Another week, another lack of anything cool happening during quarantine. Our most exciting adventures this past week were the time I was able to find real life frozen chicken tenderloins at Sam's Club (!!!) and then the time we broke quarantine protocol to go walk around Home Depot for 15 minutes. Our justification was that the light under our microwave burned out and we needed a replacement, but the real reason was that I was going stir crazy and needed an excuse to leave the house. Hard to feel bad about that when there have only been like two covid-19 cases in Casper so far. I'm sure it'll ramp up in the next week or two and then I'll be extra good not to go out in public, pinky promise.
In the interest of continuing to empty my memory cards so I have camera space to take more DSLR videos of Jack, here are some pictures from the summer right before we moved to Casper. Jack was just 3 grumpy months old, and Jared was working a temp job as a delivery driver for a flower wholesaler in Utah. You know, since we were without an income for a few months between med school and residency. Thanks mom and dad for always letting us crash ur basement when we have no monies.
^^My very own flower delivery guy! If only my 20-yr-old florist self could see this moment. Jared loved this job delivering wholesale flowers so much. He got to drive up and down Utah Valley during sunrise every day for two weeks and talk to a bunch of nice little local florists. He loves the idea of me opening a little flower shop someday and him delivering the arrangements. I think it would be fun to be a florist again for a little while, but I don't think I want the logistics and stress of running my own shop.
^^Bubs in this cute yellow sweater that my Grandma Roper used to dress her babies in. He wore it with some much cuter outfits than this, but he still looks pretty cute in it here.
^^A beautiful hike we'd never done before somewhere in Alpine. It's crazy how much I took for granted having dozens upon dozens of gorgeous hikes within a half-hour drive growing up. I never even knew about most of these. Now that we've lived away from any big mountain ranges for going on 7 years, it's one of the things I miss very most about living in Utah. When we make it back someday I'm sure we'll do every hike possible to make up for lost time.
In the interest of continuing to empty my memory cards so I have camera space to take more DSLR videos of Jack, here are some pictures from the summer right before we moved to Casper. Jack was just 3 grumpy months old, and Jared was working a temp job as a delivery driver for a flower wholesaler in Utah. You know, since we were without an income for a few months between med school and residency. Thanks mom and dad for always letting us crash ur basement when we have no monies.
What a weird time to be alive. I braved our local Walmart last week to try and load up on supplies for several weeks worth of shelf-stable meals. I haven't been inside a grocery store for a long time because it's just so much easier to order online for a free grocery pick-up. Unfortunately, that wasn't a possibility since they're backed up on pick-up orders for the foreseeable future. They were pretty well stocked on dairy (including milk and eggs), but completely out of chicken, and the canned goods section was pretty picked over. Produce was decently stocked, but they were out of the basics like potatoes and onions. Fortunately, I was still able to get about 2/3 of the things on my list, and find decent substitutions for a lot of the rest of it. Brought me back to our Grenada days when you could count on the store being out of at least a few of the things on your grocery list every time.
COVID-19 just hit Casper a couple days ago. There have only been one or two cases so far. Jared was put in charge of coming up with a protocol plan for diagnosing it by meeting patients at their cars from their clinic parking lot. Today he'll present the plan to several attending physicians. Normally one of them would've taken on this project, but they're all so busy right now and being swamped with email and phone calls, so they asked Jared to take it since he's on a less busy rotation. He likes doing stuff like this. Anyway, we're all healthy and happy so far. I'm sure we'll all catch it eventually since Jared's job is to be right in the thick of it, but I'm not too worried. Hopefully we can hold out until Easter. We're really looking forward to being with family on Easter and to Jared having an interview in Cedar City that weekend.
On Saturday we drove an hour to Douglas, WY. I was feeling insanely stir crazy from being cooped up all week with Jack, and I'd heard about a short trail in Douglas that sounded like a good hike for a toddler. It ended up being kind of an underwhelming little hike on the Bearcat trail, but it was really good to get outside and do something new anyway.
