My son, I know that you are only two years old and not able to understand the magnitude of how much this virus has changed the entire worlds normality. In your eyes you don’t even realize what is going on around you. That brings an immense amount of peace to me. I had plans of teaching you to swim, taking you to short weekend trips around California, taking you to water parks, taking you to the beautiful California beaches, taking you to Yosemite national park, to Disneyland, Legoland, Knottsberry farm, birthday parties, zoos throughout California, Monterey aquarium, renting an RV and seeing parts of California that I have never seen before. It’s a bit difficult to accept the fact that I can’t do those things with you. My desire to see you smile and enjoying life is what drove me to check out books from the library so that I may find different ideas so we can be safe at home yet make it fun for you. As a result, I discovered that we can still have fun and discover the world right in and around our own home. We learned about the sky, the solar system, the order of the planets in distance from the sun, we learned about roly-poly‘s, earthworms, crickets, frogs, turtles, flies, bees, butterflies, ants. We learned that there are a lot of different types of birds. Hummingbirds, Blue Jays, crow, dove, pigeons. I learned that you don’t have to swim in a swimming pool to enjoy the water. A simple kiddie pool and a garden hose is enough to keep you entertained for hours during this Covid summer time. We learned about your grandparents backyard fruit trees, oranges, lemons, limes, avocados, grapes, cherries as well as their chili plants, roses, cactus plants,. Soon we’ll get to learn about their pomegranate tree which I’m sure you’ll love. You love playing with water so much that you love watering your grandparents plants maybe even too much. Your grandparents don’t mind though. What they do mind is not being able to hold you in their arms, hug you and kiss you to show their love and affection for you. I know that they love the fact of just being able to see you at least. I’m looking forward to finding a lot more activities for us to do at home. I’m looking forward to teaching you more about the planets and neat little science projects that I know you’ll love and I’ll love teaching you. Although this pandemic has completely changed my plans for us this summer, I’ve learned that it’s true that out of adversity comes ingenuity.
Submitted by Pedro Lara, Merced County – Atwater.