I’m sitting at my desk working with sweet Sullie at my feet. She had a bit of a rough morning but seems to be feeling better this afternoon. I think she was nauseated because she wouldn’t eat breakfast and then threw up a little bit later in the morning. She’s now up and moving around and just ate some chicken and rice so hopefully she is okay. Update: it’s now 9p and I’m finishing writing this post. She’s continuing to do okay, and enthusiastically ate some rotisserie chicken for dinner tonight. Stopped at Whole Foods on my way home from a meeting just to get her a chicken. <3
THE WEEKEND
This past weekend I enjoyed staying close to home and spending time with Finn and the girls. It was nice to have a weekend free of teacher training, teaching and traveling where it was just me and Finn. I have been holding strong to my boundaries to protect the weekends that we have together. I try as best I can to schedule work, teaching and trainings around them because I cherish the weekend time so much.
On the weekends I try to strike a balance between outings, outside time and downtime. I think we did a pretty good job with it on this particular weekend so I’m excited to share it with you. And this is your warning that there are lots of Finn photos coming your way in this post! 🙂
FRIDAY
I did some work during Finn’s morning nap and once he was up we took off for the day’s outing…Discovery Place Science! We have an annual membership and this was our second time going. While he’s still way too little to do 90% of what they offer, there is tons for him to look at and he did have tons of fun in the toddler area.
The highlight was for sure his time at the water table. They have a huge one and there are two baby seats at one end of it. I wasn’t planning to put him in there but there was a mom with a baby about a month younger than Finn in the other seat and seeing how much fun she was having made me change my mind. He went crazy and ended up drenched. I had to strip him down to a dry diaper for the ride home and when I pulled his shoes off water poured out of them.
I know for next time…bring a towel and a dry change of clothes…and maybe even put him in a bathing suit! Haha.
We were only at Discovery Place for about an hour but it was just the right amount of time.
Back at home, we took it easy for the rest of the day. Our evening ended with a long walk with Zoey while I listened to some podcasts.
I ordered in sushi after I got Finn down for the night and watched the movie You’ll Always Be My Maybe with Ali Wong on Netflix. It was cute and I’d recommend it for an easy to watch option.
SATURDAY
I had one mission for Saturday morning…a trip to the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market! I used to go regularly throughout the year but since having Finn, traveling a lot and doing yoga trainings on the weekends, I hadn’t been in far too long! It was a great market and I picked up lots of good stuff from my favorite farmers including turnips, kale, radishes, fennel, eggs, chicken, beef and more.
My shopping helper. I received this stroller for Christmas and I’ve just started using it recently. It’s the “world’s smallest folding stroller.” So far, I really like it but I’ll give you a better review after I’ve gotten more use out of it.
After the farmers market we picked up dog food for Zoey and then swung into Whole Foods to get a few things to compliment the farmers market trip. I had to do an emergency opening of the graham crackers in my cart because Finn was quickly heading down the path of fussy.
After Finn’s nap, we ventured back out for a pool playdate with a friend. We swam for about an hour and Finn was in heaven. He is a little fish! We rounded out Saturday with a long walk with Virginia and her pup Stella.
SUNDAY
Finn was up at 6 a.m. on Sunday morning. I tried to get him down for a morning nap around 9:15a but he was having none of it. Instead of sleeping he was babbling, smiling and blowing bubbles at me so I couldn’t be upset. I decided we would get outside for a run. We did 3.5 miles with Zoey and then dropped her off. I ended up at 6.4 total, which is the furthest I’ve run since Easter weekend. I am so into running right now and it feels so good.
After the run and lunch, Finn went down for over 2 hours. I got some work done and also got to work assembling his new high chair. More on that to come.
After a fairly active Saturday, Sunday was all about down-time for us. We only left the house one time to check out a new park on Sunday evening.
Sunday evening wrapped up with a visit from Dorie to bring Finn his first birthday present. She got him an awesome set of blocks that are already strewn all over my den and stacking cups.
Oh and while Dorie was over Finn took his first steps! He took 2-3 steps to come to me and away from Dorie. I feel like walking is in our near future. He’s a little man on the move!
And that brings me to the end of my weekend recap…which was probably pretty mundane to read but pretty perfect in my book.
For those of you with kids, talk to me about how you strike a balance between “doing and being?” How much do you try to get out and plan things versus being at home and having free time/down time?
What are your favorite summer weekend activities?
I am right there with you trying to strike a balance between doing all the things and just being at home with our family. I have a 19 month old and I’m 30 weeks pregnant, so doing is a lot for me right now. On the weekends I try to plan one “big” thing my daughter will enjoy. It’s been the local farmer’s market and donuts the past few weekends. We move a lot slower and buy a lot less at the market, but she looks at everything, walks along and says hi to all of the people and dogs. She loves it. And I’ve realized to her, the “little” things at home are big things. We’ve had living room dance parties, bubbles on the drive way, and lots of rolling down the hill in our yard. To her, those are big things and she’s happy. So we don’t always have to be doing something to make memories. This coming weekend I’m hoping for a pool visit and maybe some ice cream. All of us will enjoy that!
I love this!! That sounds a lot like my childhood…and it was great!
After having my second baby I realized balance wasn’t going to be an attainable thing for me. Some days/weeks/months are more about my family, some are more about my work. I have to just go with it and know that it all evens out in the end. Most importantly, I have learned to give 100% to whatever is happening. I’m very fortunate to have amazing childcare that allows me to be all in at work when I’m at work. Then, when I’m home, there’s no work, I’m all about my kids and my husband. When I stopped trying to have balance and just went with the flow and focused on what was important, I finally started to feel balance but in more of a long term way. Good luck!
Sara, I love your comment about “started to feel balance but in more of a long-term way”! I used to work with medical students, and one of the things we stressed a LOT with them is that balance doesn’t mean giving equal time to all things; but rather, balance means adjusting your schedule from day to day to fit in the things that need to be there. We would compare it to walking on a tight rope or slack line – real balance actually requires continuous adjustments, and balance isn’t going to look the same from moment to moment. I’m so glad you shared your experience with that.
I never usually reply but i LIVE and look forward to reading your posts . Not sure what gravitated me to to your site but im glad i found it .?
Ang
Ps saw that movie too was cute
Great post! Glad you guys had a great weekend full of fun things and downtime. I absolutely love days like that. I am not a huge fan of a full lazy day, but sometimes they are necessary. Thanks for sharing, hope you’re having a great day.
-Kate
https://daysofkate.com/
Ugh, I would love to get out as much as y’all do, but I have this persistent fear of my 6 month old having a meltdown if we are too close to a nap or feeding…which has literally never happened, so I have no idea why I am so fearful! I’m gonna use this post as inspiration!
My son turned one at the end of May and I struggle with the weekends. I work full time so I need to find the balance of doing things outside of the house, getting my life together (cleaning and laundry and meal planning) and making sure baby is happy. We always plan an outing or two and just really hope for no meltdowns. We can’t plan for them anyway, so might as well try!