March 9-13 – BPE (Before Pandemic Era): We didn’t know what we were in for.
March 14 – Pandemic Day 1: Made french toast out of leftover crusts from BPE tea sandwiches. Long video call with Tycho’s friends at school. Leftovers for Tycho’s lunch and dinner, Max made demi baguettes. Tycho started saying the word baby. Planted half of our Pandemic Victory Garden. Mom and Dad had homemade pizza after the toddler passed out to celebrate our anniversary. Morale is high.
March 15 – Pandemic Day 2: Eggs, veggie sausage and demi baguette toasts for breakfast. Whole Foods delivered a big bag of sumo oranges among other things – cottage cheese and all purpose flour were out – entertained Tycho for 15 minutes by having him bring the oranges to the kitchen while secretly bringing them back to the entryway when he wasn’t looking. When that got boring he washed his rain boots in the bathtub. Ran out of our BPE coffee and started in our 3 bag stockpile. Chili for lunch using BPE beans and the tomato juice left over from last night’s pizza, over boxed mac and cheese. Family video calls – “Long Distance Relationship Week” begins. More reimagined leftovers for dinner – burritos!
Pantry Challenge - Coconut cream - Canned pineapple juice (x2), why do we have this when we could be drinking painkillers - Amaranth, 95% of a bag because we fed it to baby Tycho and the poop terrified us - Flaxseed meal, see above - Nori, ridiculously old - Amba aka fermented mango sauce - Adzuki beans - Nutritional yeast, approximately 48 oz by volume, never buy by bulk weight sight unseen - Bulgur, beloved just forgotten - Riced cauliflower, frozen (x3), because I saw a recipe on a blog once
March 16 – Pandemic Day 3: Shelter in place order announced – we saw it coming, and hope that it helps. We had several FaceTime calls and took a nice socially distant hike around the hill this afternoon, so our social meters are still good. Our pandemic victory garden is all planted and Tycho is very diligent about watering it and Mama’s shoes. For some reason too he pees himself every time we water, even if he goes right before. Hm. The pandemic diet of beans, beans and more beans is also catching up to us, as Tycho pooped in his pants not once, twice, or thrice, but four times today — in addition to a poop in the potty. Hurray…. We finished the chili for dinner while Tycho had some hopefully constipating pasta with cheese.
March 17 – Pandemic Day 4: Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Tried to convince Tycho we needed to wear green, he kept bringing me a striped shirt every time I tried to wear something else. We had a nice morning video call with a few of Tycho’s school friends, one of the moms played a little Irish tune on her flute to celebrate. Cereal this morning – we aren’t drinking our gallon of milk fast enough, and we’re getting more from our coffee shop soon. Tycho and Mama had a nice morning in the backyard looking at our plants and watching airplanes fly by. Strange to think of people going places right now. Cauliflower in the fridge was looking wonky so we roasted that for lunch, used an old sweet potato to make “hummus” with some tahini and threw it all over some quinoa with leftover mozzarella bits for protein. Max made amazing Irish soda bread with raisins and caraway, but Tycho hilariously was kinda scared of it – he didn’t want to eat it, but he didn’t want to let it out of his sight!
March 18 – Pandemic Day 5: We’re really dialing in this potty thing right now. No accidents and a big poop in the potty! But we ate beans so we’ll see what happens tomorrow. Why is every day a week long? I’m tired. More coffee beans arrived today. Computer end log.
March 19 – Pandemic Day 6: Poooooooop everywhere; found a path through our co-op’s existential crisis. We all woke up with the garbage trucks and went on an expedition looking for one. We ended up going to the top of the hill and watching the sun come all the way up, with a toddler and coffee. Perfect! Two long, long calls working through details with our co-op, we figured out a solution but didn’t go to bed until late for what felt like the umpteenth time in a row. I have no idea what we ate for dinner, but I gave up on trying to use my pantry challenge items.
March 20 – Pandemic Day 7: Waking up knowing that we don’t have to stay up late felt amazing!! We went on another Bernal hill walk – beautiful and we got to say a socially distant hello to one of Tycho’s little friends on her porch. Having put all my random pantry items back in the pantry, I finally felt inspired to do something with them!! Max made the best curry. We had a really wonderful afternoon, we streamed a (previously recorded) concert from the SF Jazz Center while Max made dinner, Tycho and I danced and played the xylophone along with, and the adults had beer in the warm spring sun. Love it!!
March 21 – Pandemic Day 8: Just kinda tired of everything, which worked out because we just said forget it and composted several old lame pantry items. (Who wants to use flaxseed meal, amaranth, or super old nori anyway?!!) Tycho started saying “water” yesterday and fearlessly used it to demand water all day. Obviously a good time to night train, who needs diapers when your toddler can just poop that hard in his pjs. We were going to make an Indian-ish feast but instead had vermouth cocktails and ravioli. Go team!
