Pandemic Life

 We’ve been forgoing child care the COVID started eight months ago and relying on flexible work schedules and help from our parents to stay sane. COVID in MN just hit a peak of 8,000 new cases a day. Hopefully that’s as bad as it gets  

Matt started a new job based in California in May and we were planning to move out there. Who knows if that will happen now. 

Ada and Hazel are now 4 and 2 and are good friends. Which is great, because they don’t see any other kids in our current arrangement. They love Frozen and singing. They also love painting and swinging. Hazel loves finding little treasures and carrying them around. 

We’ve been trying to get outside a lot, and have explored a lot of nearby parks we otherwise may not have visited. Our new Friday tradition of getting takeout and eating at a park is now transitioning to indoors. 

First month with Hazel (delayed)

I meant to post this in May, but better late than never, right?

Our new baby, Hazel, is just about a month old.  She is easygoing and a good sleeper. Big sister Ada is growing fast and loves helping out with the new baby.  She is talking more and more every day. 

Baby Hazel's first day at home.

Ada enjoying the last April snow.

Apparently, Ada loves lemons.  Her dad's child.

Dad and tiny baby Hazel

18-months and getting ready for baby #2

Ada turned 18 months last week, and has morphed from a baby into a little girl. She is a delight, and enjoys books, puzzles, fruit, crackers, and hugs. She has started talking quite a lot, sometimes comprehensible and sometimes not, but almost always enthusiastically. Her word for "pants" is "tatas" and her word for "fruit" sounds more like "fool." She picks up new words every day and has started stringing them together. She is also starting to be interested in potties, so we'll see where that goes.


We are expecting a new baby girl in April, so have been getting ready (as ready as we can be). I'm excited that it will be fairly nice and sunny outside when she is super small. We recently had some neighbors move in who have a girl a few months older than Ada, and who are due for another baby a couple of weeks before us, so I might have a maternity leave friend nearby.

Winter has been mostly good to us. We have battled off a number of cold- and flu-like illnesses, much like the rest of the state of Minnesota. Being stuck inside much of the time has enabled a lot of good family time with grandparents and cousins. Ada really likes Grandma and Grandpa Haggerty's dog, Abby, and will talk about her all day if we go to see her. She also really enjoys looking at all the dog and cat pictures in the pet food aisle.

Ada - now a toddler!

It's been a fun summer at the Haggerling household.  Ada is growing up into a good-natured, playful toddler.  She started walking a month or two ago and it's now her main mode of transport.  She loves books, especially the Foot Book and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see, and can listen to/look at them over and over and over and over and over and over.  She's recently moved into the toddler room at day care, where they somehow all nap on cots at the same time.  They say she likes it and enjoys playing with more mature toys and interacting with the other kids. 

We had friends and family over for her 1st birthday party recently.  I can't believe it's already been a year.  she changes so fast.

Matt and I are getting out and about, but also just enjoying time with Ada.  We all went out to Colorado last weekend for the Master's National Ultimate tournament.  I played with a mixed team, and Matt and Ada enjoyed time outside and visited friends. Somehow, no one got significantly sunburned.

Water bottles are better than toys

At her first 4th of July parade

Eating her birthday cupcake!

Ada's first holiday season

I can't believe Ada is almost 5 months old!  She has been growing fast, and has almost doubled her weight.  She rolls over, sometimes all the way across the room, and has recently started to push up on hands and knees and launch herself onto her nose. She's a pretty happy kid overall, and we are thankful for her smiles and babbles. We all look forward to family time on the weekends.

I went back to work in the middle of October, and am enjoying things.  Day care was hard at first, but is going well.  We like the teachers, and she seems to do fine there.  Matt started a new job last week, and is happy to be in a new environment and have more face-to-face time with co-workers. We also get fancy gym memberships as part of his job, so have been exploring fun fitness classes.

We hosted 25 people at Thanksgiving, which was super fun. I was a bit weirded out cooking a turkey that was the same weight as my child. Everyone was very helpful, which made it easy. I feel like I have more to be thankful for than ever before.

We've been getting out on dates, thanks to family members babysitting efforts. It's my birthday next week - the big 30. People keep asking me if I feel old, but being a mom  makes me feel older than being 30 makes me feel.

Playing with cousin Theo on the floor

In her office at day care

All smiles most of the time.

Summer's over?

We have all been getting a reasonable amount of sleep these days and ate very thankful for it. Ada is smiling more and interacting more every day. She likes to make faces with you and makes happy gurgling noises.

I started teaching at the university today and will be teaching twice a week for the rest of the year. I think it will be a nice change of pace from baby time.

Matt and I have had a couple of date nights, courtesy of my mom. It's been great to be able to get out just the two of us. I usually feel so much more rushed with the kiddo. We are trying to get out and bring her along to fun things too and are learning how much we can all do. It's definitely a readjustment.

Getting to know baby Ada

Ada is spending more time awake and alert. It's pretty fun and she makes some funny faces.

I don't have much news as we have mostly been at home getting to know our little one.  It's a bit is odd spending so much time in the house, but glad that we have such a nice house to spend time in.  We've taken her out to various friends and family homes, to cycling track racing, to the beach, and to Costco. We took our first two-cart Target run (one for Ada and one for four boxes of diapers and two boxes of wipes). And we are excited to move on to more exciting adventures someday.