I don’t know about you, but the past two weeks dealing with the evacuation due to the wild fires, the constricting future-diagnosis-lung-cancer-causing air quality aftermath, and entertaining a toddler indoors for that length of time, pushed us to our limits. Yes, it was an unexpected blessing spending extra time together as a family. There were a lot of laughs, a shit-ton of caloric expenditure activities (chasing our son through every nook and cranny of the house, setting up an indoor tumble, tackle, and tickle area (I’m going to trademark that now that I just re-read that last sentence), playing ball, loading the dishwasher...unloading the dishwasher...loading the dishwasher...unloading the dishwasher...you get the picture), and creating additional, albeit inappropriate, verses to “The Wheels on the Bus” song...the drug dealers on the bus go $5 dime bags, $5 dime bags, $5 dime bags...

Extremely memorable for us, and hopefully he’ll have no recollection of the chaos surrounding our lives outside of the walls we were safely in.

Le Petit Elephant (LPE) re-opening it’s doors yesterday once there was a green flag air quality day, thus giving the school district the green light for the schools to open their doors to safely accept children, was a godsend. I don’t use godsend lightly as an agnostic. In my opinion, childcare is as much an aid to our family life as the emergency responders, volunteers, kind-hearted strangers, and neighbors were to everyone while we were all responding to the wild fires. We all witnessed a lot of godsends these past two weeks, just as we will witness more in the coming year as thousands rebuild and find a new normal, and those of us lucky enough to be spared the tragedy of losing our homes and/or jobs return to life.

LPE opened at 7:30AM yesterday, and I expected to see at least six families trying to cram through the entranceway at 7:30AM on the dot. I’m guessing that still happened, but we didn’t arrive until 7:42AM. When my wife pulled into the parking lot our son had already unbuckled his car seat. He then proceeded to climb out of the window and leap from the car, heading to the front door before she had even parked the car. He entered his classroom AT A RUN, his friends and him greeting each other with excited babbling, hugs, and the occasional word we parents understood. The smile on his face being reunited with his friends was a great way to start the week as we all return to our lives.

It is my understanding that everyone in the LPE family is safe, and this is a huge relief. If anyone needs anything, please let us know, and we’ll do our best to help you in anyway that we can.