Covid Diaries Week 10

May 16 - 22

Doing

I started the long weekend off with a 10km run. This was my longest run since I attempted a 15km run four months after having Ella. (Want to know how that went? Read about it here!) I’ve worked out a pretty awesome 10km route that follows walking paths and goes around two small nearby lakes. (By lakes, I really mean large stormwater ponds.) There is only one set of lights to run though at the very beginning so there are no forced stops which is great. I felt pretty good on the run, though the rest of the day I was pretty tired. It did feel good to know I can run that distance again.

Our big event of the week: Ollie’s birthday! My baby is two! We ordered this insane bouncy castle thing for the backyard for his birthday which didn't arrive until two days after his actual birthday, so we just pretended his birthday was two days later. The bouncy castle is a definite pandemic purchase, as we are anticipating most of the summer will be spent in the backyard this year.

On Ollie's fake birthday we waited until he went down for his nap to set up the bouncy castle. Ella had a great time testing it out for him. We deflated it so he wouldn't see it when he woke, and then once he'd had his lunch we brought him outside and then blew up the bouncy castle while he watched. (It only takes about 20 seconds to totally inflate.) He was SO excited, he started jumping up and down and laughing as it popped up. Him and Ella spent the afternoon jumping on in, and they’ve used it for a couple of hours every day this week. It's definitely been money well spent already!

After about an hour of jumping the kids needed a rest so we brought out Ollie’s cake and sang happy birthday. Ollie (and Ella) wasted no time digging into the icing on the cake, Ollie declaring it “delicious”! All in all I think he had a pretty fun birthday and at 2 years old he didn't really notice that we didn't have anyone else over to celebrate (though we did manage to FaceTime with his Grandma and Grandad in England).

On Friday some of the Halton Conservation parks opened so we decided to visit one of them, Crawford Lake, in the afternoon. The walk from the parking lot to the lake takes you past various wooden carvings of species at risk. The kids absolutely loved this and it was hard to drag Ollie away from the first one, a giant lizard. (EDIT: I've since learned this is actually called a Jefferson salamander.)

There is a boardwalk that circumnavigates the lake and the lake itself is surrounded by lush forest, so it was nice and shady the whole way around. It's about 1.5km around, which is a pretty good distance for the kids. We brought the wagon in case either of them got tired but both walked most of the way, with a snack stop about half way around.

Normally you can just turn up at these Conservation Parks whenever you want, but due to Covid you now need to book in advance for a two hour time slot. Two hours is probably about the maximum amount of time we'd spend with the kids, so that suits us just fine. It also means numbers are limited so the trails are not very busy, so it's actually a pretty good system. The only downside is for serious hikers, the two hours limits you in terms of which trails you can complete and the longer ones closed for now.

Watching

Andy and I are still blitzing Money Heist and are about halfway through Part 2. I can’t recommend this show enough.

Listening to

I started a new podcast called Rabbit Hole by the NY Times. It’s an investigative series that looks at how the internet has changed and how our lives are changing as a consequence of spending more and more time online. I already think I spend too much time on the internet, but when I hear interviews with people who spend 5, 6, and even up to 10 hours a day on YouTube or Tik Tok I am completely astounded.

Reading

I need a new fiction book to get into. I’m still struggling through Sapiens, but I really just want a book I can get lost in.

Cooking

I’ve started upping my porridge game again, something I used to do frequently. Using whole rolled oats (instead of the instant kind I normally make on busy mornings), slowly stirring them on the stove. One of my favourites is this chocolate porridge, made with cocoa powder, vanilla, maple syrup and whole milk (no watered down porridge oats for this recipe), and then topped with chocolate chips and raspberries. It is a very decadent tasting breakfast and as you can imagine both kids wolf it down. Even Andy, who is not usually a porridge fan, loves this one.

I also made this creamy coconut porridge (with Ella's help - I love how she is holding her babycino in her hand in the picture below), which is oats with coconut milk, banana, almond butter and coconut oil, and topped with blueberries, hemp seeds and almonds. This one Ella liked but Ollie was not a big fan.

In the news

This week the Ontario government confirmed that schools will remain closed the rest of the year. Retail stores with street access can open. Numbers of confirmed cases in our city are unfortunately going up so it looks like we’ll be staying at home a little longer.