"How was your weekend?"
Apr. 25th, 2022 06:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spryng9/10 times I'll answer: it was fine. The other 1/10: it was a lot.
What I really want to say, and what no one has the time for, is that the baby was up for three hours on Friday night, so I slept in until 6.30. I had just enough time to finish one cup of coffee before I heard a tiny "mama Kai?" from the hallway. Cabin Girl is up. I tell her good morning and she sits on the chaise under the window and tells me about her dreams last night.
Then I let her have her tablet so I can finish a second cup of coffee and try to write, but I can never manage the latter once she's up. Instead, I make her breakfast (cracking egg, scrambled eggs), get my own food, and then the baby's stirring and it's 8am??
I'd promised my wife I'd go out first thing and get her some more bagels, but that promise was made assuming I'd actually wake up earlier. Still, bagels are an opportunity for an adventure, so I get the baby dressed and snacked, and I get CG dressed, and we're on our way.
A chocolate muffin for her, bites of my bagel for him, we sit at a booth and I try to strategize the morning because my wife was up late working and I want to let her sleep as long as she can. Should I try to make the plant sale at the Natural History Museum? Maybe they'd have the flatwoods plum I really wanted. But before I float the possibility of hey, plants! with CG, I get a text from a mom friend -- can we come over for a bit? She's still feeling out of sorts from the flu and her sitter canceled.
We have two hours until CG's gymnastics, so: sure! Stop by home to drop off a bagel for my wife and grab CG's leotard, then we head over. Soon there are four kids outside and a box of chalk but only the baby's playing with it; CG and her friend, 6, are in my car pretending to drive it and the fourth child, 3, is sulking because she wants to go inside. What about a walkabout? "Yeah!!" shout the kids in the car and then there's a rush to get shoes on.
We walk to 6's elementary school and back -- CG will be starting there in just a few months and wanted to see where it was. The baby walks for a little bit, but his short legs simply can't keep up with the older kids, so I strap him to my chest for most of it. 3 gets tired, too, so I put her on my shoulders for the last stretch. She squirms off just when we reach their home and all three older kids run inside together.
I walk the baby inside and find the girls on their tablets already. They request popcorn. I find their mom, let her know I've only got a little longer before gymnastics. She's found another sitter, though, so she'll be able to rest this afternoon. I make popcorn for the girls and then hang out with the baby in the backroom until it's time to go.
CG changes into her leotard in record time and we're out the door again, now heading north. The gym is packed, the busiest I've seen on a Saturday in a while. I bring the baby's carrier because I'm not sure how he'll be during the hour of gymnastics. CG runs off to warm up. I try to get the baby to settle in my lap, but he's decided my lap is a slide. When I get tired of this, I put him in the carrier and bounce around and -- oops, he's asleep. Maybe he won't sleep long?
Nope, he's completely out for nearly the whole hour of gymnastics. So that's his nap for the day. At least I get to watch CG tumble and jump and flip on the bars -- as well as run around, be silly, and ignore her instructors. Ah well.
Home again and now both children are hangry. My wife is up so I give the baby to her and grab lunch and get CG fed. Then I tap out. I only mean to close my eyes for a bit but I nap instead. Whoops.
When I get up, the baby still hasn't napped and CG is putting together a puzzle in her room. I try to put together the pieces of my brain and realize we should probably offer to bring desert when we go over to our friends' later, ostensibly for board games. They're going to feed us dinner, after all. I spend too much time trying to find the Best Dessert nearby and then it's time to go again.
Diapers, wipes, water bottles, epi pens, a board game, shoes, keys -- do we have everything? No, where's the baby? Then everyone and everything's in the car and we can go.
Ohh, this is a side of town we haven't been to before. CG is excited to see her friend, 5's, house. We've met up at playgrounds and strawberry picking, so naturally dinner is the next step when you're friends with kids. CG and 5 start playing boardgames on the floor, the adults actually manage some conversation while corralling the 2 year old and bouncing the baby into a 2nd nap.
Then we go outside and the baby learns how to crawl up the baby slide and sliiiiiiiiiiide down and he's living his best life and 5 teaches CG how to use her (kid-friendly) bow and shoot an (kid-friendly) arrow, and my wife delights in all the plants they have and I delight in the hundreds of lovebugs and it's really nice out and the kids try to fly a kite but just tangle themselves up and then their mom shows me all the grubs in their compost.
