My parents moved to New Jersey from Indiana last year. My two brothers and I live in the NY-NJ-PA region, and so when my dad retired, they decided to move out here. One result: I got to see both dads in my life — my husband and my father — on Father’s Day.
The 13-year-old spent the weekend with his grandparents. Among other things, my dad took my son to the driving range since he had expressed interest in golf. It’s been really nice to ship one kid at a time over to them, especially since our traditional “mommy days” may not happen this summer (closed amusement parks; nursing baby).
I gave my husband the gift of getting our minivan detailed. Our 2014 Toyota Sienna was looking far worse than its six years of life would have suggested. The company (Spiffy) sends someone to your driveway (or, I imagine, your work parking lot) to work on the car. The results were fantastic! They couldn’t quite get everything, because my children are creative with their messes. The red paint on the console and the melted crayon proved difficult to remove. But all the little crumbs in crevices are gone. I’m going to attempt to enforce a no-eating rule, at least until we go on really long trips.
Between the detailing and my husband getting to sleep in until 9:00 a.m. both weekend mornings, I think I did pretty well on the gift front.
Some years I have some big think piece on fatherhood to post or publish, but this year we’re just treading water. Babies are tough. This little one is cheerful and healthy. He also refuses to nap anywhere but on a person, and hasn’t taken more than an ounce from a cup or bottle in 2.5 months. He has a deadline since I have a work obligation on Friday that will take me out of the house for six hours. So I think I’ll start solid food today.
Anyway, we ended the weekend by meeting my parents at Washington Crossing State Park in New Jersey to retrieve our eldest. We walked from 7-7:45 p.m., enjoying the light of the longest day of the year, and while the baby fussed on the return trip, at least we could experience it in a clean minivan.
Photos: The minivan, and attempting to learn about cups
He’s a cutie!
Hey, I haven’t seen your “Books Read This Month” lately, or did I miss it?
@Louisa- thanks! You didn’t miss it. Another thing I’m behind on. At this point it’s going to be a combo May/June book post…
Minivan truly does look as new- wow!
Babies are hard. I feel like I was just in a daze a lot of the time when my kids were tiny and a lot of my memories are kind of funny. It was also when I developed a serious passion for drinking coffee haha. Coffee was the only thing that made getting up at 5 a.m. a bit more bearable.
@Sarah – I love my first cup every morning. It makes me feel more human.
If you really care about the wax – and no judgement if you don’t! – you might try taking a hair dryer to it to re-melt and then wipe it away. That worked pretty well for me when my kids had (somehow) left enough in a cup holder that any cup later put in the cup holder bounced around enough to make annoying sounds.