So yes, it is only mid-November. But G (nanny) has put us all in a festive mood by decking the halls. We now have candles in the windows, garlands on the stairs and mantle, a little tree, and holiday door decorations. I am really quite enjoying this.
We had a good weekend with a lot of active time and family time. On Friday evening, my husband and I went out to dinner at Talula’s Daily Secret Supper Club, one of our favorite Philadelphia restaurants. They do a new prix fixe menu every month, and since they posted the December one in advance, I’m already scheming to go back. Humorously, when we were in the elevator in the parking garage, this lady said “Nice coat” — I looked over and she was wearing the same maternity coat I was! Guess it must be the popular one this winter.
On Saturday morning, I got up and ran a 5k outside around my neighborhood. It felt quite good, for which I am grateful. Even the cold felt more like it was waking me up than anything else (I’m wearing an Under Armour cold weather first layer, which is stretchy enough to cover my stomach, and then a large fleece on top of that. My Polar-tec running pants have an elastic waist band so they are also stretchy enough to work). Unlike a previous weekend I may have written about, when I returned the little kids were up and in the process of getting ready, so I was able to make it to karate on time with them. We now get donuts in between the two lessons — it did not take long to make that a tradition!
After “family lunch” (like dinner, but in the middle of the day…) we all went to the YMCA indoor pool. This was pretty fun, because even my little guy has become quite a swimmer. He now has his orange band, which means he doesn’t have to wear a life vest, and he was swimming all over the place. The big kids went down the water slides multiple times (I elected to skip this). We dropped the 10-year-old off at an escape room birthday party, and went over to the King of Prussia mall to shop for dress clothes for the 12-year-old. In addition to the black pants and white shirt he needs for his choir, we wound up getting him an actual suit — he looked so handsome I just couldn’t resist! I’m kind of stuck on the shoes, though — I think he grew out of boys’ sizes, so I’m trying to figure out what a size 7.5/8 boys would translate to in men’s sizes. (I should probably just go get him measured). This is a new world for me. My daughter wound up falling in love with a Boden Harry Potter dress. Hedwig and the letter. She had changed into it in the car before we even got home.
The kids amused themselves with Disney Plus for much of the evening while the adults watched the Texas A&M game. My Uber driver on Friday night told me he had lost two days of his life to Disney Plus; I can see how this might happen.
Sunday I also got up early to run. This run felt pretty good too! After church, it was off to Washington Crossing State Park to meet my parents for a walk. We saw various Revolutionary War-era bullets and supplies, and visited the Johnson Ferry House before walking a bit on the tow path. It was pretty cold, but it’s good to be outside in winter, or at least I thought so. There was some complaining from the kids. My husband wound up carrying the 4-year-old for big chunks of the walk back to the car.
Now I’m trying to triage the Christmas activity list and possibly look at spring break ideas. At least the Christmas card is done — adding to the festive feeling!
You can print one of those foot charts off the internet – I kept on handy in my drawer for years so I could order kids’ shoes online.
@Cate – sounds like a good idea!
I’ve seen several Christmas trees up in my neighborhood, it is kind of making me want to put mine up soon! We can all use some extra cheer, right? 🙂 You mentioned in a recent post about planning vacations for next year, and I thought that was a great idea! I have already planned out a few weekend trips for the first half of the year, I had already booked a winter beach getaway for February. Our future-selves will thank us 😀 Thanks for the great ideas!
@Jessie R- congrats on planning your vacations! That’s wonderful!
Just a hint with children going into adult shoe sizing – I have been buying women’s sneakers for my two sons, as they are a lot narrower than the adult men’s sneakers. Not too sure if that strategy would work for dress shoes though, and it does depend on the width of your son’s feet.
@Olivia – he wears my old snow boots so I could see this working for shoes like that. Though I’m not sure I could find women’s dress shoes that would look right for boys.
My 12 yo son just transitioned to men’s shoes sizes, but he is also growing at such a rate at any given pair of shoes only lasts a few months. Men’s sizes are 2 sizes higher than women’s sizes. I actually find it easier to look at the European sizes as they start at 16 for infants and continue on up into the 40s without a break, and are the same for children, men and women. They are often printed inside American shoes along with the American sizing, and are helpful for comparing across different American sizes. I have found ordering a couple sizes of dress shoes from Zappos and either sending back the ones that don’t fit, or saving them for 6 months from now when they do fit, helpful. I also store all the outgrown dress shoes (they don’t get worn out enough to get worn out) for my two younger sons. Finally, I sigh and shake my head at how big this kid is getting!
Laura are you wearing anything to support your bump for your runs? I had a lot of pain in my pelvic joint (the pubic symphysis!) when running with my second pregnancy, and wondered if some kind of support garment would have helped take the pressure off.
@Virginia – I’m wearing an Amon maternity band, which has thick, supportive fabric around the bottom (under the bump). Then I wear a regular band on top of that to make sure it stays up. This has worked so far, though I welcome suggestions for other supportive garments that people used late in pregnancy. Also, slowing down has helped a lot too — most discomfort I’ve had got a lot better when I consciously slowed down.