Our Holiday Long Weekend

Is everyone else struggling to remember what day of the week it is? I have to keep reminding myself that is Tuesday! We had a nice holiday weekend here in Minneapolis. In the past, I would spend the 4th of July up at my parents' lake home, but it's hard to do that post-kids. We need 2 bedrooms so I would feel bad taking up so much space on a weekend when other siblings want to be at the lake. Plus Phil can't take time off around the 4th. The first 4 business days of the month are his busiest, especially following a quarter end. Plus I will say that I prefer quieter weekends up at my parents cabin. Yes I miss out on the big family gathering stuff but it's less fun in this stage of life when the baby isn't sleeping through the night, we have nap schedules to work around and our days start really early! So holiday weekends tend to get spent at home during this stage of life which I am totally ok with. 

Friday was "Red, White and Blue" day at school so both boys wore those colors. I didn't get a picture of them together in their RWB clothing but getting pics of them together is harder these days! Will is officially too big for Paul to comfortably hold on his lap - mostly because he is long and so wiggly!

On Saturday morning, a co-worker came over at 7:30 to go for a walk. It was nice to catch up and get some steps in together. I took Will with in the stroller for this walk. Afterwards, she snapped this imperfect family photo of us. This is 1 of 2 family photos we've taken since Will was born! Getting both boys to look at the camera is really hard and Paul will not smile for photos these days!

Paul is really struggling with swimming lessons (first time in the pool w/out mom plus over a year away from swimming lessons has been a tough combo) so I took him to a local aquatic center on Saturday morning. We met my friend and her 2 boys and ran into 2 other daycare families so it was clearly the place to be! Paul had a blast in the kids area but would not swim with me in the big pool. :( I was hoping to practice some of what his teacher has attempted to get him to do, but he only wanted to sit on the steps of the big pool. I didn't want to be the mom forcing her screaming kid to swim so I didn't push it. Hopefully he gets more comfortable with the pool soon. 

I knew Sunday was going to be HOT and HUMID so I took the boys for a walk while Phil went to the driving range. Paul is getting to the point where he does not enjoy stroller walks. :( But he did enjoy watching some geese by the lake we walked along. Both boys were pretty fascinated!

Phil really earned some points that morning when he asked if I'd like a treat from my favorite GF bakery this near the golf course where he was hitting balls. I didn't take a picture of it but thoroughly enjoyed a delicious cinnamon roll!

We started to introduce solids when Will hit 6 months and he has not been a fan so far. I did get him to eat some yogurt and applesauce on Sunday for lunch, though, and he really liked the peanut butter I put on his spoon!

It was too hot on Sunday afternoon to be outside with the boys so that was the extent of our activities on Sunday. Weekend afternoons feel reeeeaaaallllyyy long when you can't be outside. 

Monday was a repeat of Sunday - I took a walk at the beginning of the day but only brought Will this time. Paul whined a lot during the walk on Sunday so I couldn't handle another morning of whining and 'I want to go home' comments. I stopped by Starbucks for a coffee treat - but didn't drink it until we got home from the walk since it was way too hot out to drink coffee while walking. 

We tried yogurt and applesauce for lunch again on Monday and Will did pretty well with it. He looks so proud of himself in the photo below!

Monday afternoon was once again spent indoors due to the heat/humidity. Will was on the cranky side as he is getting his 3rd tooth! But as long as he could watch his brother's play and antics, he was pretty happy overall. 

Both boys are healthy right now and I am, too. Phil is finishing up antibiotics for a sinus and ear infection but is feeling better. I'm hoping for a much  healthier month of July. April through June were just awful! 

How was your holiday weekend? 

A Summer Lake Weekend

We had our first visit to my parents' lake home this past weekend and had a great time! We drove up after work on Wednesday night and that drive reminded me why we NEVER drive to the lake after work. It took 4 hours! Road construction is so bad in the summer and traffic is awful. Plus we had to make 2 stops - one stop so Paul could go to the bathroom and another stop to get Chick-Fil-A. At one point both boys were screaming/crying. Phil said he wondered if we were on candid camera or something. But we wanted to get to the lake that night so we could get to my grandma's early the next morning before it got too hot. We had to visit with her outdoors since our kids aren't vaccinated yet. 

