Day 8: Kitten has a name

Day 8, Saturday, 28th March 2020

Isabella received a letter in the post. It was a lovely surprise from her friend Matilda! Matilda  suggested the winning name for our kitten: Tabby! We've been struggling to decide on a name and just haven't found a name we felt worked, but this one just seems to fit. His full name is Mr Adrian Tabby but you can just call him Tabby.

Reading her letter from her friend.

We got Tabby to venture outside our bedroom and into the spare room for a little bit so we (Andre) could clean the bedroom without stressing Tabby out with the vacuum cleaner. He is becoming a little more confident each day.

Still loves his luxury cardboard house! And still not tried out his actual plushy bed...

Then Isabella had a remote play date with three of her friends. At least these kids will have no problem having remote business meetings when they have to!

And thanks to the Corona virus and working from home, Andre finally got to buy the office chair he really wanted.  There is only so much complaining about a chair I can listen to before giving in! Originally I didn't want such a big chair at our desk as our desk is also in our new chill out room, so wanted something a bit nicer. But now that Andre is sitting here at the desk all day, every day I had to let him have it.  At least I got to choose the nicest colour available which was this light grey fabric.

That's a Vit C booster in his hand, not a beer!!

Day 7: Pretty much the same as yesterday!

Second week completed working from home and first week completed for Isabella being home from school. So far so good. 

Andre and I are doing Joe's PE sessions in the morning and Isabella joins in when she feels like it.

Isabella's pretend shop was open again this afternoon so we've practiced money sums. We did bonds of 10 and 20 on the trampoline and also did reading and spelling on the trampoline today. Trying to cover anything we didn't get to earlier in the week!

Daily trampoline photo!

Isabella also had a her street dance class via Zoom on the computer this afternoon. She ended up having a private class as she was the only one who showed up. She loved it though! Kept saying how fun it was! There was also a little bit of iPad time of course and lots of time trying to keep kitten awake as he cried quite a bit again last night, keeping me up! Hoping for some improvement with that tonight. He is definitely becoming more inquisitive, playful and more brave.

Day 6 of social distancing

Cat spent most of the day in hiding still today, but has come out to play this evening for a bit. Hopefully he will feel more relaxed tomorrow. Also hoping he will let me sleep a bit more tonight! We're still undecided about his name and must really make a decision tomorrow.

School this morning consisted of maths - playing shop with real money, adding up prices and working out change. 

Then Andre took over while I did some work and after work went to the (real!) shop. We've not needed to go grocery shopping for a while, but have been running low on the fresh essentials like milk, bread and fruit for Isabella so went to stock up so I won't have to go again too soon. It didn't feel very nice having to go out. The parking lot at the grocery store wasn't very full, but still there was this queue outside as they were only letting a set number of people in the store at a time. The queue moved quickly though, about 10 minutes and I was in and then I hurried through the shop trying to avoid  other people! Fresh food was very well stocked, lots of milk too, not so much the eggs and pasta. There was toilet paper but not very much. The picture below is of the tinned food isle. And the only things on my list I couldn't get was tinned tomato. Not an issue though, we still have a bit and can do without too. I washed my hands so much once I got back from the shop! My knuckles are now also starting to get a bit raw. I'm lucky it's only now as I've seen the children's hands when they were still at school looking much worse from all the soap and hard water. Hand cream can now be found around every corner in the house!

It's lovely to be able to have lunch break in the garden!

Isabella had her tap dancing lesson via Zoom this evening. It worked pretty well. She said it was ok. It is a little strange if you're not used to it and isn't quite the same. But still nice to see other children and their teacher and the funny faces the kids do while looking at themselves on screen!

Isabella decided it's time to dust off the BBQ now that winter is over so we ended the day with our first BBQ of the season! We ate quickly. It was a little cold outside by then!

Day 5: New baby

We have a new baby in the family! A very fluffy kitten!

We have been researching getting a kitten for a few months now, looking at different breeds. Andre has a bit of an allergy to cats and we found that Siberian cats are one of the best breeds for allergy sufferers as they have less of the allergen Fel-D 1 which is in cats' saliva. 

Adrian is 7 months old. This is his registered name, we're still deciding whether that will be what we'll call him or if we'll have a different name we'd call him by. We have a few names in mind but it's not easy finding one all three of us are happy with and that suits him!

I met him at the breeder last weekend and was meant to only collect him this coming weekend, but with the lockdown rules getting stricter we brought this forward a few days. He is staying in the main bedroom for now and his favourite hiding spot has been behind my fluffy dressing gown hanging from the radiator. Andre managed to coax him out before bed time with some cat toys. 

When I switched off the bedroom light at bedtime, he started crying and walking around the room. After two hours Andre suggested trying Isabella's sleep stories to get him to calm down. Instead I found this calming music for cats on YouTube. He stopped crying as soon as I put it on and I had it playing throughout the night and only heard one or two more small miaows from him during the night.

Isabella is of course finding it so hard to be patient and just wants him to come out and play. But it will take some time for him to settle in and we'll be keeping him in the one room until he is more at home with us.

More updates to come!

Day 4: The sun is out to make us all feel happier

Day 4 of Coronavirus Stay at Home. This morning we even received an official text from government saying "New rules in force now: you must stay at home." No more just keeping your distance. Just stay at home.

