Happy Tuesday! Last week was our first 5-day workweek since before our Mexico trip and now we have another short week! Let me tell you, long weekends are not what they used to be now that we have young kids, though. ;) Especially long weekends in the winter. A long weekend in July? No problem - we have endless options. But January? Meh! That said, we had a pretty good weekend all in all.
On Friday night, we stayed in like usual. Will played in the kitchen with these (loud) metal bowls while I got dinner ready. But at least he was entertained, contrary to the expression on his face in the photo below!
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| Toddler moodiness! |
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| Will hasn’t figured out how to jump yet but he loves running across this trampoline! |
After quiet time we went to our friend’s house for a get together with some of Phil’s college friends! They all have kids close to Paul’s age. Paul had a blast and Will enjoyed playing with new-to-him toys! I made chili, the hosts made a corn chowder and another couple brought dessert from my fave GF bakery as they have a great selection of nut-free items (they have a peanut allergy in their family).
On Sunday morning the boys enjoyed donuts Phil had bought for them when he was grocery shopping the day before. Then they watched some Wild Kratts together on Paul’s iPad. Which held Will’s attention for 3 minutes!
I did a workout during quiet time - a lower body HIIT workout that was very hard as there was something called ‘triple bears’ - you crouch down in "bear stance" with your knees/shins 2" off the ground and the you jump or step side to side. You had to do for 45 seconds which felt endless!! It was a mild afternoon so Will and I went for a short stroller walk after quiet timee. The geese have new costumes! I really need to leave the owners a note or try to catch them when they are outdoors this spring or summer. These geese and their ever-changing costumes are so entertaining!!
On Monday morning, we woke to drizzling rain. I headed out for a run around 7 as it looked like we would get a break in the rain. But the radar was wrong - it lightly rained the whole time. Which wasn’t too bad. The sidewalks were so so. This rain is not going to help the slippery sidewalk situation, though!!
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| My dorky morning running outfit! It was still a bit dark when I started so I wore a headlight. |
Phil and Paul went to his mom’s around 2 so I was on Will duty for the rest of the day. It was rainy out so we were stuck inside and time stood still at times. Keeping him entertained for 4.5 hours was challenging! I set up a train track, did lots of puzzles and tried to keep him happy/entertained!
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| Enjoying some apples while watching Wheel |
When Paul and Phil got home, Phil and I did our quarterly financial review. And then I headed upstairs to read my book - "Ingenue" by Rachel Kapelke-Dale.
How was your weekend? For those in the states, was it a long weekend for you?
17 comments:
What a great roundup of your weekend which sounds - overall - very lovely.
Time can STAND STILL with toddlers (and, spoiler alert: I still feel this way with my much-older kids, too). They love to be on the go and are extroverts so winter can be tough if we're cooped up inside. And now they stay awake so much later! When parenting is golden, there is literally nothing like how good it feels. When it's a slog...it's a slog to end all slogs! #IGetIt <3
Our weather has been rainy/icy. It's depressing because with snow, the kids will happily play outside for hours, but this cold rain (like heavy, relentless rain) is a real drag. BUT, we're back into the routine of weekly activities and extracurriculars and it is nice. The kids are happy to have various things scheduled; our son only has two items, but our daughter has 4+ and she LOVES it.
What a busy weekend! The sidewalks are pretty treacherous here right now; I haven't been running at all.
Our sidewalks are rain-soaked right now, but I think there's snow in the forecast later this week, so I'll have to break out my YakTrax. Have you ever run with YakTrax? They really make me feel so much more comfortable on snow and ice and they're relatively inexpensive so you're not really investing in too much if it turns out you don't like them!
Wow! That sounds like a very busy weekend! Running outside on the ice sounds really treacherous. I do love your headlamp though.
Do you ever do bathtub playtime? I never did it with my kid (some kids aren't suited to it, and mine wasn't) but I was reading a twitter thread recently with ideas for entertaining toddlers and a lot of them involved the bath. Letting them "paint" with shaving cream or pour water from one vessel to another. I don't know. My kid was never one who was satisfied with pots and pans, so I know how much they vary!
