Life with young kids is always changing. It feels like we struggle to plan anything more than a few months out because their preferences change, or we discover someone gets car sick, or some new COVID wave sweeps through. Still, we did manage to fall into a nice weekend routine these past few months that we’re all enjoying.
Saturday morning MJ gets up with the kids so I can have one morning where I sleep until 7:30, at which point I make breakfast for everyone. Around 9 I load up the boys in the stroller and walk them over to the local farmer’s market. From there, we may stop at a garage sale if there’s one within easy walking distance. Then we pile into the car to head out to lunch outside our favorite cafe where they know us, before heading home to put the boys down for their naps. After naps, we play, do art, maybe watch some baseball until dinner. Then perhaps a walk around the neighborhood to burn off excess energy of the day before the bedtime routine.
Sunday I’m up with the boys and MJ joins us around 7:30 for breakfast, then playing inside for a while. By 10 we’re either walking to a local park, or going to one a bit further afield in the car. From there, we go to lunch at our favorite local family restaurant, where they know to set up an outside table for us, even on gloomy days. Then it’s home for naps, and the day concludes much the same way as Saturday did.
I write this all down as a snapshot in time for us. While these aren’t activity-packed weekends, and there are weekends when we do special events or outings, they are hugely satisfying for us. They’re also somewhat tiring, as we wrangle a 1.5 and 3.5 year old from place to place. But it’s also been a time of discovery for our little family as we learn what the boys love and tolerate, and dislike, as we walk around town and talk to them.
The weekend of Father’s Day last month was one weekend when we mixed things up a bit. On Saturday afternoon we attended the Castro Valley Car Show, which had been sidelined for a couple years due to the pandemic.
Sunday was spent with donuts for dad, some gifts, and then our standard Sunday routine that included a walk to the park by the library and then a nice brunch.
In more general life things, with little Aaron’s 18 month doctors appointment we learned he had rapidly approached outgrowing the infant car seat. We had to do some shopping, and ended up buying the same seat that Adam has. Now our SUV has a pair of toddler seats! The biggest challenge with this was that in order for a 3rd adult to fit in the car, we would put the infant seat in the base after the third adult climbed in the back. Fortunately, I discovered that by putting the passenger’s seat all the way forward, I can squeeze in around the installed toddler seat and sit between them, even if the space is a bit snug! It means that we can further delay the minivan purchase, which is good since availability for new cars still isn’t great.
In more exciting news, the boys had their first COVID-19 vaccine! I can’t begin to describe how heart-wrenching the approval process for children under 5 has been this past year. So many “almost there” moments and disappointments. I was thrilled when the approvals finally landed last month, and spent an hour on the phone with the scheduling desk once appointments opened. We got in on the first Thursday it was available!
The process went very smoothly and neither of them had an immediate reaction, though Adam did have a minor skin reaction a week later that we got checked out and cleared. They even booked our next appointment 4 weeks out when we checked in. While I wish this had all happened sooner, it is nice to know that our plans to travel this autumn will happen with the boys fully vaccinated.