Corona Virus Quarantine Day #40: Normal: April 28, 2020
My guest writer tonight is Cooper Claerhout Dorsey…speed skater extraordinaire, handsome and sweet as can be…here’s what he had to say!
I woke up early with Fletcher and we went downstairs to play with his old dinosaurs because it was too early to ride our bikes. Then we went into Mom’s room and watched American’s Funniest Videos while the other kids slept. The best video we saw was “humpty dumpty” and you kick a ball at someone sitting on a wall and they fall off. That was pretty funny.
Then we ate breakfast, it was good. Then we went outside and I roller bladed first and let Fiona use my bike. I am really getting fast on my roller blades. I want to be an NHL Hockey player. Then I rode my bike over the amazing ramp that Daddy made. You go flying off of it, it is amazing, really cool and fun to go off of it.
Then we went into the house for our zoom meeting for school. We got to see all our friends so that was awesome. I am glad we have zoom. Then we went back outside and rode our bikes more up and down that ramp. We still went flying. We also found some baby bunnies. They were so cute when they ran and jumped. Fletcher wanted to keep them as a pet.
We had one more zoom meeting after that to do our vocab for school. Those ones are really long. Then back out to do the ramp thing again and it started raining so we went to the barn to do my shots with my right hand and I’m getting a lot better.
Then Fletcher and I went up to the house to wrap Finley’s presents for our birthday next week. We also found a frog today. It was a tree frog. Fletcher wanted to keep it as a pet, like the bunny rabbits. It could really jump. It jumped out of Fletcher’s hand onto my leg. It was kind of creepy when that happened.
After dinner we went back out to ride bikes and mom brought out some homemade ice cream cookie sandwiches. It is so good. If I could have that everyday I would like it! We rode bikes some more and dad had to put up the ramp because it was movie time. We watched the new version of Dumbo. It’s really funny and the elephant has really big ears and can fly. It would be so cool to fly. Now it’s bedtime and mommy and I are going to read some of Hitler’s Secret. It’s probably my favorite book. Mommy really likes it, she wants to finish it faster. I like reading with mommy.
The corona virus is good because I get to see my family more and spend so much time with them. You get to play more sports with each other and go to the barn. We can really do what we want and we can do school at home. It’s going pretty good and its fun. Mom’s a really good teacher and dad’s a good math teacher. He knows every math problem I can think of. Mom knows all the things about History. Things I don’t know. They must have studied hard. The bad thing about the corona virus is you can’t go to school and see your teachers, friends, can’t go to stores or restaurants (I like to eat at restaurants) and I like to see people. It’s also bad because it hurts people and lots of people go to the hospital and some people die because of it. One of my friend’s parents both have it because they are both hospital workers. Hospital workers are really brave because they are around the corona virus and most people wouldn’t want to do that.
Today I am thankful all the good things in the world like family and friends. Definitely not thankful for sicknesses like the corona virus.
Love, Cooper
Mommy’s thoughts:
As I typed the #40 on this today I blacked out a little bit. Whoa. That’s hard to believe. I still have to remind myself that this is real sometimes. School was cancelled. Sports were cancelled. Socializing…cancelled. We’ve been at it 40 days. Crazy.
As our nation talks about opening back up, I struggle. A huge part of me wants to walk into Costco and give my pal Steven a hug…just because I can. I want to see friends and their kids. I want to see my students and play sports.
Another part of me is scared. I don’t want people I know and love to contract this illness. People like my mom.
I’m not sure what Governor Kelly will decide for the sate of Kansas at this point as we are supposed to open back up in 6 days on May 3rd. I can’t see that happening…but so far there seems to be no announcement to the contrary.
What that means for schools and sports is unknown.
Also, a huge part of me isn’t ready or excited to go back to normal. I have really enjoyed this mandated slow down and it’s forced us…all of us…to reflect on what really matters.
I’m hopeful that we will return to a world that has a different perspective and level of respect for everyone…but…I am afraid the world will fall back into old patterns…and quickly. I don’t want that to happen.
I want to return to a “normal” that involves more time at home, less time in my car and lots of family time.
I want to return to a “normal” where health care professionals, first responders and teachers are treated with a new level of respect that we have never seen before. Because I think if we learned one thing…it’s that we need all of these professions far more than we ever realized.
I want to return to a “normal” that involves fewer anxious, over tired, stressed-out kids who worry about things far outside their control.
I want to return to a “normal” where sports are played because we love them and parents, kids and opposing teams show each other respect and celebrate each other’s successes rather than find a way to complain about how those successes impose on their own will.
I want to return to a “normal” that involves only people that fill my cup. This one I know is impossible…but a girl can dream…right?
I want to return to a “normal” that involves a higher level of hygiene. People…wash your damn hands. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been in a bathroom and seen people come out of stalls and walk out of the bathroom. Gross. You people are just gross. Wash your hands.
I want to return to a “normal” where social distancing and Covid-19 are not terms we hear 3,000 times a day.
No one knows when normal is going to start again for our nation, our state or even our families…only time will tell.
In the meantime, my normal looks a little like this…
My new normal is a 5-year-old boy up at 6am because he wants to ride his bike. Explaining how the dog (Gigi) was so very proud of him and how he was proud of her too because she swam in the pond. But Gigi was definitely more proud of him.
My new normal is a discovery of baby bunnies in our front yard…then an obsession all day long with said bunnies.
Even though I repeatedly asked them to not go near the bunnies I went out later and they had dropped carrots in the hole because the bunnies were “hungry”.
My new normal is a bike ramp being built in the driveway while mom and dad are working. Then said bike ramp causing a crash that resulted in the 5-year-old biker being run over by his sibling’s bike. Yep that happened today! Still haven’t figured out how that was possible.
This is just part of the damage done to this little boy with the great bike ramp accident of 2020. His arms are mess too. It was actually seeing the baby bunnies that got him to forget being run over by his brothers bike.
My new normal involves a capture of a tree frog and 5 small children begging for it to become our new pet.
I’m pretty sure if we had a suitable home for this frog…we’d probably have had a new pet!
Fletcher has a plan for the new pet frog!
My new normal is a day where homeschool was put off until the afternoon because it was supposed to rain. Then it just got put off indefinitely (for some of us) for the day because…why not…we can.
My new normal is being serenaded at every single meal, the songs of choice are either “From Now On”, “Final Countdown” or “Dance Monkey”.
My new normal is hugs and snuggles from very tired kids from a day full of sunshine, playing outside, riding bikes, chasing wild animals and playing sports.
That’s a normal I can get used to.
See you on the other side of normal friends.
Stay well.
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