Thankfully everyone slept pretty well on Wednesday night and woke up in a good mood. Will reacquainted himself with the swing. 

After breakfast we drove to my grandma's assisted living center which is about an hour away. I had not seen her since July 2019! So we were overdue for a visit. She enjoyed meeting Will and getting to know Paul as an older kiddo! As you can see in the photo below, some family members were more cooperative when it came time to take the picture. 

After we left my grandmas, we ended up stopping at walk-in clinic in Fergus Falls to get Will's ears checked. He has a nasty cold and had been fussier than usual and not sleeping great so I wanted to rule out an ear infection. The doctor said he had some fluid in his ears but he didn't feel the ears warranted antibiotics. I was relieved as I was having PTSD from all of Paul's ear infections (he had them non-stop from 5 months until he got tubes at 9 months). 

We got back to the lake after 1 so we let Paul skip his nap that day. It's nice that he's old enough to skip a nap. A lot of our friend's kids have dropped their nap but Paul really still needs it - which I'm happy about as it's nice to have a break on the weekend. Paul wasn't super interested in swimming but he had fun playing in the sand. And we dipped Will's feet in the lake for the first time. 

We also went on a boat ride. Will HATED the life jacket so it wasn't the most pleasant boat ride, but that's life with a baby.

We were happy to NOT get in a car on Friday after spending hours in the car on Wednesday and Thursday. Will spent some quality time with nana looking at a book on her iPad.

After breakfast, Paul had his first experience fishing! He has fed the fish crackers every spring/summer so he was excited to catch some fish. 

There are tons of fish at the end of my parents dock, so he caught about 15 total (all thrown back) between Friday morning and evening. He was very excited about his catches!

My sister and her 2 youngest kids arrived at lunch on Friday. We hadn't seen them since January 2020! She enjoyed lots of baby snuggles and her kids were SO GREAT with Paul. We let Paul skip his nap again so he could maximize the cousin time. The weather that day was absolutely perfect - 80 degrees, not too humid, and no wind. We were all outdoors for the whole day so Paul was very tired by the time bedtime rolled around.

We woke up to windy, rainy weather on Saturday morning but we are in the midst of a terrible drought so I was not sad - plus we were planning to leave after lunch that day. It's so much easier to leave the lake when the weather isn't great!

We'll be back for a longer stay in August and my younger sister will be there with her little baby! I'm looking forward to meeting my little niece and getting time with my sister and her husband!

How was your weekend? Has it been a hot, dry spring/summer where you live? We finally got some rain over the last few days. I've never experienced such a HOT, dry month of June. We've had so many days over 90 degrees. I like hot weather but June has been a bit much for me so hopefully July is less intense.

Labor Day Long Weekend

Happy Tuesday! Who else is looking forward to a shorter 4-day work week? Just me? ;) We had a nice look weekend here. It was a quiet one since but that's Covid life for you. I worry about what the case numbers are going to look like after this long weekend... Our leadership in MN has asked people to be very careful about decisions they are making in their personal life because they are seeing a lot of case growth from social gatherings, weddings, etc - not from trips to the grocery store where everyone is wearing masks... With some students going back to school in person, I hope people made good decisions about how they spent their weekends but we'll see...

Despite it being a quieter weekend, we still had a good one. The temps dropped and most of the weekend felt fall-like with the exception of Sunday which was warm and humid! But I figure that's one of the last really warm, humid days we'll have so I embraced it. Here are some highlights from our weekend!

Rock throwing:

We live close to a creek and walk by it on every walk we take. Throwing rocks at the creek is a favorite activity for both of my boys! I'm a terrible rock skipper so I usually hang back and take pictures.

Park time:

We went to the park every day! It was pretty quiet at the park since many families go to their lake homes on long weekends. On Monday, we met my friend and her son at a new-to-us park. It was a nice small park and we were the only ones there which was great!

Baking and kitchen play:

I baked with Paul for the first time on Saturday. It went better than I expected! He dumped all of the ingredients in, except the peanut butter, did some of the stirring, and anxiously waited for the cookies to be done. His favorite part was sampling the chocolate chips, hence the chocolate on his face in the picture below! We need to do something low sugar next time because he's been asking for cookies with every meal!