Your comment about your quarterly financial review piqued my interest. Would you be willing to share more details about what that means? I feel like my husband and I are sort of haphazard about our finances and I would love to be more intentional.
Hi, first time commenting, but love your blog! Winter can be rough with kids when being outside isn't available; I've been known to put my 9-year-old on the treadmill or have her do a walking video to burn off some of her energy haha!
I forgot to say I love the photo of all the metal mixing bowls. My kids used to LOVE to play with pots and tupperware, and they would stack canned goods over and over.
I took the bigs indoor swimming and left Minnie at home. Toddler winter is SOOOO LOOONG but at least we can GO PLACES again.I love staying in on the weekends and tend to bring Minnie to fun activities on the weekdays when things aren't as crowded, but the zoo is genius. My big kids are off school Friday for end-of-semester grade reporting, and I think we'll bundle up and go. Thanks for the inspo!
+1 for Yak Trax!! I used to walk for 90+ minutes a day with Minnie zipped under my coat and in the Ergo because that's the only way she would nap when she was teeny tiny, so I used Yak Trax her whole first winter, and we manged to get out every single day.
It sounds like a good weekend! We had a good one, too. Friends for dinner on Friday at Rick's, a laid back Saturday and Sunday, mostly taking down Christmas and putting up a little winter -- but not too much. Almost done. I'm reading Alan Rickman's diaries which are really interesting.
i remember when i was living in the US, long weekends with babies were not that enjoyable because I paid monthly daycare (2000!!!). hahaha... so I totally feel you how it can be less enjoyable for you. Yet, you managed to do a lot including a run under the rain. :)
When my son was the age of your kids, we did a lot of open swim times especially pools with zero entry aimed at young ones. a water sensory bin (or beans/rice) captured my sons attention for a long time. I just laid lots of towels down. With that, they can feel very long in the winter...
Aww, that sounds like a really nice weekend! Some good variety and a mix of some personal time and of course kid time and some social time.
I know the triple bears you are talking about and I don't like those, either! I guess I'm rather picky about which exercise moves I actually like. hahaha.
I used to take the boys to the zoo ALL the time when they were little, because ours is free! So it was a great place to go to get out of the house, and very close/convenient at the time. But it definitely is hard when someone decides they won't get back in the stroller.... ugh! lol. That is the worst.
I am looking forward to seeing the dolphins; that will be a lot of fun! I have not been to the zoo in years! Also then I can hang with Pablo while you and Will get sorted. :)
Also I second Sarah's comment about Yak-Trax; I use those (or microspikes depending on the ice/snow hardness) for running outside and it is a game changer. Something like this for example comes in really handy: https://amzn.to/3WjFhr9.
I spent the long weekend with K and her kids, and while not toddlers, it is definitely a little challenging! We took the skunk train through the redwoods and I do not think they were impressed; we could have just done a walk (for free!) in the same area and had the same result. They focused more on asking to buy the vending machine popcorn than they did on the trees sometimes!
Oof, this sounds exhausting! Nice job getting those workouts in- I've never encountered "triple bears" and they sound HORRIBLE! While I was reading this I had a flashback to when my son Paul was around Will's age. One of the things I did to kill time was take him to Sears because he was OBSESSED with vacuum cleaners. We could spend hours looking at all the different models. Which seems so weird now... I don't think he's even looked at a vacuum cleaner in 15 years.
The struggle is so real for trying to keep the kiddos occupied on a 3 day weekend in the winter 😠the indoor playgrounds were all swamped so we didn’t even go to those
I am going to repeat myself and say that you always fit SO MUCH into your weekends, but I know that you feel that this is better than trying to entertain the kids at home... which I totally get. But I understand that long weekends must feel different when you're trying to "entertain" the kiddos. It sounds like a nice mix of activities though and you even got some exercise in (the tripe bear is brutal!). ;)
I love the geese!!!! So fun to see the dolphins!!! Keeping a toddler entertained inside is unbelievably challenging!!!
Lori
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