When everything went down with the lockdowns and all, Amanda and I had a discussion and decided that since the weakest link to spreading the coronavirus was Tristen’s work with the hospital, we were going to have Milly stay just with Amanda for a while. Milly’s last time with us was March 17.
Milly and I texted and FaceTimed much more often, but since the last time she was here, I saw Milly only once; the Saturday before Easter.
To be clear, Amanda was in no way trying to keep her from me. She would, I think, have been open to me getting her, and legally I could have if it became an issue (which, again, I don’t think it would have been). I just thought the smartest thing to do to mitigate any potential spread was to isolate as much as possible.
It wasn’t easy. It was hard to talk to people about and I can’t say I didn’t get a bit teary talking or thinking about it now and then.
At any rate, Milly mentioned Thursday when I was texting with her before going to bed that she thought she might see me this weekend, and Amanda called the next day. We discussed it a bit and decided we both felt comfortable with letting Milly come over. She asked me a good bit about the precautions taken at Tristen’s work, whether she had to be in direct contact with people, that sort of thing.
Milly arrived around 4:30 Friday afternoon. All the boys were excited to see her and she played with them a good bit after putting her stuff in her room.
One of the things Milly had been talking about quite a bit was introducing me to her new favorite show (thought it’s not a brand new show), Gravity Falls. We watched a few episodes Friday and Saturday night. On Sunday we played some Just Dance on the Nintendo Switch she brought over. Out side of that it was mostly a bunch of hanging out. I mean, with most of the state shut down, there wasn’t anything outside of the house to really do.
Milly spent some time writing a story. I read the first little bit of it and was honestly very impressed with the writing. It was very introspective and flowed nicely. Kind of stream of conscious, but you could follow it. The story was inspired by a loud thunderstorm that woke her up one night.
On a similar note, I started reading The Wind in the Willows to her a while back. I love that she still asks me to read to her before bed. I never read that before and I love the language in it, the way it describes everything. Sometimes I stop and, if Milly’s not already nodding off, I’ll ask her if she knows what the passage was saying. She’s a very good reader, but the flowery language can be a bit hard to decipher if you’re not fully engaged in it.
Outside of Milly stuff, Tristen and I took turns playing with her parents’ power washer that we borrowed. I cleaned the front of the house, she got the back. We couldn’t get the carport side because the attachments have fused to each of the hoses, so we had to use another, shorter hose. I’ve ordered some replacement ends.
On Sunday I gave myself a Coronacut, which is the term people have given to giving themselves haircuts since salons and barbershops aren’t open. I had been saying for a while that I was going to shave just my sides and leave myself a frohawk. I’ve always kinda wondered what that would look like, and, as everyone figures, if you’re going to do something crazy with your hair, this time of general isolation is the time to do it.
My friend Jason dyed his hair and beard purple. My brother Adam shaved himself bald.
So I trimmed the sides of my head.
It looked a bit silly at first, but as I kept messing with it, it came into shape a bit, and actually looked pretty good when I wet it and put some gel in it. I trimmed it up a bit more the next day and might keep messing with it every few days.
Erin and Daniel were out biking and stopped by, maintaining social distance.
Milly played with the boys a good bit more than she had previously. Maybe some of it was her not seeing them in more than a month, but I think Fawkes and Phoenix are at a stage now where they can start to actually play. They like chasing and being chased, and both of them, but Phoenix moreso, like to roar at you so you act scared.
They’re really been into being spun lately. Fawkes asks at least a couple times a day and Phoenix will join in. I tell them to say, “Ready, set, GO!” but only Phoenix does the ready and set. Fawkes just says “GO!” the whole time.
Fin Fin continues to take some steps every now and then. I wouldn’t say he’s walking, but he can walk. He’s starting to get very playful too and loves being chased. He’s able to stack toys pretty well, which is a new skill for him.
Speaking of stacking, Fawkes and Phoenix both have distinct styles of building towers with Lego blocks. (Actually, they’re Mega Blocks, but they’re essentially giant Legos.) Fawkes likes to stack them up as high as he can go, usually only using the single and double blocks, whereas Phoenix likes to build out more of a base. I know identical twins are still individual people, but it’s funny just how different these two are.
Milly was picked up around 10:30 on Monday. She’s in a bit of a routine with her schoolwork already at her mom’s, plus she was worried about being distracted if she were to do it here. I’d love to have her more, of course, but I can certainly understand where she’s coming from.
Monday was also Mom’s birthday, and when the family was on a Zoom call all together for Griffin’s birthday, Mom mentioned she really liked having everyone on like that, so we scheduled a family Zoom chat for the evening.