He also spent quite a bit of time playing with the kitchen set that our friends lent to us! He's very into pretend play right now so I think this toy will get a lot of use! In the picture below he's making pasta for me.

Good eats:

I did a bad job of taking pictures of meals we made, but this was one of my favorites. I marinated the shrimp in some jarred pesto that I wanted to use up and then we grilled them in a grill basket and enjoyed them with grilled asparagus and corn on the cob. Yum! I also made a pork taco recipe from my instant pot cook book which turned out good. It was a mojo pork recipe so featured a lot of citrus.

Reading:

And of course our weekend featured a whole lot of reading! I picked up some library books for Paul last week and both were a hit - especially "What Kind of Car Does a T. Rex Drive" since he's so into dinosaurs right now! I finished "Sea Wife" over the weekend, which I burned through in 2 days and started "Saint X" which is sooo good! I also got my first Food Network magazine at the start of the weekend. I haven't subscribed to a magazine in probably 7+ years, but we lured by a prime deal. My mom gets the Food Network magazine and I love paging through it when we are up there so I figured it was a subscription I'd enjoy and get some meal inspiration from.

How was your long weekend?

A Perfect Summer Weekend

I've mentioned before that this summer has been HOT HOT HOT. I usually love hot weather but it's just been ridiculously humid - like too hot to be outdoors in the afternoon. I guess I know what Floridians feel like!! But this weekend, drier air from Canada moved in and the weather was delightful. It was still warm and sunny but the air was so dry which makes a huge difference! So we made the most of it and tried to be outdoors as much as possible.

On Friday, the golf set we ordered for Paul arrived so he played with it when he got home from daycare. We tried to coach him on how to hold the club but he was not open to instruction... Ha! He was like the mad hatter from Alice in Wonderland. And he appears to have the patience of his mama (I'm the less patient person in my marriage!). But he did have fun with the set and hopefully this will nurture his interest in golf. Phil is a very good golfer and played lots of golf with his dad when he was growing up so he's hoping to do the same with Paul!

For dinner on Friday, I made these Greek Turkey burgers and they were amazing! The recipe calls for lamb but I have a weird aversion to lamb so we used turkey. The recipe says to make 6 patties but I made 4 patties instead. They were pretty large, but fit perfectly on the bun (I had a GF bun, of course). We had them with potato chips and green beans from my garden.

On Saturday, I met up with some college girlfriends to kayak! We've been talking about doing this for a couple of summers and finally made it happen. We all met at Bde Maka Ska (formerly known as Lake Calhoun). 2 of us kayaked and 1 paddle boarded. We saw 3 different lakes (Bde Maka Ska, Lake of the Isles and Cedar Lake) as they are all connected by channels of water. I of course had to take a picture of the group of adolescent duckies I saw so I could show Paul. I wonder where their mom was!!

While I was out kayaking, Phil and Paul went to the park and then threw rocks into the creek. It was nice for them to get some one-on-one time together without mommy around!

I got the itch to work on a puzzle so on Friday night I started this and Paul "helped" me finish it on Saturday. Given the size of the puzzle pieces, it wasn't challenging but was still fun to put together. It's a 1980s world map so A LOT has changed since then!!

On Sunday, we all slept until about 8 am!!! I don't know that Paul has ever slept that late. So that felt amazing, especially since I had slept poorly the night before. Phil went swimming but we had to stay back as Paul has an ear infection. We need to keep his ears dry when he has infections so we went for a walk and stopped at the park. He had so much fun so he was VERY MAD when it was time to go home and have lunch! I was the mom carrying a screaming, kicking child out of the park and then had to wrestle him into the stroller. Toddlers have STRONG opinions about things!

The park/outdoor time must have worn him out as I had to wake him after 2 hours and 45 minutes of napping. I didn't want him to sleep too much and then struggle to fall asleep. I guess his body is still fighting that darn ear infection and needed the extra sleep! After his nap we went on another family walk. We've barely been able to do that this summer due to the humidity/heat in the afternoon!

