38 Weeks
Summer’s coming to an end, which also means so is our time as a family of four. Both things that make me think about last minute things we should cross off our bucket list.
One last trip to get ice cream, for example. So on a recent weekend I thought we’d go to an easy place down the road with a large parking lot and plenty of seating. However, the kids found out where we were going, and both objected - they may be little, but they’ve got opinions. They’ll apparently only go to ice cream shops that offer chocolate dip. To be fair, I agree with them, so we headed off to a further ice cream shop (that happens to have the most annoying parking situation) to get our black raspberry soft serve with chocolate dip on the top!
Another thing the kids have both been asking about, was painting rocks in our backyard. It’s a simple tradition, but one that I have a lot of fun with. It’s a nod to memories I have of painting rocks on Long Sands in York Maine, but I’ve discovered that one benefit of being an adult, is deciding it’s okay to paint the rocks in our backyard! I pretty much let them go nuts and they love showing people who come to the house all the rocks they’ve painted over the year.
Mostly, though, I think we’ve done everything that was important to do. We’ve spent a lot of time in our yard playing with all our outdoor toys and splashing in the water. We’ve gone to our favorite farm, we’ve had a few play dates, and visited some favorite playgrounds. The biggest thing I think the kids still want at this point, is 1:1 Mama time.
It gets requested almost daily, and can range from a special outing with just me, to five minutes on the couch reading a book while Tom has solo time with the other kid doing the same thing. So we’ll probably continue to rotate and get in as much solo time as possible, so they’re ready for me to disappear for a few days when the baby comes.
Something that could technically happen at any time, as reinforced by a recent trip to L&D. The baby was in an odd position, and they tell you over and over if movement changes, to come in. So after stressing about it for a while, I called my OB’s office and was directed to the hospital. Everything checked out totally fine, and baby eventually moved back to a better position for movement, but it was a good reminder to enjoy these last days while we can.
