(almost) de-confinement

apparently, once i let myself go off, i can come up with lots to say about how this province is re-opening. basically, since last monday (22nd) everything is supposed to be back to normal, except of course it will take adaptation. examples:

rada has been going to daycare - hand washing and temperature taken at the door (she likes it!) and there are 3-4 other kids there right now, so the gradual reintegration is going as well as i could have hoped. in the end i had a choice whether to start her this week or only on july 13th (when most people will send their kids), but i'm not sure what our situation will be on july 13th. she was probably SO bored at home, so she enjoys having her playmates (the other kids are all boys lol) and apparently is on best behaviour and back to speaking french now with no problem.

malls have just reopened - we went downtown on tuesday and i entered the eaton center for the first time in ages. it's pretty eerie, i think less than half the stores are actually open. and some of them have huge line-ups, so i didn't enter any store with a line-up. still entered about 6 (places i had missed: Gap, Reitmans, Simons, Old Navy), and by the end of it my hands were basically cracking from disinfectants. i mean, i know i'm not going again for a few months, so in the end it was worth it, i think (i bought 3 articles, of which one was a moka-mango gelato lol)

then i went with b. to the walmart in our corner of the woods, on his day off for st-jean. probably the first time b. has worn a mask ever! we agreed that we'd wear masks on transport and inside stores (n.b. stores are generally not as crowded as they used to, but still more than i'm comfortable with). end result: we did not even enter walmart, because of the line-up!! we had 2 or 3 things we wanted to browse, but it wasn't enough for us to wait like 40 minutes in line (i'm sure it would have gone faster, but it looked huge!!) p.s. one thing i don't understand is line-ups at winners! that whole store is a mish-mash of stuff, you can't pretend you're going there with very clear targets. and anyway it's mostly clothes, and you really can't pretend you're out of clothes, especially if you work from home - or that you can't find clothes anywhere else (i bought kid leggings at maxi during quarantine - can't tell the difference etc.) anyway.

so we went to a belle province within the mall, and we actually ate inside! that's a pretty big first, i think. last week i had been very enraged because mcdonald's only has drive-in service, so i'm like, wait, if i want a 1$ ice-cream cone (i do want one pretty badly!) now i have to buy a car?!!!! tim hortons is open for take-out, and i had gotten an ice drink the last time i came out of the doctor's, but to actually eat at a place is weirder. it's a pretty small space, and we were one of 2 tables seated. they spaced out the seating, and most space along the walls was taken by a line-up thing with marked spots.

buses will restart front-boarding this week, the only difference from my point of view being that they'll start taking our money again. (i don't know how they'll enforce distancing from the driver - one of those plexiglas walls could work). so far i've always carried opus cards with me, but just for theoretical accountability - my annual card was frozen back in april, i think. recently, with b. and rada, we would take a longish walk west toward the metro stop, then just jump on a bus to return home.

nothing much about the going-ons in the house (we're doing netflix marathons in the evening; i nap either with the baby or apart from her; everything i eat gives me heartburn) but here are some pics of clothes i haven't shown off before: the lollipop dress from bunica - with perfectly matching sweater and bag

new t-shirt and actual lollipop (she got it from the cashier at the corner store, and licked at it for about 3 days)

rose bouquet from our own rosebush (they were very thorny!) - matched with pretty indian dress; this was at the peak of the heatwave, our grass is literally getting fried

attempt at starting a tradition with the measuring baby against wooden frame: 87 cm, but she won't stand still or straight for more than 2 seconds; + more spectacular indian dress

2 purple people with dishevelled hair

this is really her posing for pictures, unaware that her face is full of...soup, i think