March 2021

As far as the calendar is concerned, it's officially springtime. That means we have finally made it through a winter that included the worst stretch of a pandemic that killed thousands of people everyday, along with a third-rate coup attempt that followed an otherwise democratic election.

That's a lot of insanity for one winter, but we're feeling pretty optimistic about spring. That optimism has been buttressed by vaccinations and some warmer days this month that have allowed us to get away from the news and visit some parks we have been missing. Bear Mountain State Park is a favorite, and we went there for a walk around the lake one Saturday. We also made it over to Algonquin Park, which is an interesting place because the remains of several frontier-era houses are scattered along the trails there.  We also made it over to Cold Spring, Goosepond, and the Arboretum, among other places.

On colder days, we kept Alex entertained by letting him play Mario Kart at the bowling alley and going to Target, two things he's been pretty crazy about lately. Why Target, you ask? Well, in the kids clothing section, they have these large paper rockets and other cartoonish decorations that hang from the ceiling, and he gets really excited about running  around and looking up at them. He also likes looking at all the toy cars of course. His obsession with Mario Kart requires less explanation (who doesn't enjoy Mario Kart?). Another thing he's been into is scrolling through all the family photos and videos on the computer and watching the ones where he is playing Mario Kart or doing his other favorite things. He also loves to climb onto all the riding mowers at Lowe's and Home Depot, so when I saw these build-a-mower-kits for kids at Home Depot, I thought it would be fun to try and do one with him. You'll see a video of that attempt below.

We've made some progress on potty training, meaning that we've been able to get Alex to pee on the toilet with a bit of regularity, or at least get the idea of doing that. We are still using  cheap Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars to reward him, and his collection of those has far exceeded mine when I was his age. He is mostly just excited about opening the package, but sometimes he really gets attached to the car inside, for whatever reason, and then he takes it everywhere with him.

As I have continued my usual work/life routines, Becky has transitioned into a busier and more normal routine that includes seeing  a few  1-2 year old clients in person again and taking on a lot of new responsibilities with her calling in the Relief Society presidency, on top of everything she does to keep Alex happy and making progress with his therapies. 

Becky was able to get the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine earlier in March, which wiped her out a bit the next day. I'm scheduled to get the Pfizer version in early April. These are our ticket out of the pandemic, and having vaccines that are this safe and effective for a deadly virus that is barely a year old is incredible. If this pandemic happened 20 years ago, it's safe to say we'd be screwed for at least a decade because the technology just didn't exist then like it does now. I think we'll be getting some version of these vaccines every few years for the foreseeable future, and there will still be plenty of COVID deaths in years to come but not like we've seen in the past year. We hope our family and friends are all able to get the vaccines soon and we can come visit again.

Until then, here's a link to all the rest of our photos and videos from March.