March 22 – Pandemic Day 9: More success on the potty front – a good poop by himself when prompted and he peed when we woke him up for night training. Hurrah! Made an Indian-ish feast which was lovely.
March 23 – Pandemic Day 10: New word: bubble! Also seemed to answer “I don’t know” when asked if Daddy (in the other room) was wearing a hat and later said “where Dada”?! Amazing large poop in the potty all by himself – left him alone and suddenly heard some mucking about, he had dumped it in the toilet and was trying to wipe out the potty bowl all by himself. Yay/ew. Got takeout!!
Tycho's Word List BPE: Dada, Mama, yeah, no, Aya (Lammie), boob, caca, GG, bye Post Pandemic: uh oh, moon (ish...) baby, tea, water, pea, bubble, bee, Papa, Kiki (Kiwi), tiki, rabbit, pig, pasta, papa (pepper), bean, boo[k], mil[k]
March 24 – Pandemic Day 11: We switched Tycho’s crib to the toddler crib today, hoping to make night training easier since we won’t have to lift him so high to get him out. (And, theoretically, he could get out and use the potty himself… right?!) He stood at his door for 15 minutes trying to escape nap, we gave into another story to calm him down, then it only took him a couple of minutes to get over it and climb back in bed. And we realized we didn’t have to have the diaper pail in his room anymore!!!! Not that he’s fully potty trained, but since we’re over diapers, woooooo! Who even remembers what we eat these days.
March 25 – Pandemic Day 12: Put the crib rail and the diaper back on. Rough night, rough day, so tired. Possibly his first sentence: iwantmama. Thankfully much needed chocolate rations arrived today. New word: rabbit (why rabbit?!)
Daily Coffee Schedule 7:00am - drip coffee in a travel mug while walking around the hill 8:00am - drip coffee with breakfast in the most hygge mugs we own 9:00am (if needed) - another hygge coffee 11:30am - gulping cold brew to make through another tantrum 1:30pm (naptime) - tea if it's quiet, more cold brew if not 4:00pm, ish - decaf cappucino with a baked treat for fika, unless it has to be caf 5:30pm - beer Coffee consumed: Snowbird Zatarra, Verve Vancouver (decaf), Snowbird Bahn Bann, Linea Reserve Decaf, Ritual (old and unknown), Snowbird Huehuetenago, Andytown Bella Vista, Andytown Decaf Bella Vista, Linea Microlot Reserve Espresso Blend
March 26 – Pandemic Day 13: Hurried out of the house this morning to catch up to the garbage truck! We ended up seeing them three times around the neighborhood, Tycho was thrilled! Later he figured out how to actually direct the camera on the phone today and proceeded to show off every single thing in the garden on FaceTime. Hey look, the peas again, wooo! New words: tiki, kiki (for kiwi), and pig (almost silent g)
March 27 – Pandemic Day 14: Tycho got up at 5:30am with a poopy diaper, but he agreed to snuggle with us in bed for a little bit before running to the pantry, grabbing a box of mac ‘n cheese and gabbing about “pasta” for 10 minutes. Seriously, there’s at least one new word a day! And it sure seemed like he signed “I love you” back to his teacher during circle time when she said I love you to the kids. WOW. He’s also trying very hard to count by holding up his fingers and saying “tew! tew!” We tried music class by Zoom (he loved banging chopsticks together, go figure) but joining our neighbors for a 6-feet-apart-singalong in the afternoon was more fun. Coming home and watching the SF Jazz concert stream with beer was even better! Oh, and then he drank salsa for dinner. #pantrychallenge
March 28 – Pandemic Day 15: Woke up with glee since the bakeries were open today! We picked up our absurd amount of pastries, gave a bunch to friends, then came home to stuff our faces. Tycho ate an entire croissant, a full container of yogurt, and a bunch of cottage cheese. When he eats, he EATS. Today was pretty low-key, it was raining and we just messed around in the garden for most of the morning. Tycho was super excited when we put Lonestar in the window for all the other little kids to find – and kept RAWRing whenever he noticed the bears in the windows across the street. Chili for dinner, plus some sort of steamed corn pudding thing that was cornbread until you substitute half of the grits with masa and all of the buttermilk with yogurt and water. Makin’ do.
