Movies

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Fun on the 4th

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Our town puts on a carnival every 4th of July called fun on the 4th, although this year oddly enough it happened the last week of June. Besides being confusing, it meant we missed it while we were on vacation. So we went looking for our own fun during our long weekend. E told me that they didn’t mind, though, because vacation was way better.

We hung out with friends on the actual 4th and went to a parade in search of candy. The candy was a little stingy this year, but enough to keep the kids happy. What did not keep the kids happy were all the guns they shoot off in the parade - some right in front of us. Are those really necessary? I could definitely do without them.

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Birthday Party

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I am not a fan of class parties. It’s so much easier to do a small friends and family party - less stress, cost, planning, less everything! But a certain kindergartener watched all the other children get big parties and was insistent that he wanted one too.

Our class hasn’t been very good at sharing contact information, so the only way to invite anyone is to invite the entire class by sending invites to school. It’s actually helpful that the teachers agree to distribute invites in the folders that go home every night, but it was a lot of control to give up for me. Even worse was when I set an RSVP deadline and had at least 6 kids RSVP after that time.

I had no idea what to expect - would we get 3 kids or 13? The party was out of town, so I wondered if that meant less people would come. Maybe I hoped it would mean less people would come? It was a funny line where I didn’t want no one to show up but I also didn’t want everyone.

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A Movie

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I’m not sure how long I would have waited, if I hadn’t been forced into it. Possibly forever.

I really had no desire to go back to a movie theater. It wasn’t something I was missing, and since the pandemic, it really wasn’t something I felt like I needed to rush back to. Plus the thought of taking the kids somewhere they needed to be quiet for an extended period of time? Nope!

But then we realized that E has a field trip to the movies coming up, and I changed my mind. We could have kept him home, but it would mean a harder day for us, and him missing out on some fun with his friends. So even though it feels weird to let your kid go off somewhere without you or anyone you know (the theater is not close to home), we decided to let him go - with a bit of prep.

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A Weekend Away

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Well that feels weird to write. After a year+ of mostly staying home, we went on an actual vacation recently. Considering G has been to Maine once when he was not even crawling, and Vermont over a year ago, it was a big accomplishment. Both kids were equal parts excited and confused.

But we had a four day weekend and so we figured that going somewhere for a few days and dealing with whatever crazy that would bring would be better than being trapped at home and dealing with the crazy we knew would come. So we packed up and drove into the city. It seemed like such a funny vacation to take normally, but we all know these aren’t normal times.

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A Night Away

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Sometime around Mother's Day, when I was feeling constant all day nausea and exhaustion, Tom mentioned that I should get a hotel room some weekend and have a night away.  A relaxing, kid free night, where I could catch up on sleep, and the boys would stay home and bond. 

As nice as it sounded, I kind of laughed it off.  "Maybe someday!" I said.  

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The Day I left the House

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When my doula came for her postpartum visit, I talked to her about how I didn't think I'd ever do anything this summer but sit on the couch with the baby.  She told me to take two weeks to do absolutely nothing, and not feel guilty about it, and then to get up and start doing things.

Ever the overachiever, I took four.  To be fair, I did leave the house and go on adventures when Tom was home, I just didn't do it alone.  I guess it's easier to justify doing nothing when the day before we'd gone on a hike, or to a farmer's market, or shopping.