Hello,
I hadn’t planned, at the start of 2020, on writing a «Pandemic Year in Review» this December. This year saw all the plans and trashed them. We made the most of it, got lucky, and have muddled though well enough.
The review typically includes the things we did over the Christmas break of the previous year. That’s about 1 year back, but this year that takes us back about 40 years. Over the break I met up with Josh Beitel (my first friend) and his family. Josh; his better half, Caroline; son, Quinn; and parents: Sue and Ian had us over for a visit. It was a trip hanging out with Josh watching our kids (approximately same age) play with Josh’s old He-Man action figures in exactly the same spot we had years earlier.
By chance, we’d also met earlier that day at the arena for some skating. We managed to snag a video of the two of us skating with our kids. Zoe and Quinn are about as old as Josh and I were when we learned to skate on that approximate spot (Westmount rebuilt the arena recently).
January saw us up to our old tricks– we got out to museums, went sledding, got out and were all about. It is only because I write a blog for Zoe that I have some recall, but Ewa and I were sick in January. It’d take all that we had to walk Zoe up to daycare in the morning, before spending the entire day in bed. You deal with this as it comes, but when you’re sitting around in lockdown, your mind plays tricks and you wonder if you didn’t already have COVID-19. We’re still unsure– we haven’t had COVID-19, but we also haven’t had the antibody test.
We planned a good third birthday party for Zoe in early February. We booked a parental resource centre near our house for the party. There were lots of people, pizza, bubbles, chips, cake, and party favors. Many of Zoe’s friends have since had birthday parties and events cut small or cancelled. We’ve felt Zoe got lucky by getting her birthday in «under the wire», but the pandemic will likely be around and hampering plans as her next one comes up– we’d hoped to avoid that, but no luck.
I’m finding the last photos before lock down strange to look at. Mine is of Zoe at Happy Goat Coffee eating a croissant– inside at a table without masks where other people are doing the same! Crazy times!
Zoe’s daycare shut down when everything else shut down. Ewa and I had brought laptops home from work in anticipation. Health Canada had very helpful leave provisions for handling parents with young children at home– «do what you can, don’t worry about the rest».
We did the all the pandemic things that other families also did– scavenger hunts, cosmic kids yoga on youtube, crafts, crafts, so many glittery crafts. We (Zoe) rode cat bike through and over the mat and generally prevented Mum from ever doing a home yoga class by herself;) Ewa got into making bread, but instead of sourdough she opted for pita breads.
Zoe’s daycare stayed shut through the summer. This saw me off work through much of the summer. We made good use of our time in the summer.
It’s never too early to learn how to be a fair to middling fisherman; in her Dad, Zoe has an excellent role model for this. We took up fishing and made it out a number of times. We did catch a bass in the Rideau river just by our house, but our best spot proved to be Patterson’s Creek in the Glebe (of Ottawa). After digging up some worms in the garden, we’d bike over. We saw a turtle every time we were there (often likely the same turtle– Doug). And the pond is filled with little sunfish– so many fish caught!
Before the park equipment was pronounced open and available to kids, we spent hours running around on the empty tennis courts, riding bikes, and playing with balls. As Ottawa’s COVID-19 situation became better in the summer, we got back into the parks and started moving about. We spent a couple of days at Mont Tremblant where we did the Skyline Luge rides over and over. We also made it out to the Mont Cascades Water Park.
Ottawa and surrounding areas afford their residents excellent opportunities to get out in nature. With a measure of determination, we set to get ourselves out into hikes around Ottawa.
We made it into Gatineau Park a number of times– to Meech Lake for swimming, to the Carbide Wilson Ruins, Pink Lake, and up the skyline tram during the Fall. We also discovered the Beaver Trail on the western side of Ottawa’s greenbelt. Beaver trail is a short trail on which, with the right seeds in hand, you can hand feed chickadees. This is tons of fun, and we went back there a number of times through the Fall while Gatineau Park was chock-a-block with leaf peepers.
Zoe’s daycare opened back up in the Fall, and we all fell into our new routines: Zoe gets dropped off at daycare and Ewa and I both work from home. This has all worked quite well.
Some traditions remained the same– there were no problems picking apples in the orchards. But others got turned on their heads. We did a socially distanced Halloween in the park, and ran the Salvation Army’s Santa Shuffle remotely and posted pics.
Daycare reopening policies weren’t the most sensible at the start– any sniffle meant you had to have your child tested before they were able to return to daycare. We’d been mostly able to keep the pandemic away from Zoe to this point. But one swab up your nose, and there’s no more ignoring the pandemic. Now many of the stories Zoe requests we tell feature Paw Patrol or Scooby-Doo going to the COVID-19 testing centre. The policy has since been revised to require a constellation of symptoms to require testing. In our house, I am the leader with 3 (negative) COVID-19 test, Zoe has 2 (negative) COVID-19 tests, and Ewa hasn’t needed to have any.
I know we are tremendously lucky to have made it mostly through 2020 in good health and spirits. We’re pretty excited about maybe getting a bit more back to normal in 2021 with the vaccine that is being rolled out. I hope you’ve fared similarly and are able to rest up over the holidays and enjoy some calm at the end of 2020. We’re shortly into Ontario’s 4-week lockdown starting on Boxing day, but we’re ready to make the best of it. Best wishes, Tim, Ewa, & Zoe
