7

Why, yes, I’m writing this over a year after your 7th birthday. Why, you ask? Well, last year a little over a month before your 7th birthday, and a few weeks before your sister was born, we entered a global pandemic. It was a very tense and stressful ending to your 7th year around the sun.

Truthfully, I’d been dealing with issues from Covid-19 at work (delayed production and shipping from the factory in China) long before we saw precautions being put in place stateside. We went into lockdown the week before Spring Break. They cancelled school, told everyone to only go out for essentials, and to avoid groups of people outside your own home. There was a lot of back and forth on whether or not wearing a mask was something we should do. Most argued the masks should be saved for healthcare and essential workers, others said we need to be masked if in public. We had my Blessing-way for Junie the weekend before the official lockdown began, and then we all just stayed home for a very, very long time.

When we saw our neighbors, we didn’t come within 6 feet of one another and only ever outside. We sanitized everything that came into the house or left it in the garage or car for 24 hours before bringing it in. It was insane. We were so scared because there was so much conflicting information, and we didn’t know what to believe. You guys were so confused and couldn’t understand why we couldn’t just go to Target or the grocery store and go in. Everything became about risk assessment and management- skills you’ve never had to really use before then, and they were suddenly a daily thing. You missed your friends, and eventually we did open up our circle to include them, especially Gideon before he moved away that summer. We weren’t supposed to gather in groups of more than 5, then 15, then 20, as time went on, but we still needed to wear masks, inside or out. Holidays ended up looking very different in some ways. Weddings and birthday parties were cancelled for several months. It was a very weird and disconnected time from outside our immediate family. We simply didn’t gather until Father’s Day weekend, we finally went to the farm to visit Mimi and Poppa. It was a breath of fresh air, and we all cried hugging our family.

For your 7th birthday, Junie was only a few weeks old, but with your dad’s help with Junie, I was able to still make you your Sonic the Hedgehog cake. We ordered in your favorite food (you wanted Applebee’s grilled cheese, but they had a limited menu due to the pandemic, so you got one from a local place, Flashbacks, instead). You received so many messages on Marco Polo and Facebook, videos from family, FaceTime calls with grandparents, and even had a Zoom playdate with Gideon to play BeyBlades. Gideon and his family rode bikes down and rode around the culdesac waving streamers and holding Happy Birthday signs and gave you your gift outside. Garret and his family drove by in the rain and wished you Happy Birthday as well! We tried to make it as special as we could under the circumstances, but we felt so sad that you had to celebrate your birthday like you did. You really took the disappointment of not being able to have your party with your friends very well, though, and you felt loved.

We ordered groceries for pick up, but sometimes we would have to order a week ahead because we couldn’t get a time slot for pick up. Most of the time there wasn’t certain items. Toilet paper, cleaning supplies, hand sanitizer, soap, paper towel, and such became very scarce. Other weird things became scarce- I couldn’t get digestive biscuits, coleslaw dressing, the right trash bags, certain pop, laundry detergent, and also not so random things: masks, vacuum bag filters (people were turning them into masks or using them as filters in masks), nitrile gloves (I use them when I cut up raw chicken). When we did have to go in for something (which was rare) there were huge plexiglass shields in front of every check out and tape on the floors to help socially distance shoppers 6ft from each other and arrows on the floor dictating the flow of traffic. Huge sections of stores were roped off- nothing that was considered not a necessity was available. The gas price a mile from home was $1.55, but we weren’t going anywhere, ever, so it didn’t matter. No one was on the roads. When I drove to my OBGYN appointments when still pregnant with Junie (I had to go alone- Dad wasn’t allowed in with me, which was so scary for me after what happened with Amos) it was like a ghost town on the freeway and even more so pulling into the parking lots. As busy as hospitals were with Covid patients, entire lots were empty because all other non-essential visits and surgeries were cancelled. Even after I delivered Junie, my visit with my doctor 6 weeks after she was born was a virtual visit from my phone.

The entire world shut down. It was eerie. Travel was banned. Borders closed. We weren’t even sure if Grammy would be able to make it back to us from Michigan. Even newscasters and celebrities and entertainers were reporting from home, many without make-up and from cell phone cameras. Entire sports seasons and tournaments, concerts, Broadway shows, movie releases were cancelled flat out. The entire facade of prepared entertainment was shattered. DisneyPlus came out, and that was a nice distraction for a while. They started releasing new movies on platforms like that, and we could pay a premium to see the new movies from home. (You “accidentally” purchased the rental for Trolls: World Tour like twice (it was like $40 a pop!).) It was weird, and as a family who always went to the theater, we made do but missed the movie popcorn! The situation was dire and scary, especially in Italy, then the same thing happened here in New York and other big cities. TV specials were made to try to entertain and comfort the kids- Sesame Street, Daniel Tiger, Disney stars, they all talked about staying home, staying safe, washing your hands, wearing a mask, and that we were all doing our part to be super heroes, to save others. It was surreal watching it all unfold, knowing that we were all living through global history in the making. We watched the infection rates and death tolls rise in real time for each country and state and major city from our phones. There were daily updates from our incompetent president who had very quickly led us to this disaster by ignoring it’s severity from the get go. We were so angry and ashamed to have him at the helm during all this. He made us all look like fools. His choices killed so many people. They didn’t have enough room in the hospitals for people, dead or alive. Not enough supplies for the workers, not enough ventilators for the sick. People were turned away. Bodies were stacked in cold trucks awaiting for a place to be taken. They opened up stadiums and event venues to make make-shift hospitals. They filled hallways and corridors with beds. They set up extra spaces in parking garages and parking lots. It was horrifying. We wouldn’t let you guys watch the news with us.

