Jump jump jump

 

The most recent predictions are that our lives will return to a somewhat more normal state by January 2022.  The date keeps getting moved back, as new variants arrive, as vaccinations take longer than expected, as holidays increase our numbers, etc.  I cannot even think about the future.  It all feels so close, yet so far away.  Knowing that we are almost a year into safer at home, and almost a year away from a possible return to normal, I have realized that we need to make some changes.  Honestly, this entire year, I was operating from a, this is only a short, temporary, emergency situation.  So, if we need to do more screen time, fine.  If we drop off on physical activity fine.  THEN this big freeze, and I mean FREEZE by Wisconsin standards, high temperatures in the negative numbers, kept us home bound even more than usual.  On Friday, both Lotta

and Zibbi seemed to be suffering from some pretty severe "cabin fever"(symptoms:  listlessness, severe emotional outbursts without provocation, boredom).  When I tried to figure out the last time Zibbi actually stepped foot outside the building, I could not.  It made me realize we absolutely MUST make some new habits about getting outside, and physical activity.  As I changed the sheets today, I asked Zibbi if she wanted to play "bubble", a game we used to play every week.  It is where you put a fan (or use your arms) so that the bottom sheet blows into a bubble shape and then Lotta and/or Zibbi jumps on top of it, popping the bubble.  It didn't have that much appeal this morning, but when I did put the fitted sheet on, Zibbi started running around the bed and then dropping into a sprawl, which turned into me throwing a pillow at her, that if she were hit, she hit the deck, otherwise she kept running.  What I had forgotten about games like these is how much giggling and laughter happen when you are running around, so much more than when sitting watching yet another You Tube Video.  Hopefully, this increase in laughter will inspire me to keep pushing everyone to move move move (like an army sergeant).