Published on September 6, 2020, but most of this was actually written in March. Just didn’t get around to adding pictures until now…
This one’s a doozy.
Let’s start at the beginning. The month started out in the middle of my dad’s visit, which, among other things (mostly hanging out at home with Lena), included a visit to the zoo.
My mom arrived a mere two days later, and then we drove to Omaha…
Omawhat? Omawhy? Omahow? OMAHA!
We gifted my mom a trip to beautiful Omaha, Nebraska for a Guster concert. Over the years she has developed an appreciation for Guster and always expressed a desire to see them at a “real” concert (we saw them together with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, but that’s not their natural habitat). The real draw, though, was spending extra time with Lena.
Chelsea and I both left work a little early on Friday afternoon, and we arrived at our hotel in Omaha around 6:00. We got tacos from a taco shop across the street, and brought them back to our hotel room to eat so that Lena could walk around.
The hotel clerk at the front desk told my mom that the 7 minute walk from the hotel to the concert venue was not safe (even though I had specifically chosen this hotel because of its proximity to the concert). It was definitely safe.
Anyways, we took the hotel shuttle from the hotel to the venue, arrived by a reasonable time, and found decent seats in the balcony. The concert was seated because they were doing an acoustic set, which made it more intimate. The space alone made it an enjoyable experience.
Lena was focused and intrigued by her new environment, like we expected. She smiled and waved at people (which everyone found very charming), and pointed at various interesting features in the concert hall with her usual DA declaration. Lena’s bedtime is 7:00, but the concert started at 8:00. We put her in her pajamas so that Chelsea could leave with Lena in the middle of the concert and put her to bed if needed.
Lena like the concert and squeeled during the first couple of songs, but then got antsy and started rubbing her eyes and crying. At one point during the performance, Chelsea fed Lena to try to calm her down, but it was a little awkward in the hard seats without the Boppy. Chelsea then took Lena out into the hallway to give her more space to move around.
Then the fun part. In the lobby before the concert started, the audience had the option to write a message to the band on a slip of paper with the promise that some of them would be read aloud during the show. Chelsea wrote something like “Baby Lena’s first Guster concert (11 months old).” It did not end up getting picked, but that turned out to be ok.
The first or second message picked from the jar was from a dad who had brought his then baby son to a concert in 2011, and was now at the concert again as a kid (on the front row, too).
The people sitting around us started shouting “THERE’S A BABY UP HERE” to the band. They eventually got the band’s attention, and they invited the baby on stage. I was afraid that Chelsea wasn’t aware of the invitation, but then saw that she and Lena were standing in the aisle near us. (Chelsea later said that everyone walking by them were enamored by Lena.)
Chelsea rushed down the stairs with Lena and walked up on stage, all the while Guster was playing an improvised “bring us the baby” song. Chelsea climbed over the instruments on stage to sit down next to Adam, and handed over Lena, who didn’t mind being held – by Adam.
When Adam passed Lena to Ryan, she didn’t mind too much until she looked at his face, then immediately frowned and started crying. Everyone laughed, and they quickly handed Lena back to Chelsea. We think she didn’t like Ryan’s beard.
Chelsea and Lena went back to the hotel after that, and my mom and I finished out the concert. When the concert was over and we went back to the hotel, Lena was still awake and had gotten sick with a cold. She fell asleep pretty quickly though.
We still went to the Omaha zoo the next day, which we really enjoyed, but we left early around lunchtime because Lena was falling asleep in the stroller.
More visitors
Zach and Sydney and kids came up for a visit on Wednesday during Zach’s spring break. Our big event was the zoo on Thursday, but the coronavirus worries were starting to ramp up throughout the world, and we decided to stay home on Friday.
Coronavirus cases were popping up quickly, and the Currans decided to leave a day early on Saturday. It was fun seeing them, and sad that their visit got cut short, but we understood.
In the very least, it was an informative experience to have four children in the same house. I have a better idea of what to expect raising toddlers in the next few years…
Coronavirus
Backing up a bit now. The virus turned out to be a rather significant part of the month (and year), so it gets its own detailed report.
News of a new virus originating in China called COVID-19 (or popularly, just “the coronavirus”…technicaly COVID-19 is the disease; the virus is SARS-CoV-2) began circulating in January, and it has felt pretty far away from us for the past few months. The epicenter of the outbreak in China was hard hit, and the whole world watched in slowly spread through Southeast Asia, then Europe, and then the United States.
