I just realized that six months have gone by and I haven’t shared a lot personally on the blog. I figured a Gordon Family update was in order!
In January, Daniel started a new job at Huntington Ingalls (aka Newport News Shipyard). We decided for various reasons that this job change was the best for our family. And after the last few months at home, it was been truly been a blessing! Before the job switch, Daniel was working a LOT of hours (like almost 60 hours a week). With the new job he is home before 3pm and has lots of time to play with the kids!
January-March, Kylie was attending preschool two days a week and loving it. She loves to learn and to write and draw, or really anything involving crafts. And well, Leland was along for the ride!
In March, COVID-19 started to come to Virginia and changes slowly started to happen. And with that our life changed. In some ways our life is/was “normal”, Daniel went to work and I stayed at home with the kids. Obviously things changed, the kids didn’t go to stores and as masks became a thing, we had to explain to our three year old, that there was a Big Sickness. And that was heart breaking trying to describe what is happening and why we can’t visit friends and family. It was really sad (and still is sad) to hear when Kylie plays and the Big Sickness comes into her imagination play. As young as she is, she understands that everything (related to her…school, church, library, playgrounds, etc.) is closed.
Since preschool ended, I started teaching the alphabet to Kylie one letter a week , right now we are on the letter P (check out Facebook to see all of our weekly crafts). And the kids and I tried our best to serve and surprise our friends during this time by writing letters, dropping off cookies, dropping off flowers, and sending encouraging words.
April came and went. And before we knew it Leland turned one! And our little man has been growing and changing since! He can walk, run, climb, stomp, dance (cutest thing ever!), and even tries to jump! He eats anything and everything (if you can’t tell…bahah!). He loves his sister and #whiskeythekitty and tries his best to keep up with Kylie! We often forget how young he is, because he can do so much and understands so much! He can feed the cat, throw things away in the trash can, etc.
In May, we honestly spent a significant amount of time at home. Daniel is the only one going out to the grocery store right now.
During all of this, Kylie has learned how to ride a bike with training wheels and we have spent a lot of trips biking/running down the street to watch a little construction site in our neighborhood. And Leland has learned (on top of everything else) to finally sleep through the night! And we like everyone else, learned how to work Zoom and to communicate with our friends during all of this.
It has been a long few months…and I mean long! Having two little ones at home with nowhere to go and no one to play with has been challenging. We have tried our best to come up with creative ideas for the kids and may have invested in a few “big” items such as a train table and kayak to help us all.
Follow us on our Instagram to keep up with our adventures!
Pictures by: Dani White Photography