Life of Lulu: May 2020

Live keeps on even with the continued coronavirus lockdown. Spencer and I more and more agree that we should have gone the Sweden route, open everything up with social distancing and protect our most vulnerable populations and nursing homes. The original lockdown was a good idea so that everyone got the message that we need to take this seriously, but we can't keep people out of work forever.

It was sad to say good-bye to Miss Debbie our Kindermusik teacher. I can't believe we made it the entire school year and Elsie and I didn't miss ONE class! Lots of favorites and memories made through this music class. Shiny Dinah. Baby Finger UP and Baby Finger Down. Pete and PJ in the tub with wishy washy wishy washy wishy washy wee! Running and dancing with our classmates (virtual was not the same unfortunately). Peep Squirrel. Miss Debbie signing the Jamaican Tingalayo Come Little Donkey Come. And I'll never forget how excited and eager of a helper Elsie was at every class, getting the musical instruments, singing and dancing, and her enthusiastic participation. Priceless!

She's become a big complicated with bathroom things. She NEEDS privacy whenever she goes. The other day I heard her yell to Spencer, "Dad! Just go awaaaaaaay!" for him to stop hovering. And she's been having more accidents lately. Spencer thinks its a rebellion thing because we are on lockdown and can't do anything she used to like to do (yet). Several underwear changes a day. But she's been eating and pooping great!

Loving her Disney movies before bed still (30 minutes each night to wind down). Lots of moana, frozen, puppy pals and watched Up! for first time.

Bedtime is still torture. Our routine is to brush teeth, watch a show, go up and read a couple books, tell stories, and sing 3-15 songs. Every night is a struggle to leave the room. She cries and cajoles and begs, total melt down. "Mom, don't leave me, I'm scared!" So hard to leave her there crying when she says that!

Because we are still under coronavirus lockdown we take daily walks, go to olbrich park/ beach a bunch, and have been planning a weekly hike. Otherwise we hang out in the back yard and around the house ALL DAY.

She's still kind of a picky eater, but been eating a good amount of food so maybe another growth spurt? Elsie ate her first chicken nugget and liked it and ate another! Caveat it was McDonald's...Still obsessed with mac and cheese, yogurt, sour cream, peanut butter sandwiches, vegetables as long as they are frozen (?!), sucking out the insides of tomatoes (sometimes eating them), noodles in any shape, doritos, tea, my peach sparkling waters, capri suns, and of course CHOCOLATE!

Spencer and I have been hanging in there pretty good, he was already at home so I think the cabin feever hit me way harder. Finishing teaching went as ok as possible. There was a tiger mom who tried to talk to me about her daughter's grade (16 yo), and I found that completely inappropriate as she has NO idea what the dynamics or the syllabus of the class was, just her daughter's word. Her daughter got a C in the class because she turned in her work at the very last second, didn't do amazing on the exams or finals, and forgot to turn in a bunch of labs. But she forced me into the middle of potential family drama that I don't want. Other than that most people in the course did really really well or dropped out. If you put the time in, got all your homework done, and did pretty good on the exams you got an A. Next semester I'll be teaching again at Madison College, different class (more Chemistry/Biology with some actual organic chemistry thrown in). So far MC has decided all lectures will be online format, still undecided about the labs and whether they will be much smaller groups but in person, or what.

Other than that I have been going to meetings with the Blackwell lab, which overall have been as good as possible. Mostly literature and news. I'm working on writing up my recent paper as no one is allowed back in the lab yet (likely late June, early July). And UW-Madison has closed all large lectures (online only), with smaller classes/labs/discussions still to be determined by July they say.

It's so frustrating living with all the unknowns, and with people only say to "wait longer and have patience". It's been 2 freaking months, give us a plan or tell us what the hell we are waiting around for?! We were on lock down to save the hospitals from being overwhelmed. Well we crossed that bridge and stabilized infection rate. Now what? Just because we locked down didn't make the number of infections per day go to zero, so people are still infecting each other and spreading this shit around. We are just delaying the inevitable rise in cases again at thsi point.

Spencer has been busy with several clients, even in this lock down phase. He took us to see a bigger house (def a no but it was fun), and he's got a contractor coming to look at the house today to see if a renovation would be an exorbitant price tag. We are still trying to get some income properties, everything is over priced right now since there is such low inventory. But he's getting a HELOC set up to tap into if we need it, and talking to mortgage brokers to get financing squared away. He even sent out a big mailing campaign to our Eastmorland neighborhood, to get the old people to sell their run down old houses to us so we can fix them up and rent them out. Steps in the right direction.

That's enough for now. Here's some pics!

Playing with Arthur outside tires both of them out and not me, yay!