One day last week, to combat the boredom that comes with a pandemic quarantining, Carter decided to rearrange the furniture in his bedroom. He drew out a schematic of where he wanted his bed, dresser, bookcase. Without any thought to the piles of stuffed animal, dirty clothes, and other random bits and pieces of childhood that tend to shed from him and litter his bedroom floor, he declared himself ready for help with the furniture moving.

Deflated but not undefeated, upon hearing he actually had to clean his room before the move, he went back to his room. I went back to trying to work from home.

Awhile later he returned with an odd shaped plastic case clutched in his hand and a smile on his face. He had found the bag of dental goodies one gets from an orthodontist when one signs up to spend thousands of dollars on straightening your child’s teeth. Amidst the floss and tiny tubes of toothpaste, he had found a folding toothbrush complete with its own case. A travel toothbrush.

He popped open the case and unfolded the toothbrush with reverence, much as I would imagine a child would do upon being given their very own jackknife. It was in the middle of a sentence about packing his newly discovered teeth cleaning treasure the next time we  travel to visit grandma, that it dawned on him.

There would be no travel. No visits to grandma. No visits at all.

I have not seen his travel toothbrush since, but I am looking forward to the time when it can be used as it was meant to be used.

Stay home. Stay safe.

Take care of yourselves.