Despite all that's been going on in the world with the continuing Pandemic, and now the civil unrest associated with the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, we decided to continue our plans to drive to Maryland anyway. Avi was leaving on a work trip, and we wanted to stay with Katie and baby Aaron while he was away.
We had already planned on driving straight through, and I packed sandwiches, snacks, and juice to tide us over. We stopped for gas and bathroom breaks along the way, wearing our masks, and wiping things down with antibacterial wipes. We would have wanted to get started with our drive by 3am, but instead had to wait until 6am because of mandated curfews. We arrived at their place a little after midnight.
I decided that it was finally time to be with family again, and hugged and kissed them all, letting go of my fears regarding the virus and social distancing. We were not created to be isolated beings! And although I will most likely continue to be cautious with the rest of the world, family will be a different thing.
Aaron is now six months old. He's able to hold himself up better while sitting, and is trying out new big boy foods. Katie makes her own baby food for him, finely grinding up oats and rice, and steaming fresh veggies and fruits to mash. Sleep is still a challenge for him, probably because he's so alert and curious about things. He's going to be a smart one, that little boy.
It felt so nice to have normal things to concentrate on. Katie was able to do a little gardening, and even sent home a few green bean plants in a pot for me to put on our patio. We made a couple of trips to Home Depot for supplies, and as seems to be our new normal, wore face masks and then had difficulty breathing in the hot, humid weather that Maryland always seems to have. We had an afternoon tea on the deck (Katie made Grandma Joyce's mound bars), and watched to see if birds would discover the new bird feeders. We saw some tufted titmouse, but no hummingbirds just yet.
And then all of a sudden, it was time to drive home! Curfews were lifted the day we drove back, which was a good thing because it was again after midnight when we got home. The house was still standing, the cats and fish were alive, and my potted plants still lived. Well, my hanging fuchsia plant looked a little rough, but after I gave it a good soaking of water, it perked right up.
It seemed like Punk hadn't had any accidents anywhere, surprising us because she recently started going potty on the carpet in the basement family room again. Of course we've stopped even letting her be in the basement for now, but there's plenty of carpet elsewhere in the house that she could be naughty on ... When I woke up the next morning, I found she'd gone potty on the carpet right outside our bedroom door! Maybe to leave a message that she was annoyed with us that we'd gone away. Later on, I heard Bruce having a talk with her, telling her that he didn't want anymore "reckless potty-ing", which struck me as hilarious. 😂
Anyway, it's nice to escape once in awhile, and then nice to come home.
