Staying Busy

WARNING: Ridiculous amount of photos and words. Read and look at your own discretion. My own husband will probably not read it.

I imposed a quarantine on myself and the kiddos. I guess it's a reverse quarantine because we are the healthy ones and I'm not allowing ourselves to be exposed to the outside world of sickness. I did RSV once with a newborn and I don't want to do it again. We have been on this wonderful house arrest for two months now. I sprained my ankle a few weeks before I had Livvy and could not walk. Leaving the house at nine months pregnant on crutches with a toddler didn't seem very plausible. I can walk now, but RSV/sick season is unfortunately not over yet. So basically I go to the grocery store once a week on Saturdays. I do allow David to go to work because I guess he's not allowed to take 3 months off, but I told him to wear a gas mask and stay 10 feet away from anyone that coughs or sneezes. Nobody has gotten sick yet and if anyone does than we have the worst luck ever.

Utah winters are pretty frigid so we really are stuck to the house for the most part. To make the three months productive and not quite so bad for Caleb we have been doing a little preschool everyday and he loves it. We have been doing a letter of the alphabet every day (he already knows all of them!) and I try to do an out-of-the-ordinary activity/craft with him as well.

I questioned whether I would be able to manage two kids by myself and they (the kids) have made it possible. Caleb has become more independent and he helps me when I ask him to do little jobs. Caleb has never gotten jealous or mad when I am taking care of Livvy (an unexpected miracle). Livvy is such a good baby-she has a very sweet disposition and is quite mellow. This is what she looks like most of the time:

Caleb creating a watercolor masterpiece.

I will come out to find Caleb reading books by himself. On this particular day, he did rip all of the alphabet flaps out of his Elmo book ( notice the pile of papers next to the book in the background). When I asked him if he ripped them out, he innocently replied yes and started telling me the names of all of the letters as if there was nothing wrong with what he did-I couldn't resist laughing.

Caleb has put his finger in his belly button probably since he was six months old. He does it while playing, reading, or falling asleep. It is apparently soothing, but I haven't tried it yet so I can't say for sure.

We made all of his coins from his piggy bank really shiny and then sorted them. He especially likes the 'big' moneys.

This was the letter D. Definitely one of his favorites. We were going to glue dirt on the letter d, but the dirt we found under the snow was not very spreadable so we found some sand in his sandbox and called it dirt.

Making froot loop bracelets.

Coloring and playing cars.

He made a personalized placemat, but he likes it so much that he doesn't put his food on it. The food goes next to the mat so that he can look at his mat while eating.

When we did the letter I, we made homemade ice cream in a bag. He loved putting all of the ingredients in the bag, but he did not like shaking the bag because it was too cold. He kept saying, "Ma!" for me to shake it.

So he played trains while I shook.

This is a brain freeze face from eating the ice cream. Then he downed the rest of the ice cream in a few more minutes.

Meanwhile Livvy is getting chubby and balding. Only babies can do that and still be considered cute. She is growing way too fast! I want her to stop growing (in the healthiest way possible of course).

Congratulations if you made it through all of that!