So we joined Joe Wicks and the nearly 1 million other families at home to do today's PE session at 9am. It's a good workout that. Well for me at least! My legs were definitely aware of yesterday's session.

Then we did what we did after yesterday's PE session: had cake!

Late morning Andre played school with Isabella and they covered a lot of work. I was very impressed by his teaching skills! Big part of it is really also Isabella's eagerness to learn. While they were busy with school work, I did office work.

Andre gave Isabella a word each time to create a sentence with. Next we need to
practice joining ideas using 'and'.

In case you missed it, Isabella wrote the previous blog post all on her own. I just showed her how to add pictures, but
she did it herself. It took a while, so we need to work on speed.

Isabella and I spent the rest of the day in the garden- trampolining, blowing bubbles. AND we cleaned the greenhouse! I have been wanting to do that for YEARS! And it was so easy to clean actually. You can now see right through the (glass!) greenhouse to the other side! Seeds are getting more sunlight too. The glass was a yucky green before. I should have taken a before picture.

You can kind of still see the 'before' dirty glass to Isabella's right and the clean glass obviously to my left.

We're enjoying three meals a day TOGETHER now too which is lovely. Breakfasts aren't rushed, lunch we never had together before, and dinner we can start earlier, cooking together because we're less rushed to and from activities and Andre's commute is only a couple of steps now instead of 30 - 40 minutes drive!

I know this must be super hard for many people, especially those who had to close businesses and those getting really ill, but we are so thankful for all the good that is coming from this. Time to eat, play, learn and work together. And time to just be at home. It feels good not having to rush anywhere.

Day 3: Isabella's classroom

This blog post has been written by Isabella.

We are doing exercice in the morning.  

Welcome to my classroom. 

This is my reading corner. 

I am doing PE with Joe.

 

I played with mummy's phone. I am a angel and when i nod my head i
am a little devil.

I did my phonics at home.

I can do fractions.

We play outside a lot.

This is my cat leaflet I wrote.

Day 2 of social distancing: Mother's Day

I was so looking forward to going out for a cream tea for Mother's Day today, but will have to try that again another time.

We still had a lovely day at home with the sun being out. More gardening: we planted tomato, cucumber, courgette and sweetcorn seeds plus some more sunflower seeds, all still in the greenhouse. We're going to have a full garden!

Isabella has been spending a lot of time on the trampoline.

And instead of scones, Andre and Isabella baked a Mother's Day cake in the afternoon while I relaxed with a book in the sunshine.

Tomorrow it is work and 'school' for us at home. Isabella is actually very excited to be doing school work at home and can't wait to get started. I need to read through the planning her teachers sent home, but I know we'll have more than enough to keep us busy with educational activities. Luckily she enjoys that.

We have a bit of a schedule ready for weekdays, although it will be flexible and is just to help us get back on track if things start getting a bit tricky or if Isabella gets bored. It's something we can then refer back to for ideas.

The sheet at the top is from The Organised Mum Blog and is where we write down things
we'd like to do during the day so we don't forget. Also a bit of meal planning. But all open
to change. The sheet below is a list of things Isabella can pick from of things to do.

A slightly more detailed routine for the day, but all it basically says is Isabella to try play
on her own and once that fails mum or dad to take turns playing and working. With a bit
of screen time in between of course to help us out.

Day 1: Coronavirus Isolation

It has been strange how quickly life has changed these past four weeks or so. From only hearing about this coronavirus/ Covid-19 starting in China when it felt so far away and not affecting us at all, to hearing about how quickly it started spreading through Italy and then through the rest of Europe and becoming a risk affecting us and everyone worldwide. It's such a strange thing this way we're living now and how quickly we got into keeping our distance from others whenever possible. Becoming suspicious of a cough.

We started working from home on Monday, with Andre still in the office some days. We've set up a second desk at home and it's been working well. This coming week Isabella will be joining us at home  so things will change some more once again, but I'm sure we will be keeping it interesting and making it work!

It has been a lovely relaxing day at home today. I am absolutely enjoying not having to rush anywhere. No where to be and no one we need to see. 

We started the day playing vets with Isabella's soft toys. ALL. OF. THEM. She has no favourites and loves them all equally. That was what she told me when I asked and it's absolutely true.
(You can click the [ ] at the bottom right of video to see it full screen.)

We then moved downstairs and Andre built our outdoor chairs which arrived yesterday. We're still waiting on the table and I'm suspecting an issue here so will probably need to contact the supplier on Monday. But so excited that we'll finally be able to eat outside this summer! We went for this cast aluminium set as it seemed the most durable for the shady (damp) spot the table will be spending most of the year.

Isabella started working on a cardboard house for her soft toys using the empty boxes.

We spent some time in the garden, I planted flowers, Isabella went on the trampoline, Andre and Isabella washed the motorbike and then also went for a short ride around the village on it. Isabella also got back on her own bike for a cycle! Something she's not done since summer. I didn't join them, but apparently she was doing well on her two wheels. I will capture some evidence of that next time.

Isabella was excited to start her school pack she got on Friday evening already, but we have decided to keep weekends as weekends and start that on Monday. All of Isabella's after school activities have now been canceled, her two dance classes, gymnastics and ice skating, and restaurants and gyms etc have been told to close too.