This was a fairly low-key weekend. We are in the lull before the spring sports season starts in earnest. We were supposed to start baseball on Saturday, but it rained, so that did not happen.
There were definitely some moments of kid craziness. Indeed, I started writing this on Sunday afternoon while the three big kids were fighting in the basement. I kept telling them to work it out themselves. That did not go better than expected. However, a number of things did go better than expected this weekend.
New neighbors. I feel like, despite living here for 5 years, we do not know the people on our block all that well. But my 6-year-old wound up over at the house of the people who just moved in, playing hockey in their empty living room. There are definite upsides to kids of having no furniture yet!
The Friday night kid book club. Mix a handful of 8-year-olds and my younger kids together and there can be chaos. I was counting on them being able to play outside post book discussion, and as of 4:45 the sky was perfectly clear, so the downpour at 5:45 P.M. was not exactly welcome. But I distracted the little kids by letting them watch TV so the big kids could play in the basement, and then the sun came out again so people could play outside.
A roof top bar despite the rain. My husband and I went out to dinner post book club on Friday. Buddakan was good. I liked the curried cauliflower! But what was more fun was stopping by the Hotel Monaco after to check out their roof top bar. It stopped raining while we were there so we could enjoy our margaritas under the sky.
The Please Touch Museum. So…my husband was jet-lagged from traveling during the week, and also elected to stay up late Friday night watching a movie or something. When the baby woke up at 7 A.M. Saturday, I really felt it was his turn to get up with him. He had been gone big chunks of the week, and I had been up with the baby multiple times the previous night. But he “got up with him” by getting him out of his crib and handing him to me and passing out again. So I was annoyed. I was more annoyed as he stayed asleep as all four kids got up demanding breakfast. Come 9:15 I had had enough of waiting for him to get out of bed. I ordered all the kids into their clothes and into the car and we took off for the Please Touch Museum. Herding four children around a kid museum, solo, is not exactly easy. Indeed, I noted all the family units consisting of 2 parents and one small child. But the kids were reasonably good and played together quite well in certain areas. The baby conked out in the car on the way home, and slept for 3.5 hours, so I got my nap in.
The swing set. We put a swing set in the backyard last year. The kids did not play with it much, which was a bit disheartening. Then something clicked this spring. Now they go out to play close to every nice day. It is a good way to pass the time before dinner or after dinner but before the whole night time routine, especially now that it is light until 7:30 P.M.
My long run. I woke up from my nap on Saturday not feeling terribly energized. But I knew I needed to do one of my training runs for Broad Street at some point, and Sunday was supposed to be a lot colder. So I drove to a nearby out-and-back trail, and told myself I just needed to do 3 miles (that is, I could turn at the 1.5 mile mark). Then it was such a beautiful day that I just kept going. I wound up running 7 lovely miles. I am reminded that even if I am feeling blah, it is wise to start a workout. I often feel better a little ways in.
The IMAX movie at the Franklin Institute. The baby got up from his nap relatively early on Sunday, so we went downtown to the Franklin Institute. We got tickets for the 45-minute IMAX movie on the National Parks. The baby was fussing and scrambling on the way in, so I did not have high hopes. But then he started tugging on my shirt and I figured what the heck. Nursing turns out to be a great way to keep a kid quiet for 45 minutes — one reason I suppose I have not weaned him yet. He was drifting in and out of sleeping the whole time, and we could all watch the movie in peace.
Photo: A frog living on a tarp in the backyard. We shall see how the freeze this week treats them.