After our hike we got a happy meal and some spicy chicken sandwiches at a McDonalds drive thru and then wound our way around Douglas to see what it's like there. It's a pretty small town of 6000 people. There's not a lot going on, but the North Platte River runs through it (like Casper), and there are actually some beautiful neighborhoods with nice houses. Jack was very tired on our drive home and took an enormous nap once we made it back. It was a nice little adventure.
I'm running out of stuff to post! With this quarantine and Jared continuing to work his busy schedule, we're not really doing much. Jared does have an invitation to meet with a clinic in Cedar City in a couple weeks. Assuming that everything isn't completely shut down due to coronavirus by then, we'll have a short vacation down there to post about soon. In the meantime, here are some old pictures from last summer. I'm trying to get my memory cards cleared off, so this may be the first in a series of throwback posts. I also re-uploaded the pictures on last week's post, so you should be able to see those too. Today's post is from a random day last June when Jack was living his very best one-year-old lyfe. Whelp, after this uploads I'm off to try and conquer the grocery stores. Wish me luck. I have a feeling they're going to be cleared out of everything. We may be living off tuna sandwiches and canned peaches for a while.
Jared made it home from Evanston! These month-long away rotations are emotional whiplash. It takes a few weeks for me to get into the swing of solo parenting, and then just when I've adapted, Jared gets back home and it takes another few weeks to adapt back to that. Luckily this time he's here to stay at least through the end of July, and hopefully longer.
The day after Jared got home we celebrated Jack's second birthday! We kept it simple. That's our style, and Jack's still young enough that we can get away with keeping things extremely low-key. I made him a pig cake from a funfetti mix and some hot pink frosting Jared's mom sent in a Valentine's package for Jack. Jack looooved it. We put up a couple balloons for the "decor," and then he opened a couple presents from grandparents--a chocolate egg with a little paw patrol dog, and a wooden waffle iron for his "new" wood kitchen we found at the thrift store. He got some other great gifts from both sets of grandparents, but I gradually let him open all of those on days when he was especially difficult to entertain during my stint of solo parenting. Here are some pictures I want to remember around Jack turning two, and at the end I'll do some "Jack at two" highlights.
Jack at Age 2:
-Wearing mostly 3T clothes. I don't have his weight and height stats, but he's a tall kid for his age. Most people guess at him being a year or two older than he is.
-Knows all his colors: reh, nho, yehyoh, ghee, boo, popo, gink, nack, bow, white
-Sleeps pretty great! He never wakes up during the night anymore, which I would never have believed if you'd told me a year ago. It's insane how much changes between year one and year two. He usually sleeps from around 7:00 p.m. to 7:30 a.m, with a 2-hr nap in the afternoon. Every time we do the travel thing his sleep gets bad again, but we've been home for a few months now and the sleep is wonderful.
-It took a long time, but we finally found a nighttime routine that works for Jack and minimizes his crying to sleep. We get him changed and in his jammies and sleep sack while he watches a cute 5-minute short about the stars and the moon called "La Luna" to prevent him from rolling and running around. Then we brush his teeth while we read some bedtime stories. Then he cleans up his toys around the house while we sing the tidying song. Then he gives Savvy a squeeze and a muh and tells her "I, you!" (I love you) Then I ask him if he wants to walk to bed, or fly to bed. He always wants to fly. So I fly him around the house twice and then put him in his crib and sing "Twinkle Little Star" while I rub his face. He says the last word of every line. Then I leave the room and say "nigh night." He usually pouts for just a few seconds, which is amazing considering how long he'd cry after we'd put him in bed for most of his first two years of life! I think the improvement is equal parts developmental growth and a solid bedtime routine that he likes.
-Jack's true loves are cars, "wah-woes" (waffles), Ya-ya (Savvy), his stuffed "buh buh" (bunny), and "kha-kha" (chocolate).
