For a little perspective, my sister Nicole is obsessed with manatees. And by that I mean, literally, obsessed. One Christmas, I "adopted" a manatee named Elsie for her, and she received a note of appreciation from Elsie, as well as a stuffed manatee that, to the best of my knowledge, still resides in her bedroom (she's 38). Since discovering these giant sea cows exist, she made it her life's mission to go to Florida to swim with them. A few years ago, she made it a reality, and since, has gone down a few times to revisit these majestic creatures.
I was lucky enough (sort of) to embark on one of those journeys with her. The girls were four and five, and over February break, our parents took turns watching them while Jeff and I drove to Florida to spend a few days in Crystal River, FL. The culmination of the trip was a 5 am shuttle to a river, where, clad in wet suits that didn't quite fit right, we jumped into freezing (in my opinion) water, and hovered with the manatees. The smooth grey blobs ebbed and flowed with the water, and with our masks and snorkels, we bobbed along with them. At one point, a couple of them began rising to the surface when I was above them. Panicked, because of how many times the guide had said "do NOT touch the manatees", I froze. Here are animals that weigh many times what I do, and I had fleeting thoughts of them rolling over me, pushing me under water where I wouldn't be able to get out. Instead, they gently rose until I was out of the water, at which point, I rolled off of the top one, and back into the water. My sister was in a giggle fit next to me, and I tried to smile through the mask, but was thwarted by the black plastic pipe sticking out of my mouth.
When I told E. about our swimming with the manatees, her eyes went huge, and she offered "You can DO that?!" I told her, yes, when she is a lot older. In the mean time, she should continue with her research.
We had multiple Zoom meetings as well, with E.'s class (she happily showed them the greenhouse with all our plants), with her Girl Scout Troop (again showing off the greenhouse- there was a theme...) and finally with her soccer team. Alas, because of the weather (cold, rainy, and very very windy), soccer practice was reduced to a trivia contest, tactical analysis of a goal that the trainer showed on the screen, and general catching up with friends.
The online meetings and calls are beginning to weigh on me. Actually, the general screen time is. I'm just not good at staring at a computer each day, and neither are my kids. One of the hardest things is that even when the girls have worksheets I can print out for them, they still need to be on the Chrome Book to get the information to fill in said sheets. And it's a Catch 22, because the reality is, the materials needed (books, encyclopedias) are simply only available in eBook form since libraries and schools are closed. I'm grateful that at least the math assignments for my younger daughter can be done in the workbook she brought home.Every now and then, there's also a project that strays away from the norm, and today that was recreating your bedroom on paper/in a diorama. We had just cleared out a cardboard box of fruit cups, so we actually had the materials needed (this has been an issue, as one day, they needed toilet paper cardboard rolls, and it was the day after the recycling went out- oops). E. and I measured out a piece of paper that she could insert into the box, and she drew a mostly-to-scale model of her room, complete with her bed, the American Girl Doll bed she got as a hand-me-down from a cousin, many of her stuffed animals, and her rug. She loved making it, and I can't help but think perhaps she'll end up in real estate like her dad, helping people to buy and sell houses, and decorating the insides as a stager. A parent can dream.
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