It's been a while since I've had the time or the creative energy for writing. Trust me. I will touch more about that at great lengths in future blog posts. I frankly have more content ideas than I know what to do with. Everything from Funko, Family, Nannying, Gluten Free and more. I just got to get around to writing it in between everything else.
What’s been going on with us? Well, if you didn't get the memo, our daughter, Marvel Lee, arrived in October. She's been keeping us on our toes for 11 months now. If you are a follower of our Instagram, you’ve seen the “trouble” she’s been causing recently. We've done a lot of rearranging these last months of the Funko collection due to her new mobile abilities. Since she is in 2T clothing and owns eight teeth with more coming at the moment, her height and mouth are her most dangerous advantage. It's only a matter of time before she graduates to walking and all hell breaks loose. Therefore there have been quite a few toy decisions made recently, from selling entire collections to just giving her certain ones to play with. She currently has an obsession with gaming controllers, remotes, and the Ghostbuster Funko collection. Any Dorbzs have become fair game in the house for her playing or gnawing on.
2020 has been a weird one for us. We had full intentions of traveling, doing more Funko cosplays, and enjoying our first year of parenting. Instead, we've been on lockdown since March leaving the house only for fresh air at the farm or groceries. For everyone's sanity, we did make once a month trips to Melindas in Capitola for gluten-free doughnuts. Honestly, the first few months of lockdown weren't that bad. Andy started working from home immediately, so it became a secret blessing. We have gotten a lot of family time that we would have NEVER gotten. He’s witnessed a lot of Marvel’s milestones that he would have missed if he had been at work. The Game of Nerds finally got trademarked and rebranded. The apartment that we moved into 25 days before Marvel’s arrival has been arranged and organized the way we wanted. Although we are still tweaking some areas as Marvel grows. We’ve been blessed to be healthy and have our jobs, so we can’t complain.
I know Andy’s biggest bummer this year came when ECCC got canceled. We had planned a specific new Funko Cosplay since we found out I was pregnant. It was nixed immediately since Marvel’s size was the sole factor of the cosplay. He switched gears hoping that by the time October rolled around, we could at least do SiliCon or SVCC as it was previously known as. But by the time SDCC arrived in July, Andy admitted defeat and started working on new cosplay ideas for 2021’s conventions.
Be that as it may, the last six months have been a crash course in pivoting and going with the flow. The more we’ve tried to force something to work, the more likely it has backfired in our face. We were just getting out of that newborn survival mode when COVID hit. It kind of threw us for another loop. Andy and I have learned who we can count on when we need it most and to communicate more with each other. We’ve decided that everything we do right now has the intention to help our family or Marvel directly. We’ve agreed on the fact that in our family, "You Feel What You Feel, And Your Feelings Are Real". Thanks, Frozen 2 and Sven for that one! While some lessons have been more challenging than others, it’s only made us stronger. 2020 has been a massive season of change and growth, including in my career. I had full intentions of going back to work with Marvel for a previous nanny family at the beginning of March. I was so excited and dying to get back to my regular routine. But the Bay Area COVID shut down happened before I could even start. Since I have an autoimmune condition and Marvel was so little at the time, we decided it was best I stayed home to be safe. Within a few days of shut down, my email box and voicemails became overloaded with messages from parents I had previously worked with or referred to me. Most of them were lost and had no idea what to do about childcare. Nanny friends were losing their jobs or were terrified to even go to work. A lot of families had to make tough choices and wait it out. By mid-May, my wheels were spinning on ways I could help the community. The most prominent thing people wanted was my advice on childcare. What are my options? How do I find a nanny? Thus how VIP Coaching was born. Yes, I will be opening up for childcare coaching and mentoring services. You can learn more about it here. It’s an excellent way for me to offer my services to multiple families at once with no location barrier! As a nanny, I always felt terrible that I couldn’t help everyone, all the time, and this way I can! If you are a fellow nanny looking for mentoring, I’ve got you to don’t worry!
So you might be asking yourself, what are our plans for the rest of 2020? Easy. Go with the flow. Andy’s work will continue to work from home till January. I’ll be working from home on not one, but two businesses. Marvel will be turning one in less than 30 days, which blows our mind. We’ve got good food at Thanksgiving and decorating for the holidays to look forward to. I think at this point; we will just ride out the rest of this year in our little protective space and hope that 2021 is better for everyone.