Somewhat Rainy Weekend Recap

We had a fairly rainy weekend this past weekend. We really need the rain but I wish it would come during the week! It didn't hamper our weekend plans too much, though. 

On Friday night, we went over to a friend's house and ordered pizza for the adult and made frozen pizza for the kids. There is a local pizza place (Good Times) that is sort of known for its pepperoni and pickle pizza. I LOVE pickles so had to try this option, on a GF crust. The verdict? It was good/interesting but I wouldn't order it again. But it's good to try new things!

The kids had a blast playing together - there were 5 kids ranging in age from 3.5 to almost 7 plus toddler Will. It was hard to get Paul to leave. We drove separately so one parent could go home with Will around 7 and the other could stay a bit longer. Phil let me stay longer since he got to socialize with this group last weekend while I stayed home with Will. I had to set multiple timers to get Paul to leave around 8:15 and then he nearly fell asleep on the 10 minute drive home!

Saturday was my morning to sleep in and then I ran with my neighbor when I woke up which I felt some guilt over as that added 50 minutes of solo parenting for Phil. So he had the kids from about 6-9. I have a real problem with guilt over things like this even though I shouldn't. I did a lot of solo parenting this summer when Phil swam on one weeknight and Sunday mornings. I haven't asked him but I am pretty sure he never felt guilt over swimming and wasn't adding up his minutes of solo parenting to make sure it was balanced. 

I got my share of solo parenting later that morning though as Phil grocery shopped and I took the boys to the library and then to gymnastics class. They are both still enjoying it, but I commented to another parent at the end of class that having Will in gymnastics is like bringing a cat to gymnastics. His attention span is very short, he doesn't want to do some of the things, really wants to do others, and he's so distracted by what Pablo is doing, and so on. But it's still better than trying to coral him in the watching area while Paul does his class! I know it will only get easier as he gets older, though, and the class is great for his gross motor skills.

Paul had a birthday party that afternoon from 1-3. There was a big bouncy house with a slide so he loved that. It was sprinkling/lightly raining for much of the party so at the end of the 2 hours he was probably the most dirty he has ever been! I had him change into a different set of clothes before we left so he wouldn't be sitting in wet clothes on the 15 minute drive home and then a bath was necessary immediately when we got home. Phil stayed behind with Will and unfortunately he took an hour nap which is typical for him. After dinner that night, I took the boys for a walk/scoot so Phil could mow the lawn. I think it was only the 4th or 5th time he mowed this summer thanks to our drought. We water some parts of our lawn sparingly to keep them from dying but don't water as much a home with a sprinkler system does, so that's why we've had to mow so little. 

On Sunday Will had his last swimming lesson. We'll be taking a break as I don't like having activities on both Saturday and Sunday morning. After his lessons we hung around the house since it was still wet/soggy outside thanks to more rain. I was hoping for a nice long nap but Will slept for an hour again. But Phil took him for a walk so I could get more of a break. After the walk, Paul and Phil headed out to Phil's mom's so I was on Will duty for the rest of the day. We went for a long 4+ mile walk around Lake Harriet. It was sooo humid but a humid walk > being inside with a toddler. 

Waving goodbye to some ducks we saw in the lake

Then I spent the rest of the day killing time in the basement. Will enjoyed having all of the toys to himself and to my chagrin, he practiced walking up the stairs using the bannister. Paul did not attempt to walk up the stairs until he was 2.5-3, I think. It's fascinating how different kids are! Will is way more physical, gets into more things, etc. Paul is our rule follower that we never had to babyproof for because it did not occur to him to open the kitchen cabinets! We were also house hunting when Paul was a toddler so didn't want to babyproof a house we were likely selling soon. We babyproofed our new house shortly after buying it, though, and that has paid off with curious Will.

Phil and Paul got home around 7:45 so I did Paul's bedtime and then we watched half an episode of Alone and then I went up to bed to read. 

All in all a pretty good weekend, although the rain made it much harder to get out of the house. Ideally we would have gone to the park one or both days but it was too wet for that. There was a lot of trading off of watching one or both kids. It probably sounds like we don't spend much time together as a family of 4 but it works best to kind of divide and conquer and we each get one morning to sleep in on the weekends. I think it will look different when our kids are a bit older, sleep better, and can do more of the same activities. Next weekend all 4 of us will be going out to my MIL's next weekend for an afternoon, to a birthday party and I think to the zoo. So we'll get lots of time together as a family of 4 then! We try to find a balance but there are things that it's best to do with just one kid - like the birthday party over naptime on Saturday - and Phil and I value alone time to recharge our batteries.

How was your weekend? If you have kids, do/did you and your spouse divide and conquer now or when they are younger or did you tend to always be together? I don't think there is one right way to do it, personally, but am always curious about how others parent.