Today we had our special lunch with my daughter's retired braillist. We met at a park and ate under a shelter that had easily forty picnic tables. We weren't certain why the tables were all pushed to the outer edges of the shelter but since there were zero people in the area, it was fine with us. We stayed at our respective tables and had our lunches while we talked.
My daughter was excited all morning about going and had even made some extra gifts for the hedgehog she would be giving away later at lunch. She had gone through areas of the craft room she has permission to pull items from and then had gone through my 3D model completed prints bin, which she did not have permission to go through. What she's gotten from the bench in the mechanical room at the 3D printer was an aborted vase base. It was the shape of a small cupcake tin and was something I was going to throw away, so her repurposing it to a dessert bowl into which she put some plastic sprinkles (that look just like the real thing) was a nice choice.
She got a paper party favor bag from the wrapping paper area and a sheet of tissue paper. Then, she'd found some silk mini flowers and put them all in the bag. The tissue paper was a blanket for the hedgehog and the flowers were snacks. After that, she headed off to virtual school for the morning.
I had a doctor's appointment I needed to go to that couldn't be done virtual after dropping my son off at school. When I returned, my daughter was ready to go to lunch and walked out into the garage when I pulled up, opened the back door, got in, and sat down. I told her we had just a few minutes to go before we were ready—she stayed in the car and waited.
Lunch and conversation ended and we were going to go home but we had one more stop to hopefully make. My daughter had heard there was a playground in the park. We walked over to find signs that the governor had closed the parks. It turns out that tomorrow's playgrounds would be open again so we were one day off. Can you imagine the disappointment of a little girl who felt she was promised a playground?
So wen bent the rule, thinking how much difference could eighteen hours make? Hopefully not too long a jail sentence. What we did tell my daughter was that we only had a few minutes to play before she had to get back for her next class.
It was hot out. The three of us had our masks on. What surprised me was that there were other families at this playground and no one had a mask. Typically what I've seen is respect and compliance from people out of a desire to prevent the spread of COVID-9. I want people to respect my decisions, so I respected theirs, but we kept my daughter in another area and I told her and my husband we'd be not only hand sanitizing, we'd be elbow-down sanitizing when we got to the car and then thoroughly washing our arms when we got home.
The Big Boy Update: An hour after dropoff this morning I got a call from my son's school while I was in with my doctor. I knew they'd call my husband, but I was concerned. One hour prior, my son hadn't had a fever, but why else would they be calling? You're going to laugh, as did I, when I got a text message from my husband ten minutes later saying, Greyson's teacher wanted to know if we could pick up some crickets for their gecko named Geiko for the upcoming long weekend and drop them off at the end of the day? I'll take cricket purchasing over a fever phone call any day.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: I told the story above about how my daughter created a care package for her hedgehog earlier today. It still amazes what she accomplishes. She can't see but she can find very specific things, some in locations within locations and some things, like the container she put the jimmies in, she explored and discovered. Amazed. Truly. And I'm around her every day.
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