Fun in the sun
My goal this summer is to use up all sixteen bottles of sunscreen I have accumulated. Seriously...we've got a ton of them. And while that isn't really my main point of getting out of the house, I do find a strange satisfaction in using things up.
So, when we arrived back from Ohio/Illinois, we started popping open those bottles! Last week we spent one day at City Park - feeding ducks, playing at the playground, riding the train, and wrapping it all up with a trip to the pool. I felt like super mom (not something I have been feeling a lot of lately.) I was so impressed with myself for accomplishing all this on my own and with little stress that it was just the boost I needed to encourage me to embrace summer and get out there! I don't have any pictures to show of this fun day because let's face it, I barely had enough hands to keep everything going as it was.
The next day we were invited to join some playgroup friends at their neighborhood pool. Anya was moaning and groaning as we were getting ready (despite the huge amount of fun she had the day before at the City Park pool) about how she wasn't going to go in the water and could I please bring some toys that she could play with outside of the pool. I seriously thought this excursion was going to last about fifteen minutes. But I packed us all up and headed to the pool in spite of the bad feeling I had about the potential disaster this was about to become.
At this pool, in addition to a regular deep pool they also have a small kiddie pool that is only about 1.5 feet deep the whole way across. Anya sat on the edge with me for a while and then eventually decided (with some coaxing) that she would like to try and stand in the water. She was timid at first and kept going back to our chair to wipe her eyes when she got splashed by the other kids. But eventually, she was going crazy. Crazy by Anya standards, of course. But seriously, she is getting a lot more adventurous in the last month or so.
And Evan...he was floating around in his little baby float for the whole 2.5 hours we were there and having a blast! I didn't know what to do with myself. I was just sitting on the edge of the pool like a "normal" mom...chatting with the other moms while watching my kids play. Not having to hold anybody or constantly reassure anybody. It was so different from every other day. Strange indeed.
Here's a couple photos of my little fish from my camera phone.
This past weekend we spent at home while Steve made some great progress on the deck. He took some pictures for a post about it, but I'll let him share those with you. We set up our little pool in the backyard and spent several hours out there on both weekend days.
Anya really wanted me to paint her toenails, so I did. Despite the pained expression on all three of our faces in the second picture, she LOVED it.
Then this week we have been super busy again. Monday we were out of the house from 10:30am to 5:30pm. It wasn't planned that way, but when Anya and Evan both fell asleep in the car while we were out, I just let them sleep and we kept going. We started with an outdoor drum concert at the library, followed by a nap in the car. Then we ate lunch outside on the lawn next to a garden and then walked around to look at the plants.
Evan mainly just wanted to push the stroller around.
The grass was a lot softer than this bark.
It was REALLY hot. We all got tired and a bit cranky.
The rest of the day was spent running some much needed errands. Anya went down for an early bedtime after dinner and Evan slept for three hours when we got home. Steve finally woke him up to feed him some dinner at 8:30pm so that he would go back to sleep for the night.
Yesterday we had playgroup at the children's garden and tried to go downtown for an outdoor concert at a plaza with a water feature for kids, but we were deterred by rain. Anya was devastated. It's one of her favorite things to do these days. This morning we met another playgroup for a kids concert downtown followed by lunch at City Park. Anya enjoyed the music, but was disappointed because she didn't understand that this music thing wasn't at the "normal" music spot with the fountain and she was once again sad that she didn't get to play in the water. She just doesn't understand or like concepts such as "we'll do that later" or "we can't do that because it's raining."
"But WHY does it need to rain?" I'm struggling with explaining the water cycle to a three year old.
It seems that she thinks that the more emphatically she says, "But I REALLY want to play in the water thing," that it will actually be possible. This child is definitely not being shielded from the disappointments of life. She's really got it rough.
Just now writing all of this it seems like we've been back more than a week already. This much activity is not typical. We've had a good week, but the sunscreen supply just doesn't seem to be going down fast enough. Guess we'll have to keep it up.
