In the beginning
Days 1-5
Over the last few weeks, public awareness and media coverage of the Coronavirus has exploded, and our way of life as we've known it has come to a screeching halt. On Friday, since Charleigh doesn't have daycare, we decided to keep Wyatt home, too. That afternoon we got an email from preschool letting us know that they had decided to close until April 12 - yikes! Also that afternoon, Wyatt started complaining of a sore throat and developing a dry cough (two of the key symptoms). Walker had worked from home all week because he had a mild cold, so it was all four of us on Friday!
Over the weekend more and more guidance was coming out from state and local government (but not the President!) about social distancing, so we finally hopped on the bandwagon and started stocking up on groceries, medications, and basic necessities. We took inventory of all our canned and dry food and deep freezer. I went to three grocery stores on Sunday. The pasta and rice aisles were completely barren. It was end of days in the frozen aisle at Trader Joe's. On Sunday night we got an email from Wyatt's preschool notifying us that someone in our community tested positive for Covid-19 and that exposure to the school occurred on Monday and/or Tuesday of the prior week. Uh oh! Now we're worried about Wyatt's cold.
We emailed his pediatrician, who discussed with Kaiser's infectious disease specialist, who recommended testing at a new drive-thru testing site. Very interesting. On Monday, simultaneous press conferences were held by the White House, San Francisco and San Mateo/Santa Clara Counties. In San Francisco and across the Peninsula a "Shelter in Place" order was announced, to begin at midnight. We are (so far self-) restricted from any nonessential travel outside our homes. We can only go to the pharmacy, grocery store, and on walks, always keeping six feet from anyone outside our household. With this, Walker's company finally closed their office, so he's home with us for the foreseeable future.
The drive-thru testing site was not as I imagined. I was picturing astronaut-like people in hazmat suits. It was a lot of administrative staff in normal clothing under a pop-up tent, looking busy. There were a few nurses in scrubs and a couple of doctors in surgical gowns, masks and gloves. I was grateful that there was a pediatrician to administer the swab, and that they were expecting Wyatt. He was pretty jazzed that he never had to get out of his car seat!
As for our daily home routine, we're working on it! Weekends over here are pretty unstructured other than lunch and naptime, so I think we will need to put some structure in place so we don't kill each other and immediately run out of snacks. We've been going on lots of walks around the block - today we were almost eaten by a scary dog down the street! We've been building forts and legos, and Wyatt is working on a book for his pre-K teacher. So cute. We've made cookies, I'm cooking more elaborate dinners, and we've got scones and homemade play dough in the queue. We've started doing yoga. I'm enforcing Cosmic Kids yoga before bedtime and I'm trying to do some on my own to quell anxiety.
I'm both dreading the next four weeks (hopefully that's all it is!) and looking forward to how it will change our perspective. We're so darn busy all the time, and I think we've been missing the good stuff. It's for this reason, I decided to document this period of time. I want to capture the lessons learned, the kind that only take place in quiet observation, the kind that get stomped out when the noise turns back up.
Over the last few weeks, public awareness and media coverage of the Coronavirus has exploded, and our way of life as we've known it has come to a screeching halt. On Friday, since Charleigh doesn't have daycare, we decided to keep Wyatt home, too. That afternoon we got an email from preschool letting us know that they had decided to close until April 12 - yikes! Also that afternoon, Wyatt started complaining of a sore throat and developing a dry cough (two of the key symptoms). Walker had worked from home all week because he had a mild cold, so it was all four of us on Friday!
Over the weekend more and more guidance was coming out from state and local government (but not the President!) about social distancing, so we finally hopped on the bandwagon and started stocking up on groceries, medications, and basic necessities. We took inventory of all our canned and dry food and deep freezer. I went to three grocery stores on Sunday. The pasta and rice aisles were completely barren. It was end of days in the frozen aisle at Trader Joe's. On Sunday night we got an email from Wyatt's preschool notifying us that someone in our community tested positive for Covid-19 and that exposure to the school occurred on Monday and/or Tuesday of the prior week. Uh oh! Now we're worried about Wyatt's cold.We emailed his pediatrician, who discussed with Kaiser's infectious disease specialist, who recommended testing at a new drive-thru testing site. Very interesting. On Monday, simultaneous press conferences were held by the White House, San Francisco and San Mateo/Santa Clara Counties. In San Francisco and across the Peninsula a "Shelter in Place" order was announced, to begin at midnight. We are (so far self-) restricted from any nonessential travel outside our homes. We can only go to the pharmacy, grocery store, and on walks, always keeping six feet from anyone outside our household. With this, Walker's company finally closed their office, so he's home with us for the foreseeable future.
The drive-thru testing site was not as I imagined. I was picturing astronaut-like people in hazmat suits. It was a lot of administrative staff in normal clothing under a pop-up tent, looking busy. There were a few nurses in scrubs and a couple of doctors in surgical gowns, masks and gloves. I was grateful that there was a pediatrician to administer the swab, and that they were expecting Wyatt. He was pretty jazzed that he never had to get out of his car seat!As for our daily home routine, we're working on it! Weekends over here are pretty unstructured other than lunch and naptime, so I think we will need to put some structure in place so we don't kill each other and immediately run out of snacks. We've been going on lots of walks around the block - today we were almost eaten by a scary dog down the street! We've been building forts and legos, and Wyatt is working on a book for his pre-K teacher. So cute. We've made cookies, I'm cooking more elaborate dinners, and we've got scones and homemade play dough in the queue. We've started doing yoga. I'm enforcing Cosmic Kids yoga before bedtime and I'm trying to do some on my own to quell anxiety.
I'm both dreading the next four weeks (hopefully that's all it is!) and looking forward to how it will change our perspective. We're so darn busy all the time, and I think we've been missing the good stuff. It's for this reason, I decided to document this period of time. I want to capture the lessons learned, the kind that only take place in quiet observation, the kind that get stomped out when the noise turns back up.
Comments
Post a Comment