Movie Game Rules - Each participant suggests 2 movies of different genres, preferably one old and one new, that the participants have not seen. Each participant may choose to veto one of the other's picks. Toss a coin - whoever lost last time calls it. Participants watch the winner's choice. - Each participant gets one "super veto" to use per week, which lets them reject a movie even if the other participant wins the coin toss. If a super veto is invoked, the vetoing participant must pick a movie from the IMDB top 10 to watch. (To be expanded to Top 20 and so on as needed.) - Participants may not suggest the same movie two days in a row. Watched: Emma. (Kristan), Jumanji (Kristan), True Grit (Max), The Favourite (Kristan), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Kristan), The Usual Suspects (Max)
March 29 – Pandemic Day 16: Nice walk in the rain. Tycho crawled into the stroller when we opened the garage and asked for a stroller walk – why not? Max has been sharing our sourdough starter Puff’s babies to everyone in the neighborhood – we’ve already seen pictures of bread made with one of Puff’s grandchildren too! Many people leave containers for Max to give away more, or some baked treat they made, and we wave through the windows. It’s funny how this social isolation experiment has actually made Bernal feel even more tightly knit. Someone in Glen Park started a “bear hunt” by putting bears in the window and creating a Google Map of them all, and within a couple of hours of someone sharing it on our street’s email list, at least half of the houses had bears or other animals. We’re all sharing the proverbial cup of flour, just six feet apart in no-contact porch pickups….
March 30 – Pandemic Day 17: SF’s stay at home order is being extended another three weeks, until May 3rd — but per the government projections, our infections curve is about a month longer than other states’ and we’re not expected to exceed hospital capacities. So, it’s working! And that’s really awesome. Today was the first day we didn’t go out for a walk – it just didn’t happen with one thing or another. Yesterday we realized Tycho says “pepper” rather like “papa” and this morning when he walked past our Sgt. Pepper poster he pointed to it and said “papa!” So we celebrated with a Sgt. Pepper dance party! He also learned how to give Mama gentle back rubs with lotion – victory!
March 31 – Pandemic Day 18: Had approximately 200lbs of food delivered into our garage by a restaurant wholesaler. It was amazing! Max spent most of the day being a grocer handing out supplies to our fellow pioneers.
April 1 – Pandemic Day 19: Best April Fools joke ever! Tycho demanded lotion be put on his hands when Kristan put some on hers… and then proceeded to say “ba[ck]! ba[ck]!” until she lifted up her shirt and he could give her a back rub. What’s the joke? Who cares, I’m getting back rubs. But also, lots of poop. Sadface.
April 2 – Pandemic Day 20: Another beautiful sunrise over the trash truck. Tycho loved seeing the truck, but got a little too excited running down the hill and had a total wipeout. Swollen lip, scraped face. Was pretty sad to see and Kristan totally made him mac and cheese for lunch just to make him extra happy. Unfortunately, Tycho’s new game of super short nap in the crib followed by passing out on Kristan for a couple of hours continues… it’s good and bad, nice and not. But it is nice when you ask him to cuddle with you and he just burrows his face into the pillow next to you like he has nowhere he’d rather be.
April 3 – Pandemic Day 21: Minor Mama breakdown in the morning; greatly alleviated by a run and a shower, what a concept. Tycho has started to sort things by color, which is neat – he has all these different color links and loves to sort them into one of those big silicone cocktail ice cube trays. He keeps trying to snack on the baby radishes in the garden, theoretically they’ll be ready for harvest in a few days, but it doesn’t really seem like it!
April 4 – Pandemic Day 22: Nice day at home. Felt like the weekend, which it was. Tycho played and read by himself for awhile – you could even hear him get the rhythm and some of the words right in his book!! Mama and Tycho did “toddler yoga” together for a few minutes, he loved down dog and savasana the best. (YES.)
April 5 – Pandemic Day 23: Tycho slept in! Rainy day, lots of good cuddling on the couch and play time on the floor. We may have read all of Tycho’s books thanks to a new rule that we only read a book once. Tycho ate SO MUCH yogurt at breakfast, but didn’t eat much the rest of the day — and was super grumpy about having to wear a diaper for bed.
April 6 – Pandemic Day 24: Tycho keeps surprising us by knowing exactly where to put things or what needs to be done… like all of a sudden he’s not in the living room anymore and we hear his little butt hit the potty and then a few seconds later the toilet is flushing. Or when GG had to get off the phone and Tycho said bye-bye and hit the End Call icon on the screen. He also maybe understands how to count to two? “Tew, tew” and he holds up two fingers and gets a second thing of whatever he’s looking at. Surprise, baby can count now!
April 7 – Pandemic Day 25: Not really sure what happened today. Tycho was really grumpy in the morning and didn’t eat much breakfast or lunch, but made up for it by devouring 3x dinner with a salsa chaser. He asked for water, then said, no, bubbles! So Mama and Tycho shared a La Croix and all was right in the world again.
April 8 – Pandemic Day 26: Tycho is getting both better and worse at going out of the house.
Things Tycho Couldn't Do at the Beginning of the Month say much other than Mama, Dada, yes and no; color; build towers; keep himself entertained; say his name; use chalk; do down dog; put his wooden puzzle together; identify the letters in his name; push his pants up and down for the potty; sort his toys by color
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