…our sort of my diary of how it has all been going and how we’re “smoothly” balancing working from home and looking after a little person.
*Long post alert*
While for most people, this is officially week five of the lockdown, it’s the sixth week in our household. On Friday the 13th of March, our little person developed a fever in nursery. At the time, the guidance from the government was to isolate for seven days if you had developed a new fever, cough etc. So, not only did we have to stay away from nursery for seven days, we also had to pick her immediately (when previously, they would have given Calpol and see how she responded). Thankfully, it was just the usual fever she develops when teething, and would have been able to return to the setting the following week if we wanted to. But then of course, that decision was taken from our hands with the lockdown being announced from the 23rd of March.
But my, how has six weeks gone so quickly just from being at home? Here I will give an update on the first six weeks and then give weekly updates on what we’ve been up to going forward. (If I can manage to fit it in)
Week 1
We very quickly established that there was nothing to worry about re: the fever that little person developed which was a relief. But next, we then had to figure out working from home and looking after her sufficiently. Had the best intentions to follow a routine, but we just ended up really winging it here. Little person hardly took any naps, partly due to the excitement of having both mummy and daddy at home at the same time all day, partly because she needs someone to put her to sleep for naps and at bedtime and we just couldn’t quite get it right this week. She also got a lot of TV. In my mind, I was somehow nursing the belief that she would be back to nursery the next week and following her usual schedules again but that notion was abandoned very quickly. By Thursday, it was clear that she was just too overtired and that her night time sleep was being affected. So, had to put her down for a nap which was helpful.
We had stocked up on a lot of supplies and so food was free flowing. All in all a good experimental week. Yes, experimental is the term I’m using here and sticking to it!
Week 2
Scheduling still up in the air and still winging it a bit. However, what the Thursday nap time from the previous week had shown was that we needed to get serious with the routines a little bit more. This was also for our benefit too, since having to wake up every hour through the night was not ideal. She was still too excited to sleep on certain days or even times. Once or twice, she slept off at around 2.30 and although, this meant that she was sleeping a little bit later in the evening, overall, it was better for her to catch up on all the sleep she had missed out on. We also figured out that she liked to sleep on the floor a la nursery style. So at nap times, we put down the my yoga mat, along with cushions and pillows to make it “cosy”. Sometimes, it took an hour but eventually she would sleep off. Still a result.
Activities wise, thankfully nursery had usefully sent us materials and ideas for home play & learning, so there was a lot of colouring in and structured play with some of her other toys which we had at home. We had bought her a kiddies laptop in the previous week BS (before shutdown) and she would sit on her toddler table and chair to do her “work”, just like mummy & daddy. TV was reduced to an hour in the morning in this week whilst we focussed on getting sleep back on track.
Week 3
While we had lots of food and supplies at home, thanks to all that shopping (hoarding) we all did, focus this week was making sure that little person was getting variety, as well, as enough nutrients (which also aids sleep, right?). So I started trawling the depths of the internet for kids foods ideas and thankfully, that are lots of resources around this. I created a weekly meal planner on excel which was helpful for the routine we were trying to put in place this week. I usually do a weekly meal prep for us, so it made sense to incorporate this with little person’s routine. I found it much less stressful having some meals ready in fridge and just generally knowing what I had to prepare on a daily basis. I’ll do a post with our sample meal plan.
Activities were a mix of drawing, colouring, cutting and pasting, learning more numbers and reading. We also went outside a few times this week, just for quick walks/runs around the block to get some of that fresh air.
Week 4
More focus on physical activities this week for all of the family. I have been part of a weight loss accountability group but I decided to kick it up a notch this week and stop slacking with my ridiculous snacking. Now that little person’s nap and sleep was back on track again (still not sleeping through and the never-ending teething), I started working out early in the mornings, before work and once more at some point in the day. Little person now joins in and wants to know when next I’m exercising or stretching.
This was a short week due to Easter and activities included playing “ball” with balloons, baking cakes, picnics with “the crew” (see pictures), video call with one of her nursery mates, decorating an Easter bonnet and some nice long walks. Plus several of the other activities mentioned above. We have now managed to go through a few days here and there without the TV.
Week 5
The second short week which is something I could really get used to, even with being at home all the time. It was absolutely refreshing to be plugged out for four full days and not having to think about work. For the rest of the week, we continued with more learning through play, encouraged independent playing and sticking with the routines as much as possible. Some days, there were naps, other days, it was just quiet time and an early bedtime! Yaay!
One of little person’s favourite books is “On a pirate ship” by. She used to pick this out for us to read to her all the time and now she reads it to herself sometimes. So, a lot of play this week was centred around pirates, treasurrrrres ahoy! She got a bonus “Paw Patrol pirate pup” magazine complete with an eye patch, treasure chest with coins and a telescope. And her dad even managed to fashion a pirate boat out a wrapping paper. In her own words, she “had lots of fun”.
Week five went by rather quickly and I can’t even really remember what else happened, even though it was just last week!
Week 6
We had a delivery of a new blender! With all the home cooking I do, I had been using my nutri-bullet for blending or just not blending at all. Anyway, little person thought part of the packaging resembled a sandcastle. Subsequently, we have been to the “beach” (read sofa and bed) several times. We even had time to colour in the castle! This week was much busier than usual for us for a myriad of reasons, so it is just as well that we are now encouraging independent playing and it seems to be getting through.
Activities for this week, in addition to building sandcastles at the beach, were cooking food and serving customers in her café using play food, utensils and toy kitchen. We also did some selling using her toy till and money. We received a kind gift of a water doodle mat and that has been a hit in the last two days. As we look ahead to the weekend (what is that, you may ask at this point?), the plan is to do some baking, get outside a little bit more (& longer than 10 minutes), meal prep for the week, and try to get in some workouts. Oh, and little person’s hair wash day! I need lots of good vibes for this one, she hates washing her hair!
So, there you have it. Six weeks of living and working from home condensed into one long post. How have the last few weeks been for you and your household with a little person? What activities have you been up to and how are you generally finding the balance of working and parenting at the same time?
Leave a comment and share your thoughts and frustrations too!
Thanks for reading!
Xx
Milolo
Forriri.com 
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