obstacles is the best!
They watched all of his videos and created their own version of squirrel catcher traps in the yard, and their version of the glitter bomb.
We literally spent the first 6 months of the firt lockdown at home, aka our compound. Ryan's saying at that time was "No one leaves the compound." If you leave the fortress of covid-freeness, you don't come back in. Yes. He was that dramatic. InstaCart delivered groceries to our gate.
There were moments of frustration, anger, fights and tears, and stress on all. Our 24/7 constant proximity to each other meant nerves getting rattled often. Still, this time together presented unexpected opportunities to get creative for fun activities, explore our yard, and do things at home that we simply were too busy to consider doing before.
Lots of cooking and baking.
Iterations of mask making. Trial and error of different patterns.
Kids had an awareness of the situation and they, on their own, drew pictures, wrote stories, etc in their manner of processing and what they could do for support.
Live action superhero comic
There was a bit of exploration in the backyard this year.
This is most likely a giant leopard moth caterpillar.
A cool find! An owl pellet.
There were several pet spiders the kids would feed daily with bugs found in the yard.
Saved and freed a couple of bats that fell from their roost.
This hawk flew into our window. It was a little frazzled, but okay.
Liam's become an expert at catching lizards without them losing a tail.
We do have a bit of wild life here and summer time flew by with us observing the changes in nature. Bug season came with lots of bugs. I never took photos of "Big Fatty", the biggest, thickest lizard we have seen around here with a tint of orange. It would come visit our deck every day during katydid season. We had numerous giant 2" long katydids lying around for it to eat.
For a short time, praying mantis's started appearing. This one with a classic "praying" pose.
Giant wolf spider! Body about an inch long. This one was inside!
Wandering scorpion found in our sink. Ryan likes to relocate these to the numerous squirrel or gopher holes in the yard. =P
We planted and grew pumpkins from June through November.
Makeshift mini-pool when the summer temps were hot.
Kids opened up an at-home pop up restaurant.
Check out this menu!
Ryan taught the kids how to bunny hop on the bikes.
As well as teaching them how to ride the electric dirt bike.
Hands on lessons on computer architecture.
The whole family joined in for the kids first 5K race, virtual at-home edition. They *were* suppose to train for this, but it was really off-the-couch kind of run. Don't ask about our time. Simply completion was an accomplishment.
These were some of the highlights from the first lockdown. Obviously I focused on the high points, and like most social media, the lowpoints are not really displayed. There were lowpoints, some not so good ones, and when lockdowns started to ease, about 6 months now that we exclusively home isolated, we knew the kids needed out of the compound.
Kids marked up this portion of the wall by putting on their climbing shoes and climbing it. There's a sign that clearly says "Please Remove Your Shoes". 🤦♀️
I grew up as an only child, and my parents taught me that in my culture, cousins are just like brothers and sisters, and family always is fa...
About
Ryan and Connie officially began our journey in life together (wedded bliss) on August 1, 2009. This blog chronicles our journey through whatever life throws at us.
On February 27, 2010, we welcomed a new addition to the family: Emilia Ying-Zhi. She tipped the scales at 7 lbs 2 oz, and measured in at 19-3/4".
Liam Noboru joined the family on October 20, 2011. His fighting weight is 7 lbs 4 oz with a length of 19-1/2".
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