November 4th has come and gone...we've been celebrating through the week with a grand finale yesterday. And don't worry, this has nothing to do with the elections. ;) Emily turned six this year in the midst of masking and coronavirus madness, we still managed to have a very happy birthday. The night of the third we hung balloons in the kitchen so she'd have a surprise in the morning and after a pancake breakfast and leaving her at school, we set about decorrating, wrapping/assembling gifts and baking a cake. Her biggest birthday gift was a giant sandbox. We're still waiting on the last bags of sand to fill it, but there is enough in it at the moment to play and enjoy--she LOVES it.
For the past two months...but really since the beginning of quarentine in March, she's been digging in our flowerbeds and making mudpies around the patio; busily baking for her "bug restaurant" (co-owned, I think, with my mother). ;) She was becomming more destructive than Norte, who has also taken to digging... So it dawned on me (after we'd already made some birthday/Christmas purchases) that a sandbox was the perfect gift for her. I was right.
I think especially after the unnatural way they are required to distance at school with their masks on at all times, contact with nature has become even more important. I can actually see Emily "decompressing" after lunch as she's running the sand through her fingers or building sand castles. She spends hours in there all on her own building and playing, happy as a clam. It is therapeutic for sure. Now more than ever, with the chance of another full lockdown looming over us, I am grateful that we have this new way to reconnect with ourselves and our senses.
Emily came out of school bubbling about the gifts from her teachers. Her PE teacher and head of school gave her a pen, and her teacher gave her a cut out crown that read "feliz cumpleaños". Her friends sang to her, and she was definitely made to feel special. At home, she was thrilled by her birthday surprises and even wrote us a thank you note in the evening. She is an amazing little girl and certainly deserved every bit of the attention she got/gets.
COVID restrictions don't allow for gatherings of more than six people, so I was on my own with Emily and four friends yesterday at her birthday party. All of the kids are from her class at school, and we celebrated outside in the patio. As party favors we gave each child a letter (first in their name) to paint and take home. They had a blast digging in the sand, jumping on the trampoline, throwing balls for Norte, singing danceing and just being together. It was a lot of fun, and once again Emily was just so happy.
It makes me feel so much more confident about school seeing how her teachers and friends have shown their love and appreciation for her this week. Thursday, the day after her birthday three different children brought her homemade picture/birthday cards to school for her, and we got several voice messages with birthday wishes, too. :) Emily is also feeling more comfortable with friends and last week went into school without too many tears holding hands with some of her classmates. I am afraid she's coming around just in time for them to close schools...although so far schools remain 100% open.
Schools are the only thing continuing with "normality" these days. Restrictions are tightening weekly it seems (though I guess it's actually every 14 days). Today it has been announced that all non-essential businesses must close by 6pm and curfew has been extended an hour on either end. It used to be 11pm-6am and is now 10pm-7am. The state will continue with closed borders and no one can leave any town or city in Andalusia without justified cause. I have a certificate from work so I can travel to Estepa. These new restrictions will be in place two weeks...That means Thanksgiving week, we'll be looking at extentions or a further crack-down.
Some people are theorizing that the government will really tighten up now to try and ease the situation in hospitals and ERs nation-wide, then open back up slightly at Christmas time to give the economy a little shot in the arm with the intention of shutting down again in January. The truth is that the Spanish economy has been the hardest hit by the pandemic out of all European nations. Our heavy reliance on tourism for income has meant that things have taken a severe nose-dive. I can't imagine that they will lock us all away at Christmas (economic suicide for sure), but at the same time, it seems wildly irresponsible to mess with people and jobs the way they are right now: slowly strangling things and drawing out the agony more than necessary.
Your next question is, "So, how's the bar faring?" I have told all my friends and family, and any of you who have visited me know I am not exagerating when I say that Spaniards are die-hard bar-goers. This means that business is doing pretty well, all things considered; but the intesity of work has been ramped up tenfold. Angelines now has to play police on top of serving drinks and sanitizing tables and chairs. She's the one reprimanding those people who are milling about without stools (new law requires you be seated to be drinking), people who forget to pull up their masks between sips, people who are socializing between tables, people who are gathering in groups >7... She says that while she is forcibly working fewer hours and actually is able to have a steady sleep schedule (which is certainly beneficial), the psychological exhaustion is extreme. People no longer have time to linger over drinks so they come and pound them down one after another, which means that reasoning with them about social distancing and masking is virtually impossible...
Anyway, this post was supposed to be about Emily and her wonderful birthday...not the ineptitude of world governemts to deal with coronavirus.
I'll leave you with some pictures.
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| The thank you Emily wrote. Sometimes when she is sounding out words she adds extra vowels... ;) O and she wrote my name with Spanish spelling: biola (mommy or momi is easier!). |
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| Ready for her birthday party! |
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Letter painting
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We even got Ga's birthday card in the mail ON her birthday! This was the table she found when she came home from school.
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