Sandler, being the rebel with a cause that he is, insisted we drive by the skatepark yesterday even though I was quite certain it was still locked up and closed. It didn’t take much for him to persuade me to at least take a gander and see if there was anyone rolling around. When we arrived however, the gates were wide open (I pretended not to notice the locks had been clipped) and he couldn’t get padded up and out of the car fast enough. He was greeted with welcoming cheers as he entered and it was about to be, in Sandler’s words, “The Best Day Evew!”

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Once things started opening up in California, we decided to take a little vacation and head south. Since an hour seems like eternity in the car with Sandler, our road trips typically end in South County—which suits our vacation needs just fine—being that it’s the Mecca of skateparks. As much as our trip was a chance to roll around on missed cement, it was also an opportunity to enjoy a little break from the overwhelming stress of the last couple months.

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Just the other day we had an incident where after answering his nine-hundredth question, “Mommy, how many years have you known me?” I chose to tune him out for a little bit and get some chores done. Time got away from me and I realized he’d been a little too busy on his phone to be complying with our rules. When I went to check on him, sure enough he was immersed in a conversation with some tolerant friend discussing skateboarding—asking them how their day was going for the umpteen-millionth time. I asked him to say goodbye and hand me his phone.

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Everyday Sandler wakes up and says, “I think today is going to be the best day in the whole wide wowld!,” and I always think to myself, “I want a cup of what he’s having.” Yesterday was no different. With his typical enthusiasm, he got himself dressed with his pants on backwards, t-shirt on inside out and completed the ensemble with his new, fancy Chucky socks. He was ready to take on the ‘best day ever’.

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Two kids invading my personal space all hours of the day makes you forget what time, day or month it is. However, I haven’t lost track of Mother’s Day. A holiday I don’t typically make a big deal, but being that one or both of my children says, “Mom, Mommy and Mom-mom-mom!” every waking second since quarantine, has me celebrating this Mother’s Day like it’s the biggest holiday to hit the calendar.

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When I first heard schools were implementing “distance learning” during the pandemic, I wondered how that was going to look in our household. Being that both Sandler and Bootsie are in special ed—not to mention I do not have the patience or ability to help them with their homework on an average day—I could not imagine teaching them on top of the other obligatory adjustments. I was glad it took some time before their online class was up and running.

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Sandler has an innate ability to recognize extraordinary people. It was no surprise when he met Jeff Grosso, he gravitated to him immediately. It was not because Sandler was aware of Jeff’s legendary skateboarding accomplishments, but the fact he [Jeff] was an amazing father to his friend Oliver. Grosso was a household name, we did not refer to him as “Grosso”—as the rest of the skateboard community called him—we knew him as Oliver’s Dad.

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Like many, I panicked at the rumor of schools shutting down and quarantine becoming a reality. Not so much because I fear isolation with my kids, but because I cannot imagine how Sandler [or I] will get through this pandemic without his gazillion hours at the skatepark.

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I have been doing my best not to alarm Sandler but help him understand the importance of taking precautions against the coronavirus. I even had his doctor assist in explaining that he needs to wash his hands frequently and try to avoid spreading germs. Though he contested that he has germs of any kind, he seemed to grasp the general concept and moved on to discuss skateboarding for the duration of his appointment.

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