Then it's dinner time and two pairs of parents try to get two pairs of kids to eat. We end up trading off until CG and 5 had their fill and now they're out front, playing with the neighbor kids. I take the baby so my wife can finish eating. I go outside to find that the girls have gone on walkabout. Their mom goes with them and I walk the baby about. When the girls come back, I lure them inside with cookies. It's getting past the baby's bedtime, but the girls want to play one last boardgame, and then one *last* game. Fine, fine, but we have to go *right* after ---
And we do, with the normal amount of goodbyes and we'll see you agains and no really, CG, put your shoes on.
The baby is loopy. So are the mommies, tbh. We make it home, put the baby down only an hour late, and then work on CG. She's tiiirred and dragging but we get her in jammies and in bed. When only one mommy is needed, I stumble into our room and fall face-first into bed.
*
The baby wakes up at 4.30. He's just chattering, so I grab the monitor to let my wife keep sleeping and start the coffee brewing. He keeps chattering. I give him a bottle, change his diaper, he goes back to sleep. For 5min. Then he's up and down, fussing but not really, and I'm trying to write, but not really, because is this the time his fusses turn to cries? It's 6am and he's still going so I hold him and pat him and rock him until his body is floppy with sleep. This time it sticks.
I promised myself I'd go for a run this morning so it's now or never. I put on shoes and headphones and head out the door. It's a Zombies, Run! ending episode, so it's all very exciting but also longer than usual. Maybe I'll try to find that walk-through between neighborhoods I spotted on google maps. It should turn what would be a 5 mile loop into 4 miles and keep me off the main roads. I find it and along the way marvel at midcentury Florida houses, all squat and cinderblock, tucked beneath towering oaks. The houses transition to late 20th century but the trees remain massive and these pines are completely wrapped in night-blooming jasmine. I soak it in, happy to be here, happy to live here, even while feeling a little guilty that my run is going longer than usual, that I probably should have been back by now.
CG is up when I return -- whoops, that was an hour -- playing games with my wife. I make breakfast just as the baby wakes up. We take our time getting ready as I coordinate with my sis-in-law about meeting up to go blueberry picking. Pack up the car, tell CG to get her socks on ("but where ARE my socks??" they're in her room, they're always in her room), pack snacks that will never be the right ones or enough, put ice in the water because it's going to be hot, make sure CG's epi pens are in the diaper bag, add diapers, wipes, extra clothes, swim suits because maybe we'll stop by the lake after?, which also means towels, CG's floaties, goggles, flip flops --
Inbetween it all, CG and baby play with the plastic eggs that are scattered all over the house and CG tells me that baby might be a baby, but she loves playing with him and I have a moment of Parenting Pride (TM).
-- and oh shoot, we were supposed to be in the car by now. We strap all the children in, doublecheck we have everything, grab that one last thing, and go. It's only a 40min trip and CG spends half of it playing with the baby. Another PP(TM) moment.
The blueberry picking place is well-signposted and soon we're pulling in just as my SIL and parents get there. It's a Whole Family Outing (TM). Baby goes in the stroller and CG's already running off with her cousin, 6. We get buckets -- CG gets a purple one and 6 gets teal. Then: we pick blueberries!
The bushes are full and the berries are ripe and the two girls have Been Here, Done This, so it's the first year I'm not holding CG's hand and showing her which to pick. Instead, she's two rows over, competing with her cousin. I get to pick all by myself and it's... a little lonely, actually. I help the baby pick (and eat) his first blueberries and then I catch up with my SIL, who is moving soon and also has baby on the way.
With two fully capable kids and several adults, we soon have enough blueberries to last at least a week (in our house, anyway), and it's getting hot and the girls are overheated, so we head in. But not without picking one last blueberry. No really, *this* is the last one. No, this is.
The field owners brought in a shaved ice truck because they're wise, so we settle down in the shade while the girls (and the baby) eat shaved ice. There's a breeze and it's not too humid and it's a perfect moment of semi tired, but loading up on sugar. The baby plays with a big Connect Four board and by play I mean he mostly picks up the pieces and throws them down the steps. I move the board all the way into the shade and soon he and CG are working together (kinda) to put the pieces in the board. PP(TM) moment number 3.
There's an animal sanctuary nearby and it closes soon! SIL wants to go and sure, why not. We pile into our respective cars and it really is only a 5 minute drive. They have rescue pigs and cows and chickens and turkeys and goats and even a horse, as well as a new beehive that's busy with activities. The girls head straight for the playground.
