Social Distancing

bored in the house, in the house bored.

Its been almost two months since this Pandemic has forced The world to “shelter in place”

We flew to Canada on March 8 to visit my older sister Teresa’s brand new baby Douglas. Daniel left the same day for Berlin, Germany for work on a film. We both left LA and had no idea just days later the world would be going on lockdown.

I met my new nephew Douglas, he was only 3 days old! Zo and King got to meet their first official cousin. We had plans to visit a few weeks after my sister’s due date but I couldn’t help myself and booked flights since he was born over 2 weeks early. Little did we know all this timing ended up working out very strangely.

The travel bans, border closings, and social distancing began a few days after we arrived in Canada. And even at LAX when we left the US there was hardly anyone wearing masks. There was no panic whatsoever at one of the largest international airports in the world.

As soon as everything started to close down, we felt it fast. I never knew it was going to affect us like this. We quickly started to put plans in place in order to keep everyone in the family safe. Only myself or my brother in law would go to the grocery store. Wearing masks, gloves, and then wipe down everything with disinfectant wipes before entering the house.

My mom and dads house is one door down from my sisters. So we were only able to go back and forth. We weren’t able to take the kids to the park, the beach, anywhere. We spent a lot of time outside with weather permitting. I ordered a million different things on amazon to keep the kids busy. I ordered preschool workbooks, flash cards, puzzles, tee ball, chalk, and a lot of slime.

Our impromptu trip to visit the new baby turned into over a month long trip. It ended up being the longest I’ve spent in Canada since I moved to LA in 2013. It was quality time with my family I wouldn’t normally get to have, it was a blessing in disguise to be all quarantined together.

We had a 2nd birthday party for Kingston at my parent’s house. I ordered toys from Amazon, Paw Patrol decorations, balloons, a piñata, and we made cupcakes which Zola loved to help decorate for her little brother. And a few days after that the Easter bunny visited, and we had an Easter egg hunt for the kids in my parents front yard.

Daniel’s film production got postponed in Berlin, and they sent him home. And after he had 14 days of self quarantine at home we decided we would leave Canada and head back to LA.

I was nervous about the journey, although short could pose a risk for myself and two little kids. We took the ferry to Vancouver with my younger sister Tiff. The ferry restricted people from sitting on the passenger levels, and advised people to stay in their vehicles. We had a lot of snacks and iPad time. Then the next day we flew back to LA early in the morning.

The YVR airport was empty. A ghost town. It was a weird feeling. All staff were wearing masks and gloves. We were the only people in the whole security area, as well as in customs. The flight had only 6 other people on it. I had some anxiety flying back to LA, but seems like it was even safer to fly home with an empty airport and plane, as opposed to when we flew to Canada in March with no precautions in place.

We have been staying home, staying safe for the past three weeks-ish. Thankfully our pool is complete and we can keep ourselves occupied while being stuck at home especially with the temperatures rising well above 30C.

I hope everyone is staying as safe as possible, staying in place with their loved ones. And let’s keep our fingers crossed we can all go back to normal soon. I would really like to drop my kids off at school again, am I right?