Hat’s Off

Well I was feeling disheartened about the recent pandemic, and almost decided to put off blogging for a while.  Then I realized, “wait! If I am disheartened, others are too!  What better time than this to put some cheer out there into the interwebs?”  So here is your Monday cheer report.   (Sorry if there’s a lot of tongue in cheek humor this week.)

So let’s recap the last week’s events from the point of view of a germaphobe.  I was supposed to fly out today (Sunday; writing this a day early) to Austin for a work event lasting 2 weeks consisting of hundreds of travelers, during the week of SXSW.  I’ve been freaking out about this for a while.  Monday Intel cancelled all domestic flights for work, so my trip was cancelled.  I started freaking out about transmission of COVID19 in the office on Monday when they recalled a bunch of people back to our office from business in CA. Tuesday, Intel instilled a “work from home if you desire” policy.  I finally got so freaked out that on Thursday I worked it out with my managers to work from home until further notice.  Friday, Intel issued a strongly suggested work from home policy for those who are able to work from home.  I also convinced Will to work from home, since HPE had a “work from home if you talk to your manager” policy.  Now I’m just worried about Julius (affectionately known as the plague bearer) contracting it at daycare.  Today, the governor of MA issued 3 weeks of shut downs for schools and dine in restaurants and gatherings of more than 25 people.  So guess that means day care… Honestly this is all just affirming my germaphobia.  Maybe I’m not a germaphobe?!

I’ve been reading the CDC recommendations daily, so when they announced 3 weeks ago to prepare for a pandemic with canned goods I went out and bought enough soup and beans (vegetarian protein) to last us for a month.  It was far enough in advance that I got some strange looks from the cashiers.  Will returned to the grocery store today and reported back that everything I bought 3 weeks ago is still in stock, but that they were nearly out of toilet paper and meat.  The only silver lining I can envision from all this whole situation is that the pandemic may turn everyone into vegetarian hippies.

Julius has no problem eating vegetarian.  Today he glommed down his plate of crock pot chana masala we made together and asked for more!   Yesterday, Will fed Julius palak paneer while I was working from home in the other room and Julius kept exclaiming “yummy, yummy tummy!”  from the other room.  (His version of “yummy in my tummy”.)  It was adorable.

While Julius and I haven’t been baking as much, he has been helping me quite a bit in the kitchen.  I made Julius a chef’s hat and apron for Christmas to go with his kitchen playset.  He’s been wearing both in the kitchen when cooking with me.  I’ve explained to him that my “sous chef” gets to wear a fancy hat which further increases his desire to cook with me.  Today I’ll show you how to make a toddler chef’s hat in less than an hour!

Toddler Chef’s Hat

What you’ll need:

• 1 yard of white cotton fabric

1. Cut 22″ diameter circle of fabric and 21″x7″ strip of fabric for hatband. (.5″ seam allowance included everywhere)
2. Pin strip of fabric end to end to form band of hat.  Stitch.
3. Fold band in half, so unfinished seam is inside.
4. Stitch a wide running stitch all around the outside of the circle, close to the edge.
5. Pull up the edges to gather the circle.
6. Pin circle to hatband, unfinished edges together.  Pull up gathers to fit.
7. Stitch hatband to cap.  Turn right side out.  If you desire, you can add elastic to the back of the hat so it has a more snug fit.