14

Dear August,

Your 13th birthday party was one of our last main events before the shut down last year. At the time, I never would have guessed that your 14th would be restricted. And yet, here we are.

You have been a good sport about the pandemic. You don’t love wearing a mask but you’ve been good about it. You miss being able to go to friends’ houses but you’ve done a great job to adapting to do most things outdoors or online. You’d like to go into restaurants, theaters, and other fun place (bowling, arcades, museums) but you’ve learned how to make the best with what’s available. We’re really looking forward to warmer weather and everything being easier to do outside again. We’re all really looking forward to the possibility of getting the vaccine soon.

March 2020

We’ve spent a lot of quality time together this past year. Way more than most teenagers would typically be willing to tolerate. I suppose we are lucky that you only just started to have more of a taste of freedom the year before this one – staying after school for activities, riding the train to meet up with friends, making plans on your own – so you don’t quite feel as locked up as you could have. I suppose it helped that your friends were also in the same boat.

April 2020

There wasn’t soccer this past spring, so we figured out our own, socially distant version. You didn’t love it – you missed playing with kids your own age, not having to wear a mask, and getting to play real games. But you also loved seeing your friends and not having to only hang out with your parents and your siblings all of the time. And the statewide soccer association organized FIFA tournaments on the xbox and playstation and that helped too. And as it got warmer, we figured out ways to keep cool at a distance as well. In fact, we think we’ll be keeping the across-the-street-balloon-battles post-pandemic.

May 2020

This past summer was pretty good, all things considered. We figured out that beach dinner was the best way to get to the beach – easier to get a parking spot in the afternoon and fewer folks tended to be around. You appreciated the fact that you had to wear your swim shirt less and no mask in the water. We didn’t have to be as restricted about who we could hang out with at the beach, which was really nice for seeing friends, and beach dinner usually also meant chips or other fun snacks that you normally don’t have for dinner at home.

June 2020

We also got to do many of our other usual summer things, which was a relief. Movie nights and soccer camp happened, we got to do mini-golf and go-carting, outdoor birthday meetups with friends, and even a little bit of 4th of July sparklers. This month you had your first surgery too – your nasal passages were very small, so you had turbinate surgery to hopefully help with your having to blow your nose all the time (spoiler alert, it did not help as much as we hoped). It was not your favorite experience by far but ice cream afterward helped a little.

July 2020

We were able to carefully visit with both sets of grandparents, which was great. We went kayaking for the first time on the Yough with Grandma and Pappy and you were so-so on the experience. The river was low, which meant that it was easy to get stuck a lot, which was frustrating for you and Calum and made things a little tricky. You had more fun when we all switched and you got to ride in Grandma and Pappy’s boat. We were able to take Nana and Grandpa to beach dinner, which was very fun, and we enjoyed some game time with both grandparent teams as well. We even managed to squeeze in our Vermont trip – sort of – by combining as many of the things we usually do in Vermont into one day in Massachusetts. You and your siblings were a little bummed about the lack of hot tub option but we were all happy to be able to spend the day with friends doing some of our usual summer weekend fun times. The favorite part of that day for all of you was the backyard screen time. I am sure all of you would like that to continue post-pandemic as well.

August 2020

The return to on-line school in the fall was less exciting but you have done a good job this year staying mostly focussed. You don’t love school but you do miss being in person. We are really hoping that vaccines make that a lot more accessible for everyone by the fall. We did some frisbee golf for the first time this fall and we didn’t do team soccer this fall, even though it was an option. But we did do regular meetups with friends and that was really fun. We made you run a few laps before every practice and you thought that was the worst but getting to see and play with friends was really nice. You were due for some vaccines this fall and had to get them outside in a tent, which at least made getting shots a little bit entertaining for a change. We put together a basketball hoop for the driveway and that has helped get some energy out as well.

September 2020

We figured out how to do the pie party but couldn’t really do trick or treating in the same way this year. Still we managed to do candy sharing and we went apple picking and corn a-mazing and carved pumpkins and went to a cool light show at the zoo. We even did our own lantern parade around the pond and you made your own costume (you went as a well-known YouTuber). We also snuck in an out of state trip to Pennsylvania to celebrate Grandpa and Uncle Adam’s birthdays right before things started to get back with the pandemic again.

October 2020

Like many people, we had a quiet Thanksgiving this year. But even with the weather getting cooler, we still managed to squeeze in one last movie night, a few more soccer practices, and few more outings with friends.

November 2020

I was worried about this winter but we got lucky. There was plenty of snow to play in and it never got too cold and we ended up find a lot of outdoor things to do. We very much missed getting to see family for the holidays but the zoom meetups really helped. We’re really hoping to be able to celebrate together this year but this winter was not as bleak as it could have been, and we’re really grateful for that. Our friends were luckily is up for not going stir crazy as we were and the winter ended up feeling like it passed a lot more quickly than usual. The weather helped by not being too terrible but so did keeping busy. I hope we can continue to be this creative every winter.

December 2020

You and your siblings stayed up to welcome in the New Year (I went to bed, the new year comes whether you are awake for it or not) and, even though we could not celebrate with friends like we usually do, you were thrilled to get to celebrate all night. We did some curling for the first time this winter, which you thought was pretty cool, and we took more walks, which you did not. But adding snow and ice always made things more interesting and the fresh air and friend meetups always helped too.

January 2020

We got to do our winter chocolate celebration as usual and that helped. Your birthday was a Jackbox party with friends (no siblings allowed) and it was definitely a highlight for you. You would have preferred to meet in person, but online gaming with friends (meeting up to play among us and minecraft has been really fun too) has really helped a lot.

I can’t believe you’ll be going to high school in the fall. I can’t believe your entire 8th grade was during a pandemic. I can’t believe you’re 14. A lot has happened this year, but even with a pandemic, I think a lot of good things happened for you. I love you a lot and I am so proud of you. Happy birthday!

Love,

Mama