But after a little bit of cajoling, they're getting overexcited about the pigs ("there's a pig! THERE'S ANOTHER PIG!!11") and a little freaked out by the turkeys. There's even a tractor ride ("I SEE A PIG!!!"). Then we have to pry the girls off the playground again because it's two hours past this baby's naptime and he's getting slap happy.
The baby does *not* fall asleep on the drive back, which is probably for the best. I drop him and my wife off at home so they can both nap, then take CG the short distance to the apartments my parents are staying at for now, which just so happens to have a massive pool. There is Food and I am relieved I don't have to figure out lunch. The girls eat all on their own and then play together on the floor and I have a moment where I just sit and stare at the wall for a while, the fact that I've been going since 4.30am catching up to me.
Then it's Pool Time!! so we get the girls in bathing suits and I, too, get bathing suited. Sunscreen applied, towels and floaties and pool noodles grabbed, and then it's off to the pool. SIL stays behind to nap so it's just me and grandpa and two little girls. Can't be that bad, right?
I forget that 6 can actually swim and soon I'm being attacked below by one child and attacked above by the other. We play keep away for a bit, where I'm the thing being kept away, then I get grandpa to come in and play with them so I can just ,,, float.
The water is a bit cold, because nights are still chilly, so when the clouds roll in, both girls start complaining. We rinse off and head back for ice cream -- grandpa has special color-changing spoons and it breaks the girls' minds -- and then SIL has to leave because 6 has school on Monday and I'm fading faster than cheap hair dye.
We're home again. Wife is just feeding baby dinner; they both had good naps, but baby is rubbing his eyes and is clearly ready for bed. I sit with CG on the couch while she changes into jammies and Watches Something and realize that's it, I'm done. I manage to help get her some dinner and stay up long enough to put the baby to bed and then it's 8pm and CG wants to do a puzzle and my wife tells me it's ok, she's got this, go to bed.
I do and it's glorious.
*
"How was your weekend?"
I want to say all that and more. That it was a lot. That it was exhausting. That it was nonstop. But also that it was amazing and we had so much fun and I got to watch my kids play together and see their delight and joy. That it was fleeting and that I wish I could capture and bottle up every minute of it.
"How was your weekend?"
"Good."
What I really want to say, and what no one has the time for, is that the baby was up for three hours on Friday night, so I slept in until 6.30. I had just enough time to finish one cup of coffee before I heard a tiny "mama Kai?" from the hallway. Cabin Girl is up. I tell her good morning and she sits on the chaise under the window and tells me about her dreams last night.
Then I let her have her tablet so I can finish a second cup of coffee and try to write, but I can never manage the latter once she's up. Instead, I make her breakfast (cracking egg, scrambled eggs), get my own food, and then the baby's stirring and it's 8am??
I'd promised my wife I'd go out first thing and get her some more bagels, but that promise was made assuming I'd actually wake up earlier. Still, bagels are an opportunity for an adventure, so I get the baby dressed and snacked, and I get CG dressed, and we're on our way.
A chocolate muffin for her, bites of my bagel for him, we sit at a booth and I try to strategize the morning because my wife was up late working and I want to let her sleep as long as she can. Should I try to make the plant sale at the Natural History Museum? Maybe they'd have the flatwoods plum I really wanted. But before I float the possibility of hey, plants! with CG, I get a text from a mom friend -- can we come over for a bit? She's still feeling out of sorts from the flu and her sitter canceled.
We have two hours until CG's gymnastics, so: sure! Stop by home to drop off a bagel for my wife and grab CG's leotard, then we head over. Soon there are four kids outside and a box of chalk but only the baby's playing with it; CG and her friend, 6, are in my car pretending to drive it and the fourth child, 3, is sulking because she wants to go inside. What about a walkabout? "Yeah!!" shout the kids in the car and then there's a rush to get shoes on.
We walk to 6's elementary school and back -- CG will be starting there in just a few months and wanted to see where it was. The baby walks for a little bit, but his short legs simply can't keep up with the older kids, so I strap him to my chest for most of it. 3 gets tired, too, so I put her on my shoulders for the last stretch. She squirms off just when we reach their home and all three older kids run inside together.
I walk the baby inside and find the girls on their tablets already. They request popcorn. I find their mom, let her know I've only got a little longer before gymnastics. She's found another sitter, though, so she'll be able to rest this afternoon. I make popcorn for the girls and then hang out with the baby in the backroom until it's time to go.