Popular perception of the outbreak has quickly changed. The government and most people started out downplaying the virus as unconcerning and blamed the media for overhyping it. Then the first outbreak in the US occurred in Seattle, and we all started to get more worried. We were asked to stay home from work if we had a cough.
Then we got the first cases in our county. Two employees at my company were informed by the CDC that they had been in contact with confirmed infected people on a plane. Lena’s daycare started requiring that we fill out a questionaire each morning asking if our child had a cough, fever, runny nose, etc.
As luck would have it, Lena had a cold, so we were unable to send her to daycare. Chelsea stayed home from work one day (a Wednesday), and I was already planning on staying home that Thursday and Friday due to the Currans’ visit.
The following week was Chelsea’s spring break, and the weekend before that, people really started taking it seriously. Government buildings and schools started closing (but still operating remotely and virtually). My company allowed us to work from home for the following two weeks. Most employers were doing the same thing.
Then state and local governments started ordering that restaurants close and only offer carry out. We were “strongly encouraged” to stay home, but not required to. Chelsea’s school moved to online courses until April.
The entire economy effectively shut down as “non-essential businesses” were forced to close. Companies like mine that can still operate while employees are at home have weathered everything reasonably well, but others, like retail and hospitality, have been hit hard.
Unemployment claims shot up, and the quickest onset recession in history is expected by this summer. Stock prices have dropped back down ~20% to where it was about two years ago. We are fortunate to have jobs that allow us to work from home so easily. Many people have not been as lucky.
Grocery store shortages have become widespread, and it is very difficult to find staples like toilet paper, cleaning product, eggs, and flour. Store shelves are literally empty of these things. The lack of flour has particularly frustrated me.
In the very least, it is comforting to see economic principles play out in real-life. We haven’t driven anywhere in 3 weeks, and gas prices are very low ($1.50/gal).
Coronavirus comes home?
To make things even more interesting, we were maybe infected with the virus. I started to feel tired on the afternoon of March 24, and later got a fever that night and a cough, all of which are symptoms of the virus. Lena returned to daycare that same day, but we decided to keep her home for the next two weeks, assuming that she had been exposed. Since her daycare is at a retirement home and the elderly are especially at risk of a severe reaction, we wanted to be overly cautious.
One odd thing I have noticed from the stay-at-home order is how much time everyone seems to have all of a sudden. Facebook group discussions have transitioned to hobby and book recommendations. Puzzle sales have actually increased over twofold.
WE feel like we have even less time. Ever since my fever, Lena has been at home. That means both Chelsea and I are doing our normal day jobs, and watching her. We have to schedule times to trade off watching Lena, but Chelsea has handled most of it.
Lena updates
Even though it has been difficult to work and watch Lena at the same time, it has been great being home with her all day for so long. Mornings are especially fun because we generally have the luxury of eating breakfast together at our own pace. We get to watch her point and babble and smile at us. It is fun to be with her and see how she grows every day. I feel like I have grown closer to her, and she now seems more affectionate toward me.
We have also used this as an opportunity to properly sleep train Lena, and it has worked really well. We resolved to keep Lena in her crib all night and stopped feeding her to coax her back to sleep. Instead, I have been patting her back to sleep and then sleeping on the floor next to her crib, which seemed to comfort her at times. I only had to do that for about a week before she was reliably sleeping through the night!
Lena is officially walking! She made the transition to walking full time somewhere between 10 and 11 months old. She has used her new found abilities to properly explore the house. We spend a lot of time simply following her from room to room as she inspects different objects, gives them a slap and a nose crinkle, then moves on.
While she hasn’t said her first word yet, she does know a few words when we say them to her, such as “window” and “dog.” If we as her “where’s Mommy?” she will generally point to Chelsea, but sometimes she points to me, or something else (like the window – the window is sort of her default).
She has a weird habit of inhaling while vocalizing, which makes an odd screeching sound. She even moves her mouth like she is saying words. We don’t know why she does that.
Lena will also pick things up and then offer them to you by placing them in your hand.
Other things
I planted some vegetable seeds toward the end of the month, thinking that we had our last freeze (that turned out to be very untrue). So far, we have lettuce, spinach, cilantro, peas, carrots, and green onions in the ground.
The mandated stay at home order has seen the rise of Zoom meetings to stay in touch with lots of friends and family. So far we have played Jackbox with the cousins, poker with my friends, and talk to our parents more frequently. In that regard, it has been quite nice.
I’ve also been baking more frequently, which recently became more difficult as I have been running out of “good” flour. Michael expressed interest in sourdough when I described it to him, so I made a video of the process. I thought that would be a good way to end this month’s post.
Here it is, for your viewing pleasure.