weekend report: unplugged and happy edition

I read once about how there are 940 Saturdays in every childhood.  And sadly, probably about ~200 of those are ‘call Saturdays’ and thus don’t really count.  And in A’s case, 235 of those weeks have already passed (WHAT) so we’re left with approximately 564 more.  Assuming good health and good luck.

Now I am thinking about what our weekends will be like when they are teens.  OMG, who knows!?  However I am 100% positive I will look back and remember their little-kid weekends as truly amazing times.  

On that note . . . here’s our recap!

Friday night: Okay, we started off veeeeerrrry low-key as the kids watched a Barbie movie (A’s choice) and I read my book.  Now I realize that the point of family movie night is to watch all together but . . . I get so little time to read!  I sat with them as they were engrossed in Barbie’s pink powers and we were all happy.  (Maybe when their movie choices evolve beyond Barbie I will submit to putting down my book).

Saturday:

I woke up / Headspaced / Barre3’d.  A was up at 7 and C slept until nearly 8 (basically a record).  We (all 4 of us) headed to get A&C flu vaccines and then met up conveniently with a friend at a playground right nearby.  Annabel was terrified of the shot; Cameron basically asked for his after seeing her colorful bandaid.  Such different personalities.  

C wound up streaking through the playground (he was doing water play in a diaper, as I forgot this playground had a sprinkler system — and it fell off).  It was pretty much the most hilarious thing ever. 

We came home for lunch and then A had a friend over.  They were a little more giggly than her last friend and her friend’s mom stayed to hang out, but the kids were very good.  C napped for an hour or so and then joined in.  I let Josh do some work while we all hung out at home.  I read my book for an hour while the kids watched Super Why at around 5 pm.

Finally, we headed out to a double date night at Byblos.  We had a great time hanging out with my colleague and her husband, and the restaurant was fantastic — excellent Lebanese-inspired menu, great service, lovely ambience and without the ‘over-the-top-GLITZ!!!1!’-factor that seems to plague the restaurant scene down here.  It was on the pricey side but I would definitely go back for a special occasion (maybe my bday 🙂 ).

Sunday:

We were supposed to go do a 5K as a family butttt . . . well, I had 2 glasses of wine at Byblos and the 5K started at 7am.  It was also raining with chance of lightning, and the kids were fast asleep.  SO: I bailed and slept in while Josh won his age group!  I then went for a 4mi run while the kids were in swim class, so basically WINS all around.   Both kids had their lessons, and then we headed out to The Daily (delicious breakfast wrap/omelettes/salads, plus they are SO nice and kid-friendly there).  The kids were good (!), only ~2 oz of milk spilled the entire time, and after a quick stop for pumpkin beer acquisition, C fell asleep in the car and stayed that way until 4:30pm.

This worked out beautifully – A hung out with Josh while I prepped for a playdate/feast.  Josh had suggested Hot Chicken and I acquiesced, not realizing it would mean having to deep fry — something I had never done before!  I had ordered a candy/frying thermometer, got 2 chickens cut into frying pieces, and hoped for the best. 

It worked!  I also made Martha’s Mac ‘n’ Cheese + salad so we could pretend the meal had some health benefits 🙂  We had 2 other families over, both with kids C’s age and they played shockingly well together.  I cleaned up while Josh did baths, and both kids were in bed by 9:30pm.  

If it sounds rather idyllic – it kind of was.  I definitely DO NOT feel that way about every weekend, so it is important to me to make note of what seems to work.  It was just a great mix of SOCIAL / ACTIVE, plus some me-time both days (reading on Friday night / Saturday, barre3 in AM Saturday, running + my cooking project on Sunday).  I felt like I got in REAL quality time with both kids.  Part of this may have been because I decided on Saturday morning to take a 24 hr hiatus from my phone, and didn’t check anything during that period, and I tried to essentially continue on Sunday after a quick email/Insta check.  I am going to try to do this more often, because I really do feel like it helped me feel more present and enjoy the whole experience.

ALLLL RIGHT.  I will stop gushing.  It’s Monday and I am working and my lunch break is coming to a close.  Thank you for your thoughts on the blog template!  I’m going to start with a simple upgrade (maybe this weekend . . .we’ll see . . .) and then decide whether to do anything more elaborate from there.  Thanks to all of you for letting me know such a thing was possible.

Tomorrow will follow with run / meals recap b/c this was more than enough for one post.

Bonus: for anyone interested, video showing Cameron … being Cameron.  https://youtu.be/HrGcpafGe8s