Quarantine Days Birthdays...
6/27/2020
Both my kids had birthdays during the quarantine. My older son turned 7, and we've had huge parties every year, with my husband's whole, huge family, most of my immediate family, and a nice variety of friends from over the years. Despite a loose 'no gifts' policy, the kid would have piles of presents. We would spend the evening eating food, socializing, and cramming everyone into our small house and backyard. I'd end the day happy and exhausted, and the kid would often sing to himself quietly, long into the night, exploring all the new toys and goodies he'd received.
This year, we had several zoom meetings, lots of video and 'regular' phone calls, and my sister and her kids came over to sing Happy Birthday from the sidewalk. The birthday boy was so pleased with his gift - that's right, singular - and I was still exhausted at the end of the day from all the distant socializing.
My younger son turned 2 this week. He didn't really care too much about any of it. He does love Iron Man at the moment, so we ordered him some Iron Man shirts, and they arrived in the mail on the day of his birth, and he loves them. (I did have some reservations about ordering things online, though that's a whole other story, for another time.) We had blueberry pancakes, and we planted the cherry pits from the birthday cherries, along with the pit from the sole surviving apricot this year - a quarantine tree.
I was thinking I would miss all the in-person socialization, the sort of happy madness that came with our huge, yearly parties (and this year we would have had to have two, I thought). While I do miss getting together with family and friends, the quiet time has been nice, and the simple celebrations have a way of filling those little empty-feeling spaces within my soul. It was just what we needed. It was beautiful.
Here are some images from our months at home.
This year, we had several zoom meetings, lots of video and 'regular' phone calls, and my sister and her kids came over to sing Happy Birthday from the sidewalk. The birthday boy was so pleased with his gift - that's right, singular - and I was still exhausted at the end of the day from all the distant socializing.
My younger son turned 2 this week. He didn't really care too much about any of it. He does love Iron Man at the moment, so we ordered him some Iron Man shirts, and they arrived in the mail on the day of his birth, and he loves them. (I did have some reservations about ordering things online, though that's a whole other story, for another time.) We had blueberry pancakes, and we planted the cherry pits from the birthday cherries, along with the pit from the sole surviving apricot this year - a quarantine tree.
I was thinking I would miss all the in-person socialization, the sort of happy madness that came with our huge, yearly parties (and this year we would have had to have two, I thought). While I do miss getting together with family and friends, the quiet time has been nice, and the simple celebrations have a way of filling those little empty-feeling spaces within my soul. It was just what we needed. It was beautiful.
Here are some images from our months at home.
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