Emmalyn is 19 months old.
Spring is finally hear and the weather has warmed up! This has been an adventurous month with so many changes.
Starting the middle of March, we started the COVID-19 quarantine of 2020. It has been a strange month. Almost all events and businesses have been closed, except for those deemed essential. Eric has been working from home. School has now been switched to online learning. We have had to literally hunker down in our house. We don't go anywhere besides the grocery store. We have been trying to go every two weeks to limit our exposure.
We are grateful that we love our home, that we have a backyard, and that we have a play set in our backyard. We bought it as a birthday present for the boys when mom was pregnant with Clara. Playgrounds are closed, which has been one of the many things that have been sad for our kids. We love going to parks. Luckily, we love to play on our set in the backyard. Emmalyn loves to climb up the slide and go down. She also enjoys swinging in her baby swing. We sometimes put her in the nest swing with her siblings, but she is not a fan of lying down and swinging at the same time.
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up the slide
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Emmalyn also likes to help with yard work. She sometimes even helps dad mow the grass.
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mowing the lawn
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With the big siblings having to school from home, it has left mom with less time to focus on Emmalyn. She would have some mornings when it was just her and Emmalyn. Now, mom has all of the kids home and she has taken on the role of teacher, managing the online learning of the boys and coordinating Clara's preschool curriculum. Emmalyn has honestly been the child that has had to go with the flow the most. Mom didn't have as much time to spend with her. We still tried to spend time reading with her, and even though she is little, she still gets to be involved with special treats like homemade chocolate chip cookies.
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cookies
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Before they closed down the parks, we made it out to our local park one last time.
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swinging
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Emmalyn loves music and plunking on the piano. She likes to sit on the piano seat and doesn't mind sharing the piano with her siblings. Mo m also has been playing Raffi for her and finding other songs that she knows the hand motions for and has been having music time with Emmalyn a few time a week.
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piano
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Unfortunately, one week into the quarantine, Emmalyn fell down the basement stairs and hit her head on the wooden banister base. It sounds worse than it actually was. She was only a couple of steps from the bottom when she lost her balance and fell right on the corner of the bottom banister. The corner hit her just right and required 5 stiches to close the wound. Mom took her to the Nationwide Close to Home where she ran into her friend Lindsey who was working. She was able to be Emmalyn's nurse, which was very sweet. Emmalyn was in good spirits, despite the long wait for the tech to come back and perform the stitches. She was not happy at all during the procedure and cried the entire time. Afterward, they gave her a lime freezie, and she kept licking it and saying yum. on repeat She didn't seem to mind anything after that, except for when mom took it away in the car. Mom let her finish it when they got home. Mom knew she would dump the melted juice all over herself and she was too tired to have to clean her car seat on top of taking her to pediatric urgent care. Plus, they were in dad's car since the van wouldn't start.
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waiting to numb
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stitches
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We took lots of walks and went hiking multiple times a week at local metro parks to get out of the house. Emmalyn is a late sleeper, so since dad was working from home, mom would often leave her sleeping while she hiked with the older siblings. Emmalyn loves to be outside. She doesn't mind riding in the stroller, although she prefers to walk.
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happy girl
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Often on hikes, mom will put her in the Ergo to carry her. Sometimes, she falls asleep.
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sleepy lynnie
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Emmalyn's stitches are slowly starting to heal. The stitches fell out after about a week. Mom rubs Aquaphor on her scar a few times a day and puts sunscreen on it or makes Emmalyn wear a hat to reduce scarring.
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sweet girl
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It is the Easter season! We were planning on going to Indiana, but instead, we are staying at home. We celebrated Palm Sunday by going to Genoa Church for their drive in church service. Emmalyn was tired of siting in her car seat so we held her for a bit.
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church
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We also dyed Easter Eggs. Emmalyn kept smelling the dye. She didn't dump or drink any of it, so it feels like a success. We made an Easter feast at home and had an Easter egg hunt. The kids had a great day, despite missing extended family.
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dyeing eggs
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Emmalyn is a good eater. While loving carbs and pasta, she eats lots of types of fruit, vegetables, and meat. Her favorite foods are edamame, pasta, roast chicken, strawberries, and cheese. She obviously also loves cookies and chocky (chocolate). If we leave the pantry door open, we have to be careful because she will grab granola bars and run away with them. Sometimes she even gets them open. You can always tell when she is up to something, though, because she gets very quiet.
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licking her plate clean
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The weather is warming up, which has let us get outside even more. Right before Easter, we dropped of WARM donations at our church. We decided to go for a walk on the way home on the Hoover Trail. Mom drove the new van and didn't have a stroller, carrier, and Emmalyn didn't have shoes on, so we all took turns carrying her. Mom carried her for most of the two miles, but her arms got tired towards the end so big brother took over. She is getting big.
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big brother
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the kids
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This has been a strange month of lots of changes. Being stuck at home without being able to see any friends, family, neighbors, or classmates has been hard. We are meant to be social and isolation during a season of cold blah weather can make everyone's hearts feel sad. But, we have tried to make the best of it. We are learning how to slow down since literally everything has been cancelled. We are finding new ways to entertain one another like family hide and go seek nights. We also realize how much we love each other and are trying to make the most of the extra time we have to spend together.
It will be interesting to see what the next month brings!
-eric & anna
