Here we are – it’s day 100 of lockdown. Somehow we’ve survived the madness (well, the first 100 days of it at any rate) and everything it’s thrown at us. We’ve dealt with terrible illness, missed birthday parties, holidays and anniversaries, entirely reworked how we shop (and have bought half of Amazon in the process), learned how to educate our own children (as best as we could), clapped and cheered for our carers, tried (and failed) to make sourdough, had probes shoved uncomfortably far down our throats, and sorely missed seeing our friends and family (but have become experts at Zoom, HouseParty and myriad other video services in the meantime). But in spite of the sad times, challenges and anguish during the past few months, we’re still here and we’re still going strong.
It was tricky to get Genevieve out of the house on time again this morning. It’s becoming a habit, and one I really don’t want sticking around.
As James tucked in to his breakfast, he was inspired by Grandma Margaret’s daily video from her walk around the park. He wanted to create his own, so I dutifully recorded it and sent it to my parents and siblings. I’m slightly worried that he’ll be asking for his own phone soon!
Having dropped Genevieve off at school, I then ferried James over to Grandma Margaret and Grandad Stephen’s for a day of fun before heading home for a Zoom call with my students.
Here’s a record of James’s adventures thanks to Grandma Margaret.
We walked in Norman Park with Tizzy (our dog), James taking control of Tizzy at times!
He walked in the stream and splashed in puddles going to the park, whilst in the park, and on the way home again.
James got tired but the promise of Granddad Stephen’s flapjack motivated him to get home without being carried.
James also decorated a piece of wood with stickers and his name.
During the day I make a dent in the mountain of training I’ve got to work through for school, and also tackled some of the never-ending tidying and sorting around the house. Stephen had another restful day as he’s still signed off from work. It’s clearly having a positive impact on him though as he was a bit brighter today.
Before I knew it, it was time to collect Genevieve from school. Once we were back home (having enjoyed the usual hi-jinks and shenanigans with the other children on the way home), I got Genevieve clean and then prepared for my Next sale shopping slot.
My pre-booked sale slot was at 4.30pm. I’d already scanned through the pre-sale and had a clear (and long) list of items I wanted. I logged in and the whole process started off relatively simply. However, it got much trickier as time went by as more and more people also tried to access the site. There may have been some light swearing when the basket crashed for a third time and I lost some of the items I wanted. But overall I feel very lucky to have been able to get so many of the things I wanted ordered, especially when I looked at Next’s Twitter feed and saw the rapidly growing deluge of complaints from unhappy shoppers who’d not been as successful as I was.
While I was tacking the sale, Stephen took Genevieve out for a walk and some “Daddy Genevieve” time. This started with a visit to the friendly neighbourhood monkey. Today he’d been giving a lecture about the giant asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs – very odd!
Once at the green, they started with a bit of Frisbee throwing. Genevieve’s developing a really strong throwing arm!
But she’s still a complete poser – some things will never change.
Next they moved on to skipping. Genevieve was very keen to show off the skipping skills she’d learned at school with her friends. The only downside was that she was a lot faster than Stephen was expecting. He’s still gets extremely tired very quickly, so you can probably hear how much he was huffing and puffing in the video below.
By this point Stephen had done far too much so they headed back home, but not before Genevieve had spotted two massive mushrooms growing out of a tree root. Stephen gave her a long talk about how she must never eat or even touch wild mushrooms, but apparently the next words out of her mouth were “can I pick them up”. We’ll need to keep an eye on her, won’t we!
At this point I headed off to collect James from Grandma Margaret and Grandad Stephen’s house, leaving Stephen and Genevieve playing with Hama beads. Genevieve started a (slightly ambitious) portrait of her holding Stephen’s hand – super cute. Sadly she only got as far as outlining Stephen’s (somewhat square) head, but it was a strong start.
When I got home, Stephen went for a lie down while I fed the kids, and then we both put them to bed. Then we ate dinner and collapsed on the sofa before heading to bed ourselves.
It’s been another long, tiring day. Yawn!
The Smiths Family Blog 
better get a shorter skipping rope for Jenna and a small train on rails for Stephen to sit on when filming her
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