Manufacturers, distilleries, and other businesses switched their manufacturing lines to help make hand sanitizer and PPE. People started sewing cloth masks all over the place and donating them to hospitals because they didn’t have proper PPE. Nurses and doctors were issued like one mask a week and had to keep it in a paper bag in between shifts. Some healthcare workers were too afraid to bring covid home to their families and lived in hotels, air b&bs, or quarantined in separate rooms or levels of their homes- afraid to hug their kids. Protocols for stripping down in the garage and disinfecting your shoes and clothes and body before interacting with others in your home became standardized. And so many of them did end up getting sick, including my cousin. When she applied for short-term disability because she couldn’t return to work, they denied her on the grounds of that she “couldn’t prove” she got Covid from work since it was a global pandemic and it could’ve been picked up anywhere. She’s a nurse who worked with Covid patients. She lost her job and has long-hauler Covid, meaning she’s still facing health repercussions from having had Covid.

Churches closed (we still haven’t gone back). Non-essential stores and businesses were closed. Billions of people were out of work and school. Everyone who could worked from home. Your dad was able to work from home immediately, and we struggled to figure out a make-shift office for him because we needed access to my computer for your e-learning, which was in the office. He set up camp in your sister’s nursery for a while. Eventually we moved my computer into the loft and him back into the office. Grammy came to visit and stay until sister was born because we weren’t supposed to engage with anyone else, and if I went into labor, where would we put you and Everett?! You weren’t allowed at the hospital; heck, your dad was barely allowed at the hospital with me. There were some scary weeks when I thought I was going to have to deliver Junie alone. I’m still sad sometimes that you and Everett didn’t get to come to the hospital to see Junie after she was born. You had to meet her on Grammy’s cell phone via FaceTime.

You and your brother spent your time playing in our backyard, mostly. With the neighborhood pool shut down, we barely swam all summer except when we went to Mimi’s and Poppa’s and when we went on our singular vacation to New Buffalo and swam in Lake Michigan. Meanwhile at home, Dad made the backyard an oasis for us all. We had fires in the fire pit and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. We camped in the backyard. We got a slip-n-slide blobby thing and a little blow up pool. Dad had 6 weeks of paternity leave. It was glorious. We all spent so much time together, and it was so nice having all the extra help while Junie was so little. When dad had to go back to work during the day (still at home, just in our office) you cried and cried. Having dad home has been the best thing about the pandemic. You both have bonded a lot because of it.

Later that summer, Dad finally ponied up on his promise to let you build a treehouse in the tree. He knew the HOA was not going around looking and what was going up in backyards during the pandemic. (They turned a blind eye to pools and trampolines and all kinds of stuff knowing they couldn’t hold people to standards during a pandemic.) Dad built me the beautiful raised garden beds I wanted for my birthday, and he let you use scrap wood from that and the fence gate he built to make a very dangerous pallet platform treehouse. He nailed bits of wood into the tree for footholds (those are still there) and taught you how to balance yourself so you wouldn’t fall and break yourself. Your brother got stuck up in the tree once in the fall. He was outside with you, and you came in and left him up there. Dad thought he’d come in with you, and later had to rescue him. He had no shoes, no coat, and it was freezing outside. Dad brought him to me, and I snuggled with him to warm him up. We took the treehouse down not long after that.

Like I mentioned, we did go to New Buffalo for our annual trip. It was different- no eating in restaurants, wearing masks all the time, being nervous about people outside on the beach, not letting you play with other kids…just very nervous and strange. But we had a great time, and not being at home was SO needed by that point. Dad also took you on your annual camping trip, took you up to the farm for the 4th of July (I stayed home with Junie), and we celebrated your brother’s birthday on the farm with family. That was the closest thing to normal we’d felt so far, I think. In the fall, I drove you and Junie and Everett to St. Louis so you could finally have your “date” with Amelia. You spent all summer lamenting that you couldn’t meet up. You sent her a ring in the mail and love letters. You even learned a song “Tidal Wave” from the Disney show Bunked, created a dance to go with it, and performed it for her in a video. So that fall, we went to visit with them for a few days, and you two had your picnic by the river. We borrowed a tuxedo from a friend for you, and she wore a dress. Y’all were adorable and had so much fun together on that trip.

Lucas (age 7)

1. If you won a million dollars, what would you buy? 

L: I would buy a thousand cakes for my date with Amelia.

2. How long does it take to get to the U.K.? 

L: 7 billion miles

3. What do I always say to you? 

L: “Don’t climb the tree.”

4. What job would you like to do when you grow up? 

L: artist no mailman!

5. What is the capital of America? 

L: the Atlantic 

6. Where do babies come from? 

L: from little eggs if you’re a grownup girl 

7. At what age do you become an adult? 

L: over 20 or 30

8. If you could change one rule at your family’s  house what would it be?

L: give us ice cream before bed!

9. If you could be a superhero, what superpower would you have?

L: Super smartness so I could get out of school and control minds

10. What would you do to save the planet?

 L: kill all robbers and the corona virus and momo

11. If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?  

L: Reese’s

12. How much does it cost to buy a house? 

 L: $1,000

13. Why do you think we should be nice to others? 

L: “we don’t want to cry and hit and scream and pout”

14. What does love mean to you?

L: Love means Amelia- it means that you really like something 

15. What are you scared of? 

L: momo and the corona virus 

16. What is so important to you? 

L: blue blankie 

17. What makes you angry?

L: not being able to fix the stomp rocket 

I don’t know what the future is going to bring or what our new normal will look like, but I promise you that no matter what, we will do our best to keep you safe and love you no matter what.

Love you, buddy.

Love,

Momma