In My Entire 2 years of Life, I Have Never Seen a Year Like This!!!!
2020 in the rearview mirror
January started pretty well, even the winter was mild, with no major snowstorms; I was in Crete and had plenty of fun with my cousin. All looked rosy, the economy and the stock market were up, and everyone was saying how easy will be for the President to get re-elected. It was January 24th when the US confirmed 64 cases of a new virus, and nobody thought of it. February was mild, and the only bad news was that our 18-year-old cat, Lava, passed on… it is difficult not to think of her asking for food and hugs, she was so gentle when I was a baby… she never peed on my baby clothes…I will miss her. March started pretty good with news that I will be a big brother, daddy and mommy went to work every morning and they dropped me at school; I liked playing with new friends and learning new tricks….and then all hell broke loose! Everything I took for granted was suddenly gone! I stopped school, I could not hug and kiss my best friend, Michaela, grandma was obsessed with me cleaning my hands, we stopped going to church, I even had to stay up one night until midnight to watch the church on daddy’s work computer… he never lets me watch anything in his computer! The good thing was that I spend so much more time with daddy and mommy at home. People seemed sad, even my favorite library closed and I was worried about all those who stay home and could not work with books. What would they do? Summer was weird, people in masks and saying hello from afar, going to the beach was nice, and I liked jumping into the pool. We did some cookouts, but again, it was different, and all the adults kept talking about the virus. Adults were worried and kept practicing the alphabet, talking about V, U, L, K recovery. Even at the playground things were weird as I could not play with other kid's toys, I could not recognize anyone for a while behind their masks, and every time I went on a swing daddy had to wipe it clean. I never met the virus, but some people I know did, and it sounds like it was terrible. Mommy was very busy working at the hospital, she came back home tired and drained, keeping people healthy was a much more difficult job than I imagined.
The other weird thing was that I never went on the big plane this summer. Usually, we take a long time to go to the other home we have, get inside a plane, I get toys and plenty of food and I wake up groggy far away, but in a nice place near a beach… no big trips this year, and no playing with cousins and grandmas.
In the middle of all this, people started going on the streets and complain about something that should be normal, but they felt so strong and they were very upset! It is difficult for me to understand how they felt, but there should be no difference, there is nothing wrong with people, we are all human…just come in any playground and see how nice two-year-olds play and celebrate each other’s differences.
All of a sudden I met all my parents’ colleagues as they kept appearing on the computer screen. It was kind of fun to sit on daddy’s lap watching the small squares and talking heads. I have no idea what they were talking about and every time I tried to say my opinion everyone laughed.
A bit after summer mommy and daddy went away for a few days and when they came back, I got a nice car as a gift, and, oh, I also met a baby called Philippos that will stay with us. I am officially a big brother. Truth to be told I am a bit jealous, they always hug him and give him milk, and they are very careful around him. I try not to hurt him, but sometimes I kick the ball right on his little bed and mommy gets worried.
I miss the big dinners and friends coming over, it seems they all moved in the little squares in the computer and in the phone screens.
Then one night I got to stay up late and watch two old men on TV, it was boring (I prefer watching ice scatting) but important things are boring… Something about changing the people at a White House, but it took a long time to decide and I lost interest.
Just yesterday mommy did her vaccine, I have no idea what’s that, but she was very excited and explained to me that some Dr. Fauci helped develop it and it is a big deal because it will help me go back to school, hug, play and invite my friends for dinner parties again.
2020 was weird, a bit lonely, and a lot of things that a 2-year-old takes for granted got canceled. I learned to be humble and never postpone something for tomorrow because tomorrow can be so very different.
I also learned that love and health is all we need.