CG changes into her leotard in record time and we're out the door again, now heading north. The gym is packed, the busiest I've seen on a Saturday in a while. I bring the baby's carrier because I'm not sure how he'll be during the hour of gymnastics. CG runs off to warm up. I try to get the baby to settle in my lap, but he's decided my lap is a slide. When I get tired of this, I put him in the carrier and bounce around and -- oops, he's asleep. Maybe he won't sleep long?
Nope, he's completely out for nearly the whole hour of gymnastics. So that's his nap for the day. At least I get to watch CG tumble and jump and flip on the bars -- as well as run around, be silly, and ignore her instructors. Ah well.
Home again and now both children are hangry. My wife is up so I give the baby to her and grab lunch and get CG fed. Then I tap out. I only mean to close my eyes for a bit but I nap instead. Whoops.
When I get up, the baby still hasn't napped and CG is putting together a puzzle in her room. I try to put together the pieces of my brain and realize we should probably offer to bring desert when we go over to our friends' later, ostensibly for board games. They're going to feed us dinner, after all. I spend too much time trying to find the Best Dessert nearby and then it's time to go again.
Diapers, wipes, water bottles, epi pens, a board game, shoes, keys -- do we have everything? No, where's the baby? Then everyone and everything's in the car and we can go.
Ohh, this is a side of town we haven't been to before. CG is excited to see her friend, 5's, house. We've met up at playgrounds and strawberry picking, so naturally dinner is the next step when you're friends with kids. CG and 5 start playing boardgames on the floor, the adults actually manage some conversation while corralling the 2 year old and bouncing the baby into a 2nd nap.
Then we go outside and the baby learns how to crawl up the baby slide and sliiiiiiiiiiide down and he's living his best life and 5 teaches CG how to use her (kid-friendly) bow and shoot an (kid-friendly) arrow, and my wife delights in all the plants they have and I delight in the hundreds of lovebugs and it's really nice out and the kids try to fly a kite but just tangle themselves up and then their mom shows me all the grubs in their compost.
Then it's dinner time and two pairs of parents try to get two pairs of kids to eat. We end up trading off until CG and 5 had their fill and now they're out front, playing with the neighbor kids. I take the baby so my wife can finish eating. I go outside to find that the girls have gone on walkabout. Their mom goes with them and I walk the baby about. When the girls come back, I lure them inside with cookies. It's getting past the baby's bedtime, but the girls want to play one last boardgame, and then one *last* game. Fine, fine, but we have to go *right* after ---
And we do, with the normal amount of goodbyes and we'll see you agains and no really, CG, put your shoes on.
The baby is loopy. So are the mommies, tbh. We make it home, put the baby down only an hour late, and then work on CG. She's tiiirred and dragging but we get her in jammies and in bed. When only one mommy is needed, I stumble into our room and fall face-first into bed.
*
The baby wakes up at 4.30. He's just chattering, so I grab the monitor to let my wife keep sleeping and start the coffee brewing. He keeps chattering. I give him a bottle, change his diaper, he goes back to sleep. For 5min. Then he's up and down, fussing but not really, and I'm trying to write, but not really, because is this the time his fusses turn to cries? It's 6am and he's still going so I hold him and pat him and rock him until his body is floppy with sleep. This time it sticks.
I promised myself I'd go for a run this morning so it's now or never. I put on shoes and headphones and head out the door. It's a Zombies, Run! ending episode, so it's all very exciting but also longer than usual. Maybe I'll try to find that walk-through between neighborhoods I spotted on google maps. It should turn what would be a 5 mile loop into 4 miles and keep me off the main roads. I find it and along the way marvel at midcentury Florida houses, all squat and cinderblock, tucked beneath towering oaks. The houses transition to late 20th century but the trees remain massive and these pines are completely wrapped in night-blooming jasmine. I soak it in, happy to be here, happy to live here, even while feeling a little guilty that my run is going longer than usual, that I probably should have been back by now.
CG is up when I return -- whoops, that was an hour -- playing games with my wife. I make breakfast just as the baby wakes up. We take our time getting ready as I coordinate with my sis-in-law about meeting up to go blueberry picking. Pack up the car, tell CG to get her socks on ("but where ARE my socks??" they're in her room, they're always in her room), pack snacks that will never be the right ones or enough, put ice in the water because it's going to be hot, make sure CG's epi pens are in the diaper bag, add diapers, wipes, extra clothes, swim suits because maybe we'll stop by the lake after?, which also means towels, CG's floaties, goggles, flip flops --
Inbetween it all, CG and baby play with the plastic eggs that are scattered all over the house and CG tells me that baby might be a baby, but she loves playing with him and I have a moment of Parenting Pride (TM).