He also loves all the family members on both sides of his family and will just start listing off everyone's names several times during the day, particularly when he's in his crib before or after going to sleep. Gamma (grandma), Umpa (grandpa), Nana (Great Grandma), Wih (Will), Ree (Marie), En (Steven), Nae (Mae), Ee (Annie), Kiss (Chris), Cait (Caitlin), Coh (Cole), Jajo (Jordan), Nuh (Amanda), Ush (Asher), Pit (Peter), Ah-ie (Abby), Tih (Tim).
-One of his biggest turning-two milestones has been that he recently developed the attention span to watch movies from start to finish! This makes long road trip soooo much less painful. He is also playing pretend now, with his toys and play kitchen, which is a lot of fun. He isn't doing a ton of independent play yet--I still have to spend almost all of the time he is awake right by his side--but I think by this time next year he'll be playing by himself a lot more often.
-He has discovered how to push the kitchen chairs all around the house to get onto high surfaces and turn lights on and off. So that's great (nope).
-Jack's favorite foods are meat, chocolate, smoothies, and waffles. Other than waffles, he actually isn't a huge bread guy. Vegetables and fruits are hit and miss for him.
-Jack loves going to "sto" and "chuch." Also the "pahk" as we're starting to get tolerable days here and there. He's distrusting of nursery with Jared leaving town for weeks at a time lately. I think he's afraid I'm going to leave him there and then just never come back. We'll get there. Also, I don't have it in me to take him to stores alone anymore. He refuses to sit in a cart--he can jump out even if he's buckled in. He gets into everything, squats by the toys and won't let me get the things I need--it's just a nightmare. So I'll only take him to the store for emergencies. Otherwise I stick to my walmart grocery pickup runs and let Jared take him to Sam's Club for some father-son time on the weekends.
Those are just a few highlights, but there is so much more to our mischievous, fun-loving Jackster! He keeps us on our toes, which is exhausting but also lots of fun. I can't wait for all the adventures we'll get to do together this summer now that he's old enough to go all day without a nap if needed, and now that he can manage long car rides. It's going to be a great year with our Bubba Jack!
Wyoming winters are rough. The length and temperatures are bad enough, but the nonstop wind is what makes them just the absolute worst. I found an article listing Casper as the 13th windiest city in the entire U.S. Many of the cities ranking above it were in Alaska, so in the continental U.S. we probably rank in at closer to #7. It's even windier here than in Chicago, "The Windy City." Kool thing to be known for, Casper. Rly gr8.
Last year wasn't so bad because winter was still a novel thing for us--we'd just spent 4 years living on a tropical island and in the deep South. We were actually missing winter, which made our first Casper winter feel exciting. I was hoping that feeling would carry us through an extra year or two, but nope. If St. George were a good option to find a job where we could pay off Jared's students loans then I'd be pushing for that. Ughhhh. Stinkin.
We really love lots of things about Wyoming. Just not this particular part of it. The summers are perfect and I do love having all 4 seasons, but man, take me back to those Georgia winters. They got cold enough for sweaters and even a lighter coat, and they'd throw us 2-3 light snow days a year. Then by late February the flowers were starting to bloom again. I'm starting to feel itchy about Evanston being our top option for Jared's next job. Evanston winters are even colder than Casper winters. At least we'll be 4 hours closer to St. George from there. Give Jared 4-day work weeks or give us death, because imma be needing regular 3-day weekends to head to warmer climes. (Really though, a 4-day work week is top priority when we get to the negotiations stage. They're increasingly becoming the norm in family medicine, and we want in.)
On an unrelated post-script note, have any of you ever lived in Cedar City? If so, hit me in the comments with anything you love or hate about it. I'm trying to get Jared to look into clinics down there. It's high enough in elevation that the climate is pretty similar to Utah Valley, just a little bit warmer in the winters. So you get a nice 4 seasons, plus you're only half an hour from St. George. Also so close to all the national parks, which is extremelyyyyy appealing to me. Also it looks like there are tons of cool trails for hiking and mountain biking right in and near town. Also a good size--small enough to feel kinda rural and be in need of doctors, with college town events, and also lots of cool festivals in the summer. I want to at least look into the possibility, but we'll see. I'll keep you posted.
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