Tag: Coronavirus Daily

I kinda want things to get back to some sort of “normal” to help force me back into a regular schedule. My sleeping pattern is a wreck.

“Rainbow Connection” is up there with “Pure Imagination” for movie songs from my childhood that get me every time.

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The last couple of weeks have been day after day of Sammy, the 5 year old, wanting to throw pretend parties. They involve a lot of “presents” which are his toys wrapped in a blanket delivered to us throughout the house. And a big party set up in his room with stations including an art area, a reading spot, costumes, and a lesson on toy cars crashing into other toy cars. He’s gotten Jasper, the 2 year old, to join in, who is now equally obsessed at the idea of throwing a party.

So guess who’s having a party this weekend?

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Like most of America, I need a haircut. It’s starting to curl on the ends in the back. Soon it’ll curl around the ears. The rest will continue to puff. It’s not going to be pretty.

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File this one under “why didn’t we think of this sooner?”

Today Sammy had a playdate with one of his friends from school via Zoom. It was simple, they showed each other some of their toys then built LEGO from their own homes and showed off their creations. Even Jasper got in on it, showing off to Sammy’s friend.

Sammy was pretty excited to see his friend. Makes me wonder what’s going through their little heads throughout this whole thing. Everything is so different, and they know it, but what does that mean to a 5yo and 2yo?

Shaved for the first time in two weeks. Look somewhat more respectable and many years younger. All of my grays are in my beard. It’s rough looking. Of course I didn’t think to take a before picture, but it’s probably for the best.

The Kenney Family’s social distancing began 45 days ago, meaning we’re entering our seventh week of the whole family being home. We’re still not doing enough of the schooling of our children and boy oh boy is the idea of “limiting” screentime hilarious, but on another level it’s kinda nice.

Seeing these boys interact and be their own people and play and learn and grow together is something else. There will never be another moment when we get this kinda time with them, even if a lot of it is in the background while we’re trying to get work done.

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Risked leaving the kids alone in the home office while I was on a conference call. Came back to find my mouse missing and three keys popped off my keyboard. Coulda been worse?

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My first experience with Post Malone was a meme that said he looked like the 0.01% of germs hand sanitizer didn’t kill. I enjoyed his song off the Into The Spider-Verse soundtrack and noted a comment I heard from him on a podcast about how he could make his voice do this “Stevie Nix goat kinda sound.” Otherwise I haven’t given him much attention. That changed this weekend when he did a very respectable 15 song set of Nirvana covers with Blink-182’s Travis Barker to help raise money for WHO COVID-19 response.

I’m a little put off by his colorful language between songs, but more because that limits my ability to listen to this because of the kids being around. I tell myself. GET OFF MY LAWN.

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An unintended consequence of this quarantine is a small growth of the vinyl collection. Spoon’s “Gimme Fiction” is coming up on a 15th anniversary this June, and grabbing that had me feeling like giving “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga” a listen and remembering what a fantastic album that was. And while I was picking up other records I figured I’d get Beck’s best album “Sea Change” (followed closely by “Mutations”) which I’d been meaning to do for a while.

President Clinton would approve:

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The 2 year old wanted me to draw his stuffed cat. So I did.

Then he wanted me to give him a sword. It kinda went downhill from there. Or uphill?

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I’d started keeping a journal back when all of this began. And after a couple weeks fell out of it. Part because it read like the same thing every day: “Work. Boys were good. Everyone’s stir crazy.” Repeat. But then some heavy things happened that awkwardly made it difficult for me to feel motivated to write (usually it’s the opposite). I sometimes pick it up in the morning and put the date on the page with the intention of filling in the blank space below, but, lately, inevitably, the blank space gets filled with the date of the next day I pick it up.

Sammy broke out the book from his How to Draw Comic Books kit he got for Christmas.

He spent the better part of the afternoon on one part, huffing’ and fussin’ as he drew and erased and got frustrated because it wasn’t matching what was in the book.

I sat with him a little bit, not as long as I’d have liked, but we started over together and I told him the guy that wrote the book wasn’t five, it took him a long time to get that good, and I bet when he was five he couldn’t draw as well as Sammy can. Heck, Sammy was doing better than I could ever do, let alone at five.

He seemed to like that part. “When you were five you couldn’t draw?” Not as well as you can. “You probably could only do a stickman.” He kept working at it as I got busy with something else and a bit later he gave me this. It’s not like what was in the book, but it’s Sammy’s and it’s pretty darn good.

We’re almost two weeks into this social distancing and it’s awesome seeing the boys and their personalities and differences play out all day every day in ways we miss when they’re at school and we’re at work. And Sammy’s creativity consistently amazes me, this kid’s imagination and artistic streak is so cool. Now to keep encouraging it.