Self-Isolating with a Toddler and Semi-Newborn...The Not Drinking Wine at 9am Edition

I feel like I have been preparing for self-isolation for the last three years thanks to my deep dark delve into Pinterest and Target's Dollar Spot.

I am 100% that habitual mama that without fail will not only make sure that every Target visit includes the Bullseye Area, but that I have a cart full of unnecessary things with the plan of "future" projects, themed parties, all the holiday decor that keeps our house in full regalia (Groundhog Day anyone?), and of course items for travel. I am a complete and utter sucker for all of their birthday and Summer decor. The reality however, is that I am still finding Halloween stuff that I had scoured away and forgot that I had put in certain locations with the "plan" to use it. It is like having a forever Easter and finding eggs everywhere...

Both Hubs and myself officially began to self-isolate on March 15th, which oddly enough was also our Wedding Anniversary. Hubs and I had already begun talking about everything that was happening in the country a week prior and were already under the impression that stay-at-home orders were going to go in effect. Before we were in official self-isolation mode, my mom came over to watch the kids for an hour while we did a panicked grocery shopping at Target (I also scooped up the kids Easter baskets during this trip because ::cough cough:: priorities).

At the house I began to organize everything that we had to keep the kids occupied and to make sure that we had plenty of activities on hand. I am that parent that does a lot of saving of items, meaning that if we overbuy for a holiday (Christmas, birthday, etc.), I put away several of the gifts for rainy day treats. I keep these well hidden in EV's closet along with arts and crafts supplies. I have never been so thankful for a box of arts and crafts (mess free markers, egg crayons, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, slime, washable paints and markers, crayons, coloring books, etc.) in my entire life. I am telling you when the 'dollar spot" releases all these goodies for $1 or $3 I buy A LOT and save them. This is also a lifesaver for Christmas stockings and Easter baskets (especially this year).

I reorganized the linen closet since I am also working during this pandemic, so whatever activities we planned for the kids, could be easily grabbed and be put away with little fuss. I hated nothing more than at the end of my work day having to go from room to room to put things away rather then spend that time with the kids. We do have other art supplies, but these were all age appropriate and were all things that were currently keeping EV the most occupied and entertained. I have filled one of the boxes with dry/erase tracing boards, flashcards, alphabet blocks, matching alphabet games, and THESE alphabet cards from Amazon which are gamechangers. Be aware when ordering these and read the reviews. Sometimes there are letters missing or additional letters. Ours was missing a "Y" but we had one from our alphabet puzzle and it fit perfectly, so I wasn't too upset and I didn't find it necessary to order another one.

Early on during this time I also looked up several family fun art activities for EV (pinned them to a newly named board on Pinterest ;) )and if they required extra items that we either did not have or did not have enough of, I went ahead and purchased on Target (I bought several to avoid shortage). I hate to say it, but I saw a lot of price gauging on Amazon (hullo cakemix debacle) and as much as I love them and Prime, it made me feel icky, so we stuck with Target. Plus with Amazon, if it wasn't an essential item they would give you one shipping date and then a brand new shipping date of several weeks out would be posted to your account. When ordering with Target, I found that shipping normally was within the week and in regards to the art supplies I was getting (washable paint and glue sticks), I noticed that you had to spend $25 for it to ship, so buying three and four of the items, end up working out in the long run. I am glad that I did this early on as delivery times were becoming lengthier and lengthier as more stay-at-home orders were taking place and more and more items were not being made able to ship to my zip code.

*our favorite paints (good thing cause we have four boxes now)

Again, Type A Mama here and on my calendar which I normally use for my day to and appointments for our family, I started plotting out activities. It helped me in not jamming everything into one day and trying to do too much. If I was planning a "theme day", I could keep track of what I wanted to do with the kids on that day and not forget anything, such as; costumes/outfits, food preparation, decor and any activities that were planned. It also allowed me to savor and space out some of the fun things I wanted to do with the kids. I will make sure to blog what we did, but just to give you ideas, there were Princess Pajama Parties, Disney "Cruise" Days, May the 4th Be With You Star Wars Festivities (because we nerd hard), Cupcakes and Quarentine'ing, Outdoor Movie Extravaganza's, we Revenge of the Fifth'd (also known as Cinco de Mayo to none Star Wars nerds) with delivery from Tijuana Flats and Rise of Skywalker on the big screen, and have been art and crafting to our hearts content.

We had bought a HUGE roll of contact paper on Amazon months ago, it's perfect for those who are just learning to paint and use water.

The Hubs and I are blessed in that we have a good size backyard with plenty of scampering room as well as an outdoor eating area that we put in last year and an outdoor movie screen (Below are the links of everything we purchased on Amazon to make it happen and how to do it on a budget as I know these are insanely expensive otherwise).

• Vankyo Aluminum Tripod Stand

• Oontz Angle 3 Bluetooth Speaker

• Outdoor Movie Screen and Stand

• Amazon Fire Stick Compatible Projector

Because we live in Florida and we basically sit on the sun, it pays to have a lot of fun water play for the kids. We have room for a pool, but early on when we bought the house, we knew that it would be years before we put a pool in, if at all (there is just so much good outdoor space). Every year Target has a really good sale on Summer supplies at the end of the season and that is pretty much when we stock up on splash pads, water sprayers, inflatable pools, rafts, outdoor furniture, etc. Although not on sale, I bought THIS inflatable family pool (just $34!!!) as well as THIS raft (it was $7 and has cup holders for mama's cocktails!!). It was the perfect when it seemed like our self-isolating life was going to be a lot longer than expected. Honestly, I do not understand the reviews at all. We bought THIS air pump from Amazon and it was a game changer. It comes with several nozzles and one that suctions all the air out of everything in no time flat and blows up everything in minutes time. We haven't had any issues and yes, it does deflate a little overnight, but we just add more air and it is gravy for the rest of the day. I am not sure what the major issue is unless you have a crappy air pump or are using your own lungs and in which case...who even are you?!

During the weekend, we will take out EVERYTHING and have a massive water day which not only has been a great way to run the energy out of our toddler (yay, 1pm like clockwork naps), but has provided a lot of quality time with the four of us #addedbonus. We do have a baby pool for Baby D that we put right next to our pool, so we can keep a safe eye on him and yes, we do sit next to him when there is water in it, so no need to side-eye me. Because our pavers tend to be rough on his little knees, we will sometimes just put him in the pool sans water and give him a bunch of water toys to play with, this also is perfect to corral him during outdoor movies nights as well. Thank goodness our babies love the water!!

*a rare occasion where she acknowledges she has a brother

Yes, we have enjoyed the backyard many times prior to these events and yes many of the things we are doing are things that we had prior to the pandemic, but I just think it has been nice reinventing ways to keep things exciting for the kids and even ourselves. Finding new ways to make memories for the kids has really been amazing and I have found that we have enjoyed the backyard more now then we did previous to BSI (before self-isolation...can we make that a thing? #BSI ...it is now).