It's going to be pretty mild for the next couple of days so I am soaking up this weather while it lasts. It looks like we'll be back in the 80s next week which is good since that's when we will be at the lake visiting my parents!

How was your weekend? How has the weather been where you are?

Hot Hot Hot!

Oof, summer is really bringing the heat this year. Earlier this month I heard we had 4 90+ degree days compared to 6 in all of 2019! And this week it's going to be in the 90s nearly every day. I do like summer, but this is a little bit intense! I'm not complaining, it's just... um... HOT. Like too hot to go to the playground after about 9am because the equipment is too hot to play on - try explaining that to a playground-obsessed 2 year old! People are often surprised to hear it gets hot and humid here in Minnesota, but trust me - it does! We are a unique area of the country as we get get down to like -20F in the winter and close to or sometimes over 100F in the summer!

We did manage to keep cool/entertained this past weekend. Even though it's pretty steamy outside, being outside with a toddler is better than being cooped up indoors!

On Friday night, I got his water table set up as soon as we got home from school. He loves this table so much and it take all of 3 minutes to fill it up. He gets drenched but I don't care since it's the end of the day. This is definitely one of the best purchases we've made for Paul!

On Saturday morning, after Facetiming with my mom, we headed out to water my garden and stopped by the park. He was a bit limited on what he could play on since all the slides are metal so any in the sun were too hot to go down. But he still entertained himself for 25 minutes. Swinging was his favorite activity that morning.

One positive aspect of the heat is that it's making things grow like crazy in my garden! Check out the radishes I harvested on Saturday morning. I should have taken a picture of them before trimming them. They were so huge that Phil thought they must be turnips. I was worried they wouldn't taste good since they were so huge (I thought they might get a 'woody' taste) but they taste excellent. Phil doesn't like radishes and Paul tried a bite and immediately spit it out. So I get them all to myself! They are the perfect vessel for guacamole!!

On Saturday afternoon, we went to Phil's HS friend's home on a lake. I failed to take any pictures! We hadn't seen this group since January so we had a lot of catching up to do and I was busy keep track of Paul. They have a beautiful home on a lake with a massive lot (over an acre) so there was plenty of room for us to all socially distance. They were excellent hosts - they even bought some bottles of bubbles to entertain the kids. So Paul was in heaven when Phil's friend blew bubbles for Paul for a good 20 minutes. We also went in the lake which was crazy warm - 88F!

On Sunday morning, we headed to the local lake where Phil swims. Last weekend didn't go so great as we went to the beach with some playground equipment that is too big for Paul and it was just too distracting for him. This time I coaxed him into the water and talked him into letting me take him out further so we could practice what we've learned in swimming lessons (which are on a very grand pause until COVID is under control). He had the best time and kept asking to go on his tummy so he could swim. We were in the water the whole time Phil was swimming the course which is probably 30-40 minutes. Now that I know he enjoys lake swimming we will go to the beach even more often on hot days. I had talked to Phil about how we needed to turn him into a lake kid so I am glad he took to the water well this weekend. I grew up going to the lake and if this was a normal summer, we'd be at my parents at least once a month. So I am glad he likes the water now, especially since we have decided to visit my parents lake home for a week in August. We will all get tested for COVID before going up to make sure we don't infect my parents!

On Sunday afternoon we spent more time outside after Paul's nap. Paul played with his water table and some other outdoor toys and sort of helped while Phil and I weeded/put down mulch (we are super behind on putting down mulch since the deck project took up much of May/June).

I'll close by sharing some pictures of Paul wearing MY hat. As you can see, it basically fits him! So yes, that means we pretty much have the same sized head. My head is smaller than normal - like I had to wear youth goggles when I did my triathlons and it's hard to find glasses that fit right because I have such a narrow face. Paul is super petite - like 4th percentile for weight at his last Dr appt - but his head is and has always been huge. Like 99th percentile. He is starting to grow into it but when he was a baby, he was a total bobble head. We do not know where he got his huge head from because Phil's head is also on the smaller size. Hopefully big head = big brain!

How is the weather in your neck of the woods? Is it crazy hot/humid? It's currently raining here and I am SO happy because I need a break from the heat for at least a day!