His name is tobi and he’s old and fat. He stays in our room 90% of the time and rarely ventures out. Wonder why.

87 degrees. Might have been a record. This heat so early in the year is crazy. My work schedule is very light these days so I met a friend in the park with Claudine for a picnic except shade was scarce because there were no leaves on the trees.

But this sudden hot weather means after school sidewalk stoop parties are back! Neighbor kids, bathing suits, sprinklers, pizza and beer. A pleasant sunset over the vintage metal billboard and elevated subway tracks off in the distance. A perfect summer evening. In early April.

When we woke up this morning, we decided to ignore all the stuff that we should have done and instead took the subway to make a birthday delivery in Chinatown and have brunch in Nolita. A quick train ride back over the bridge and we were eating ice cream by the waterfront and exploring the recently opened first phase of the new Brooklyn Bridge Park.

School starts back up on Wednesday. Spring Break was nice, but I’m looking forward to having some routine back.

It was nice to spend Easter with family members we don’t see often, this being Mark’s Russian side of the family.

The girls were into the Easter egg hunt. So much so that they decided to hide the goodies themselves and look for them again.

I’ve never had peeps before until today. Meh.

While being dropped off again at the park while Mark and his sister visited their dad at the hospital, I met another woman who was in town for the same reason as we were. She came up to me to comment how cute the girls were. We watched Claudine and Mia as they skipped, twirled and played house between a gazebo and a couple of huge trees. About 30 feet away, I saw an elderly man in a wheelchair covered under a blanket. That was her father in law. He was 97. He miraculously pulled through an illness while in hospice and is still hanging on. Similar stories, except Mark’s dad is 30 years younger. This woman was at the end of this particular chapter as her father in law is the last remaining parent. We’re just at the beginning.

I kept thinking about that this weekend and my head can’t quite grasp this, especially since our other 3 parents are active and healthy, but it’s overwhelming to think that we might be dealing with this 3 more times. It’s also made me think about what we need to do to prepare for the future 30, 40 years down the line.

I know that this is so obvious, but it’s poignant how we revert back to the needs of a child when we grow older and are unable to care for ourselves. Help with being fed, changing clothes, walking…the most basic of needs, a reversal of roles. It’s sad, but also quite…poetic.

Last year we tried to get a little fancy with our easter eggs by trying pysanky (the Ukrainian art of decorating eggs). We didn’t have the right kind of wax so it didn’t work, but the dyes were so vibrant. This year we went simple and just bought the tablet kind of dye you can buy at the grocery store.

The girls and I dyed eggs while Mark and his sister visited a few nursing homes in the area. We are all staying at Mark’s uncle’s house. I’m not quite sure why, but the girls were really subdued and quiet during egg-dyeing.

The daunting task of taking care of a sick parent and trying to work with the system is overwhelming, confusing and wrought with anxiety. I know that all this is inevitable, but you never think that it might happen this soon. Relatively speaking, our parents are not old. They age before your eyes, but somehow they never seem old – that is, until they fall ill. Or maybe you catch a glimpse of a photograph that makes you stop and look more closely. And then it surprises you because yes, you can see the evidence of age that you usually don’t notice. Because most of the time, they are just mom and dad.

Even though this isn’t really a vacation per se, it’s nice to get out of the city. It’s quiet here and you can see stars.

Kids aren’t allowed at the hospital where Mark’s dad is now staying so the girls made cards for him instead and explored a treehouse way, way up in the trees while Mark was inside on his visit.

It will be 80 degrees today. We didn’t pack appropriately. We are hot.

Also, there is this, which we’ve been hearing over and over ever since Mark’s mom sent us a care package from Hawaii.