Just four months after you were born, the coronavirus arrived in the United States and the entire country had to go into lockdown and shelter in place for a looooong time. Instead of leaving for school every morning, your older siblings were suddenly home all day, every day and the two of us no longer had our quiet weekdays alone together. I loved that you had more time to bond with your brothers and sister (and I didn't mind the help when I had to do housework) but I did miss our one-on-one bonding time. Fast forward to this fall when your siblings returned to in-person school and you and I once again have seven daily hours of Mama-Mackenzie time. I am so grateful that we can have this quiet time together again, especially since you will (already!) be starting nursery school next fall.
Today was especially nice. It was an unusually warm November day (we didn't even need jackets) so I ignored the huge piles of laundry in the hampers and the layer of dust on the furniture and took you out for a walk after breakfast. We went to a few stores and then to a nearby park where I loooooved watching you play in the leaves all afternoon! You were so cute and full of joy as you ran through the leaves, kicking them around and giggling while jumping up and down in them. Your peals of laughter as I chased you around the park were also so heartwarming--and reminded me of a similar warm, sunny November afternoon when I chased a 2-year-old JieJie around the same park and heard the same heartwarming peals of laughter.
One of the cute/sad things about our walk, though, is that you insisted on wearing a mask. You didn't have to wear a mask because you just turned 2 and we were outdoors most of the time but you always see your parents and siblings put masks on before leaving the house, so I guess you didn't want to be left out. You were actually really good about keeping it on but it fell on the ground during our walk. I picked it up and obviously didn't give it back to you to wear and you got upset, crying "Mah! Mah!" Luckily, I was able to distract you with the leaves in the park.
I had such a fun day with you today!
Love,
Mom
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