So, when we arrived back from Ohio/Illinois, we started popping open those bottles! Last week we spent one day at City Park - feeding ducks, playing at the playground, riding the train, and wrapping it all up with a trip to the pool. I felt like super mom (not something I have been feeling a lot of lately.) I was so impressed with myself for accomplishing all this on my own and with little stress that it was just the boost I needed to encourage me to embrace summer and get out there! I don't have any pictures to show of this fun day because let's face it, I barely had enough hands to keep everything going as it was.
The next day we were invited to join some playgroup friends at their neighborhood pool. Anya was moaning and groaning as we were getting ready (despite the huge amount of fun she had the day before at the City Park pool) about how she wasn't going to go in the water and could I please bring some toys that she could play with outside of the pool. I seriously thought this excursion was going to last about fifteen minutes. But I packed us all up and headed to the pool in spite of the bad feeling I had about the potential disaster this was about to become.
At this pool, in addition to a regular deep pool they also have a small kiddie pool that is only about 1.5 feet deep the whole way across. Anya sat on the edge with me for a while and then eventually decided (with some coaxing) that she would like to try and stand in the water. She was timid at first and kept going back to our chair to wipe her eyes when she got splashed by the other kids. But eventually, she was going crazy. Crazy by Anya standards, of course. But seriously, she is getting a lot more adventurous in the last month or so.
And Evan...he was floating around in his little baby float for the whole 2.5 hours we were there and having a blast! I didn't know what to do with myself. I was just sitting on the edge of the pool like a "normal" mom...chatting with the other moms while watching my kids play. Not having to hold anybody or constantly reassure anybody. It was so different from every other day. Strange indeed.
Here's a couple photos of my little fish from my camera phone.
This past weekend we spent at home while Steve made some great progress on the deck. He took some pictures for a post about it, but I'll let him share those with you. We set up our little pool in the backyard and spent several hours out there on both weekend days.
Anya really wanted me to paint her toenails, so I did. Despite the pained expression on all three of our faces in the second picture, she LOVED it.
Then this week we have been super busy again. Monday we were out of the house from 10:30am to 5:30pm. It wasn't planned that way, but when Anya and Evan both fell asleep in the car while we were out, I just let them sleep and we kept going. We started with an outdoor drum concert at the library, followed by a nap in the car. Then we ate lunch outside on the lawn next to a garden and then walked around to look at the plants.
Evan mainly just wanted to push the stroller around.
The grass was a lot softer than this bark.
It was REALLY hot. We all got tired and a bit cranky.
The rest of the day was spent running some much needed errands. Anya went down for an early bedtime after dinner and Evan slept for three hours when we got home. Steve finally woke him up to feed him some dinner at 8:30pm so that he would go back to sleep for the night.
Yesterday we had playgroup at the children's garden and tried to go downtown for an outdoor concert at a plaza with a water feature for kids, but we were deterred by rain. Anya was devastated. It's one of her favorite things to do these days. This morning we met another playgroup for a kids concert downtown followed by lunch at City Park. Anya enjoyed the music, but was disappointed because she didn't understand that this music thing wasn't at the "normal" music spot with the fountain and she was once again sad that she didn't get to play in the water. She just doesn't understand or like concepts such as "we'll do that later" or "we can't do that because it's raining."
"But WHY does it need to rain?" I'm struggling with explaining the water cycle to a three year old.
It seems that she thinks that the more emphatically she says, "But I REALLY want to play in the water thing," that it will actually be possible. This child is definitely not being shielded from the disappointments of life. She's really got it rough.
Just now writing all of this it seems like we've been back more than a week already. This much activity is not typical. We've had a good week, but the sunscreen supply just doesn't seem to be going down fast enough. Guess we'll have to keep it up.
posted by Lara at 9:17 PM
2 Comments:
Dylan says, "That's Lara. I love her."
I say, Wow, you ARE super mom! It all makes me tired just looking at it. But it in a good way. Keep up the fun outings - what a summer!
Good and informative posting, Lara. So, how many bottles have you finished off? Of sunscreen, that is...!
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