Jia’s birthday was the first day we started the lockdown in Santa Clara county.
Short version:
Day 1 Jia 🎂 and I broke KK’s bike as driving over it 🤯
Day 2 Circle time and shifts
Day 3 Shifts and Jia fixed KK’s bike! Yeah!
KK started coughing = worrisome 😟
Day 4 Kids go crazy with voice recognition app 🤣
Day 5 Zoophonic circle went crazy; KK face planked while riding his fixed bike.
Day 6 Seriously prep for grocery trip. After taking over the street in front of our house, we rode bikes to a nearby park.
Day 7 Sun Whole family work out! 💪 And rode a big circle 🚲 around Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve. So many birds 🦆 Need a break from shifts!!
Day 8 Mon KK helped with dishes and cooking pancake! Planning helps the day go smoothly.
Day 9 Tue Both KK and Kiki love alphablocks and went crazy on zoo phonics - Sometimes they play really well together.
Detailed journal:
3/16 Mon cloudy Jia 🎂
It was a tough day as first day working from home with kids. Even with the trial run yesterday, it was still a lot of hiccups. I think KK’s attention span was about 30 minutes with us. Not to mention little Kiki is just flying around everywhere.
Lunch time I rushed out to get Jia’s bday cake and take out for lunch from Teleferic Barcelona and run over KK’s bike! 🤯 omg, 😯 need to calm down. When I am not calm, things go bad!
Luckily Jia really enjoyed the lunch and I took Kiki to nap after it.
3/17 Tue morning sunny, afternoon cloudy-rain
Morning exercise with kids and Jia went out for a run. 9-10 me, 10-11 jia, 11-12me, lunch and then take Kiki out. 1pm Kiki fall asleep and I get on call at work.
It was definitely not easy to take shifts work and care for the kids at the same time. Probably because we need to learn how to teach the kids. At night I just take it easy and journal and went over some tasks. Reviewing the GTD productivity was relaxing (deep down I am a productivity nerd).
3/18 Wed- cloudy and cold
Morning upper body work out with kids. Then come to shifts. It is getting into a routine and every 45 minutes a shift might need to become one hour in the future. But so far I do circle time and letter and Jia did art and outside play.
Tried to figure out why my cell stopped connecting to VNP - which is very frustrating. Finally uninstall profile and reinstall everything fixed the issue.
Jia got the parts and fixed Kk’s bike.
3/19 Thur
Morning lower body work out with kids. Then shifts. It is still a bit crazy with calls and need to make lunch and take Kiki out for nap. I am trying more with different apps and so far the Alphablocks and Panda app are great. Kids went crazy when the voice recognition lines went vibrant. 🤣
KK tried the bike and it was ok - thanks to Jia! Great fixer. :)
Apple Fish sandwich is not bad for dinner. It is definitely made-shift but no other choice at this tough time.
3/20 Fri
Morning late get up but still do Ab work out. Kids are used to the morning work out routine now. Kiki saw me and lie down on the Matt to do upward dog yoga position right away.
Then Jia took first shift and I did Journal. Since each day is a blur. It does seem hard to draw the difference - might need some rituals.
Every night we feel tired, especially with either Kiki or KK were coughing or not feeling well at night. KK’s skin got a bit worse - not sure whether his cough has to do with it.
Tonight Jia and I just chatted a bit and it felt precious as we normally either need to work or do housework or just too tired. Randomly just talking is good with our relationship.
3/21 Sat
Morning got up and when I went out Kiki saw me and immediately came to the mat and pretended doing exercise. So I made medicine and started to do exercise.
Jia went grocery shopping and then my WeChat was bombarded as Xin and Biyan saw some news about people in US attacking Chinese due to the Corvid-19 (because Trump said it is Chinese virus). So when Jia came home late 9:45, I got worried.
Took kids out a bit and then came home for a movie so I can make lunch but KK didn’t like Walle but we managed to go outside on the deck to eat lunch (even though it is cloudy) as we need a scenery change.
After Kiki’s nap, we went riding bike to the Palo Alto direction and there were quite a few families in the field playing soccer or running or playing on the glasses. It is hard especially with kids to be only at home.
Came home and played outside a bit and then when kids watched Design A, I made fried rice. Jia wanted to finish some work so he is focused on that.
In the evening I did journal and weekly review. Tried a new method to plan for next week and made three focuses.
Listened to Minimalism and also start the 30 day game.
3/22 Sun
Morning whole family did work out 💪
And the morning was sunny and nice so we went out together to the Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve to ride bikes. It was way more people than a couple weeks ago. Probably every family can’t stand it. We saw a lot of people walking or running too (not only with kids). We did a big loop and KK was able to finish most of it (except the part with too many gravels he was pushing his bike).
Afternoon stayed at home and KK actually really wanted to do circle time and art class with me.
Dinner = Jia made risotto and mexican soup = yummy
Evening after the dinner walked outside with whole family (a little rain) to investigate why the work out corner by Weimo was destroyed - it turned out there was a car rushing and didn’t make the turn and ran into that corner. It was really cute to see KK and Kiki walk in the rain in their rain gears. And KK still remembered that his umbrella was from Japan trip.
Evening after kids go to bed, we did YNAB. And I also did great planning for Monday. And will keep doing that.
3/23 Mon Sunny
Great planning last night and follow up most of the items - got up 7:20 and started morning routine (breathe, grateful, goal, tongue, schedule, kid gratitude, exercise)
Book - Digital Minimalism
KK helped me to wash dishes, put away clean ones, and make my special pancake for lunch
Dr. Yang came and check on KK and it is all ok but need some medicine and I got acupuncture :)
Things always take longer - need to block more time for the task.
3/24 Tue Cloudy
Morning upper body. Then circle with the welcome song/weather song/letters. KK thinks of more words than I do for M and C! I guess he did great practice at his day care. Then Jia did artwork - making super cat houses with KK. KK definitely determines the theme and he helped me wash dishes and zucchinis to prep for lunch.
In the afternoon I was busy with work. We made hamburger for dinner.
Evening time was less optimized as trying to get grocery delivery but couldn’t.