-- and oh shoot, we were supposed to be in the car by now. We strap all the children in, doublecheck we have everything, grab that one last thing, and go. It's only a 40min trip and CG spends half of it playing with the baby. Another PP(TM) moment.
The blueberry picking place is well-signposted and soon we're pulling in just as my SIL and parents get there. It's a Whole Family Outing (TM). Baby goes in the stroller and CG's already running off with her cousin, 6. We get buckets -- CG gets a purple one and 6 gets teal. Then: we pick blueberries!
The bushes are full and the berries are ripe and the two girls have Been Here, Done This, so it's the first year I'm not holding CG's hand and showing her which to pick. Instead, she's two rows over, competing with her cousin. I get to pick all by myself and it's... a little lonely, actually. I help the baby pick (and eat) his first blueberries and then I catch up with my SIL, who is moving soon and also has baby on the way.
With two fully capable kids and several adults, we soon have enough blueberries to last at least a week (in our house, anyway), and it's getting hot and the girls are overheated, so we head in. But not without picking one last blueberry. No really, *this* is the last one. No, this is.
The field owners brought in a shaved ice truck because they're wise, so we settle down in the shade while the girls (and the baby) eat shaved ice. There's a breeze and it's not too humid and it's a perfect moment of semi tired, but loading up on sugar. The baby plays with a big Connect Four board and by play I mean he mostly picks up the pieces and throws them down the steps. I move the board all the way into the shade and soon he and CG are working together (kinda) to put the pieces in the board. PP(TM) moment number 3.
There's an animal sanctuary nearby and it closes soon! SIL wants to go and sure, why not. We pile into our respective cars and it really is only a 5 minute drive. They have rescue pigs and cows and chickens and turkeys and goats and even a horse, as well as a new beehive that's busy with activities. The girls head straight for the playground.
But after a little bit of cajoling, they're getting overexcited about the pigs ("there's a pig! THERE'S ANOTHER PIG!!11") and a little freaked out by the turkeys. There's even a tractor ride ("I SEE A PIG!!!"). Then we have to pry the girls off the playground again because it's two hours past this baby's naptime and he's getting slap happy.
The baby does *not* fall asleep on the drive back, which is probably for the best. I drop him and my wife off at home so they can both nap, then take CG the short distance to the apartments my parents are staying at for now, which just so happens to have a massive pool. There is Food and I am relieved I don't have to figure out lunch. The girls eat all on their own and then play together on the floor and I have a moment where I just sit and stare at the wall for a while, the fact that I've been going since 4.30am catching up to me.
Then it's Pool Time!! so we get the girls in bathing suits and I, too, get bathing suited. Sunscreen applied, towels and floaties and pool noodles grabbed, and then it's off to the pool. SIL stays behind to nap so it's just me and grandpa and two little girls. Can't be that bad, right?
I forget that 6 can actually swim and soon I'm being attacked below by one child and attacked above by the other. We play keep away for a bit, where I'm the thing being kept away, then I get grandpa to come in and play with them so I can just ,,, float.
The water is a bit cold, because nights are still chilly, so when the clouds roll in, both girls start complaining. We rinse off and head back for ice cream -- grandpa has special color-changing spoons and it breaks the girls' minds -- and then SIL has to leave because 6 has school on Monday and I'm fading faster than cheap hair dye.
We're home again. Wife is just feeding baby dinner; they both had good naps, but baby is rubbing his eyes and is clearly ready for bed. I sit with CG on the couch while she changes into jammies and Watches Something and realize that's it, I'm done. I manage to help get her some dinner and stay up long enough to put the baby to bed and then it's 8pm and CG wants to do a puzzle and my wife tells me it's ok, she's got this, go to bed.
I do and it's glorious.
*
"How was your weekend?"
I want to say all that and more. That it was a lot. That it was exhausting. That it was nonstop. But also that it was amazing and we had so much fun and I got to watch my kids play together and see their delight and joy. That it was fleeting and that I wish I could capture and bottle up every minute of it.
"How was your weekend?"
"Good."
no subject
Date: 2022-04-25 06:10 pm (UTC)