Last Week & Today

I’ve gone two weeks in a row now actually updating as planned. Here’s last week, and I’m tossing in today since we had such a blast this morning.

Monday

Idylwood Park has become one of our new favorites. It has a great play structure, grassy areas, sandy beach, and ducks. Lots of ducks. We made plans with our friends to meet there; they hadn’t been there yet and I always feel the need to share parks since we go to so many so often. I’m surprised how dead they are these days but also think it’s nice to have them mostly to ourselves. Laine was feeling adventurousness and finally went down the big slide on her own. They played, snacked, beached, and waded before we called it a successful park outing.

Monday night the kiddos pretended to be in spaceships (toy baskets) while Brian flew them around the room. The most belly laughing I’ve heard from the two.

Tuesday

One of the first gloomy fall days. That doesn’t stop us though, even though I totally under dressed the kiddos. We had a park play date with a little gal Blaise’s age at Central Park in Issaquah Highlands. The kiddos mostly stuck to the play areas, aside from chasing leaves in the wind for a little bit. We go to parks often with one mom and her three little ones and after about a half hour in we always stop and have snacks at a picnic table. Apparently my kiddos expect this now because after about a half hour playing I looked over to see them both seated at a picnic table eagerly waiting for snacks. They snacked, then played some more before we left for naps.

Wednesday

Lazy day. We didn’t even leave the house (well, I did when Brian got home from work). Blaise is a super-builder with the Magna-Tiles. Seriously the best toy ever.

Thursday

Second pumpkin patch visit of the month. We went to our favorite pumpkin patch, Craven Farm. The plan was to tire the kiddos out in the enormous corn maze but they were more interested in climbing on the make-shift play structures with their little friends. (Blaise was cleaning out all the bark in the canoe and kept trying to fix the broken pumpkin, our orderly child.)


Friday

Before Laine was born I was in a weekly play group. Once Laine was born I stopped going since her morning nap was at the same time. She’s since dropped her morning nap we are starting to go again … well, she did drop it for two months but reinstated it last Wednesday (what’s up with that, kiddo?!). She woke up right before we needed to leave Friday morning to make the play group so it all worked out. They played, us moms chatted, we left for lunch and naps. Brian had another evening of his Ham Radio class so knowing I was on for lunch, dinner, baths, and bedtime, I decided I really didn’t want to deal with the lunch mess at home so I took the kiddos out to Red Robin on the way home. It was a good lunch with just the two kiddos and me, and so much easier now that they’re older.

Friday evening our friend, Katherine, came over to hang out with us. Both our husbands were Ham-ing (and they’re not even over 50! Current Amateur Radio magazine cover that Brian gets, haha!). I really needed to hit Target for diapers and she needed to get some stuff too so we packed the kiddos up in their pajamas and went to Target. The kiddos are such good shoppers (it’s in their blood). Blaise usually walks with me or rides in the main cart, Laine rides in the kid seat. He clearly wanted to sit with his sister Friday since he climbed next to her and was quite impressed with himself (I think they like one another).

Saturday

It was Brian’s last day of Ham class, and it went all day followed by him getting a massage. I was on mom-duty from the time the kiddos woke up until bedtime. I wasn’t really in a mom mood so I took the day “off” and did the bare minimum; the kiddos were fed, changed, clothed. Otherwise, I left them to have independent play while I did the stereotypical stay-at-home-mom thing and sat on the couch and did nothing. I did read them a few books and made sure they rotated toys so they didn’t get bored. Oh, and we did play out back a little bit in the rain.

Brian passed his Ham test so he can now do something Ham-related, he loved his massage, and we all went to bed early after a long week.

Sunday

We stayed home but we were busy with home stuff (and by we I mean me). Our garage becomes a dumping ground when I get inspired to redecorate (which is basically monthly, there is a new desk sitting on our front porch now that the UPS man just delivered and I’m sitting in the front room that I decided to paint last night). I couldn’t handle the mess in the garage much longer so I cleaned the sucker. My next task was to paint, so I sent Brian and Laine to the store to get supplies while I prepped the room. They came back, Blaise was still taking a super nap, I painted, Blaise woke up, we ate dinner, I painted a second coat, we FaceTimed with the grandparents, the kiddos went to bed, we watched Dexter, then went to bed ourselves.

Today

I needed to get out. And I imagine the kiddos needed to get out. We had been indoors most of the weekend and since it wasn’t super rainy, I dressed the kiddos quickly and we left for Farrel-McWhirter. I texted my friend as we left to see if they wanted to join us, then checked my email to see that she emailed saying they were heading there and asking us to join them. Awesome. She’s my “Yes Mom” friend … we seem to be on the same page with letting the kiddos play dirty and be adventurous. Unless I fear death or a major illness, societal manners aside, I let the kiddos play as they want. We checked in on the animals, who all were hiding in their barns even though it wasn’t even raining. Except the chickens. They were all out and their feathers were in full-effect. The cow was gone, sad … she outgrew her yard so is now a dairy cow (they had a sign posted). After the animal check, we stopped for some snacks at a picnic table, Laine was scared of the horse neighing, then we walked further down the path. There is a small horse stadium that turned out to be the best thing ever today. It was filled with wet sand and puddles, all the kiddos had a blast. They were probably in there for almost a half hour jumping, digging, running, all sorts of dirt-filled fun. And what I take as a compliment, my Yes Mom friend said we’re their most willing to get dirty friends they have. Score! It was past our usual lunchtime so we left for home after a massive clean up effort. Laine was out in a matter of seconds, Blaise hung in there until we got home and ate. Baths were in order before naps, and they’re both out cold now.

And there’s Laine waking up now, perfect timing.