I have had all the material to write this post for several days now, and I keep putting it off hoping I will exit this funk that I am simmering in. It’s a missing family visits funk, a look at all the sick people and overcrowded hospitals funk, a canceled plans funk. Maybe looking at cute and happy photos will turn it around.

Maya, almost but not quite 8.

We were wondering how school photos would be managed this year, especially for the kids who were virtual learners. It turns out that several time slots opened in the evenings immediately after school. We could make none of them. We had started to hunt around for a traveling photographer who would maybe take decent photos in the front yard when the school opened up some Saturday morning slots. In a year full of weirdness, our kids had weird school photos as well. They wore masks on site, stayed in our car till it was their turn to see the photographer (we weren’t allowed to get out with them), and only removed their masks when the photographer told them it was time to take their photo. Masks were reinstalled and back to the car they came.

Ian, age 5

None of us has had a haircut in a really long time, and Maya’s smiling and eye-contact are often kind of a hit-or-miss thing, but honestly I think the photos turned out great. I also think that it’s hilarious that our kids went out of their way to match their masks to their outfits. The big irony here is that matching clothing is rarely a priority for either of them.

We struggled with how to make Maya’s birthday memorable. We spoil the kids rotten and give them a party every year, but this year that’s just not an option. By now they’re used to the coronavirus protocols and don’t really even act surprised when we deliver more bad news. And that’s how we wound up with a bunch of How to Train Your Dragon decorations in our kitchen, possibly too many presents, and a Zoom session full of grandparents.

Birthday girl and her dragon duck cake!

Maya helped me decorate her cake this year. We decided to convert her rubber duck cake into a rubber duck dragon instead. We bought fondant to use as eyes, spikes, scales and tongue, with Maya actually doing most of the shaping and installing. I had noticed that the cake baked a bit lop-sided, and I tried like mad to keep it upright, but in the end, after being fully iced, the poor thing dumped over anyway. No worries – we propped it up with aluminum foil and enjoyed our dragon duck cake anyway. In deference to Maya’s fire aversion, the number 8 candle was never actually lit.

We had just a couple more days of working and virtual learning to make it through after Maya’s birthday party before the Really Big Thing happened. Our bubble family friends had rented a beach house at South Padre Island for the week of Thanksgiving, and had invited us to come vacation along with them. We only stayed from Saturday to Wednesday, but that time was the most relaxed I have felt since this whole stupid pandemic business started.

The playground, every day while on vacation.

This was our schedule – kids meandered out of bed, quietly playing with their devices till everyone was awake. This was followed by a leisurely breakfast. And then the kids would play in the property’s heated pool and hot tub until lunchtime. Some set of grownups would lounge around the pool in the perfect weather, sipping coffee or wine or beer. Lunch would then occur and kids would chill out for a while to rest up. Then in the afternoon, some set of us would find a relatively unpopulated portion of the beach and play in the sand or the waves.

Beach girl beaching

Maya and Ruby seemed to be impervious to the cold water, spending as long as we’d let them in the water, waves crashing into them. I went out once with Maya, but I can’t ever quite relax with her playing in the ocean. Usually, it was the two dads, Sean and Chris, out in that cold water, keeping the girls from drowning. Ian and Herbie, the boys, seemed to have an ambivalent relationship with the beach. Neither of them has an ounce of body fat, so I’m sure that cold water chilled them through quickly. Mostly they wanted to play in the nice heated pool back at the house.

Ian in the nice warm pool.

Maya apparently has a weird talent for finding hermit crabs. She at one point came staggering out of the waves clutching what she believed to be merely a “cool shell.” On closer inspection, we discovered that it was occupied. We made a little saltwater pool out of a sand toy and placed the shell into it. It wasn’t long at all before translucent legs spidered out of the shell and the little crab started scuttling around looking for its exit. Figuring it was a fluke, we enjoyed the crab for a little while before releasing it back into the sea.

Beachcombers

The next day was even more amazing. At one point, she had our makeshift observation pool loaded up with five hermit crabs and I don’t know how many of these weird little mollusks with flappy protrusions that seemed to both cling them to rocks and wavily propel them through the sand. (Hermit crab video: 20201124-IMG_1663.) When asked how she found them, she exclaimed, “Look with your hands, not your eyes!” Sounds like our future marine biologist is going to need good medical insurance. We also found several jellyfish and pretty blue Portuguese man-of-wars (men-of-war??) in the water and on the beach. We even had a brief sighting of a tiny blue dragon with its impossibly blue frilly body before a wave swept it away.

Oh captain, my captain

Sean managed the cocktail program, at least for our portion of the vacation. In several small bottles, he batched up the goods for four different Tiki drinks for the grownups. That, a bottle of rum, and a little juice and soda water turned into several lovely drinks to cap off our evenings. He even brought or bought the stuff to make mocktails for the kids, which Maya or Ian (I can’t remember which) explained didn’t have quite as much alcohol as the grown-up drinks. [None was the amount of alcohol the kids’ drinks had, just so we’re all clear.]

Gamerzzzz

It was nice getting to spend time with friends in such a relaxed setting. We could have random conversations without needing to schedule a zoom meeting. Ruby and Ian traded cat stories and followed each other around trying to solve some mystery only they understood. Maya and Herbie could bond over Plants vs Zombies 2 (PvZ2 to the hip kids). The characters / defensive weapons / whatever in PvZ2 are hilarious – Maya has recently introduced me to the wonders of Bloomerang and Bonk Choy.

Probably a month or more ago, I had the idea that if we weren’t going to get to see Santa in person this year, we’d buy a life sized cutout of Santa and take him around for photos. To that end, we have an weirdly astonished Santa Claus hanging out at the pool with us. He came out for an obligatory tourist shot as well. It’s possible he’ll make a few more appearances in the coming weeks – we’ll just have to see how much we feel like getting out and about.

Flat Santa and the kids

Our bubble family friends, who we have known for many years now, had planned a trip to Moab, UT over Christmas break. Again, they invited us along. We were wary of the long drive with our kids, but we were all really looking forward to the trip. The intention was to chill out at a nice vacation house away from people and go hiking in Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park during the day. As the pandemic has worsened and the caseloads have climbed and hospitals have filled, it has become increasingly clear that we would be borderline irresponsible to make such a trip right now. What if someone got hurt and needed access to a hospital? What if someone got sick while a 2-day drive from home?

The COVID-19 cases have been insane the past few weeks, and everyone is holding their breath to see if Thanksgiving gatherings will further drive the numbers up. The kids’ school has moved back to all virtual learning for at least the first week following Thanksgiving break in hopes that anyone who was exposed to the virus will have a chance to show symptoms and not accidentally expose fellow students and staff. Here are the numbers – it’s been a shorter interval than usual since my last post. Travis County – 11/8 33,168 cases and 457 deaths – 11/29 38,045 cases and 483 deaths. Texas – 11/8 990,930 cases and 19,184 deaths – 11/29 1,225,118 cases and 21,843 deaths. United States – 11/8 9,962,900 cases and 237,567 deaths – 11/29 13,385,494 cases and 266,887 deaths. The World – 11/8 50,327,258 cases and 1,255,490 deaths – 11/29 62,829,641 cases and 1,461,049 deaths.