Holy smokes, everyone, the Sadler Gordon family is -- drum roll, please -- getting out! Yes, it's true. We have been getting out of the house - for fun - this week! Not just for a Target run, grocery shopping, or to get things done on the house. This feels unprecedented.
I think it's summer fever. I am determined to slow down the pace of the "have to's" over the next few months and focus more on the "want to's". It's summer - real summer, not a cold, foggy San Francisco summer, and we are going to enjoy it, dammit. So on Thursday, when a client's parents offered us free tickets to the White Sox game (box seats and a parking permit, no less!), I pushed aside my automatic response (too much to do tonight, don't want to stay out late on a work night, probably won't find a babysitter so last-minute) and said, emphatically "Yes!!" Who cares that I'm not a sports fan? Matt is! It was spontaneous and fun, and I found a sitter right away. Finally, I feel like Lyle is old enough to handle last-minute changes like that, even when he's feeling sensitive because I was so recently gone for a week.
When I left work yesterday at 4:30 and discovered it was 75 and sunny, I called Matt and declared it a picnic-dinner-on-the-beach night! We called our friends across the alley and we all had a wonderful evening on the beach, coming home soaking wet at the time the boys are usually in bed. I'm not sure I'm ever going to get used to living at the beach like this - it's heavenly.
And then, to top it off, we spent a gorgeous morning at the Green City Farmer's Market where the boys helped us pick out incredible fresh produce. Of course, their favorite part was the bakery treats on the grass when we stopped for a snack, but it was fun to show them all the yummy food, checking out the roots still on the radishes, how to choose the best tomato, beautiful purple asparagus, and so on. We had a cooler in the back for all our produce because next we were headed to a picnic at Senn Park (nice playground!) for Families Together, the co-op nursery school where Lyle will go in the fall. I can't believe how many people I knew there! So many families from Burley have kids in both schools, and I also ran into two of my favorite moms from the Wiggleworms music class I do with Lyle. I'm so glad we chose the co-op!
I know that in the past, we would've felt overwhelmed by everything else we had going on and wouldn't have even attempted to hit the Farmer's Market before the preschool picnic - I'm sure it sounds strange to anyone whose life is simpler, but it hasn't taken much to feel like something was "too much" these past couple of years. Now that we're done with the two moves and Lyle's matured so much in the past 6 months, a lot more is possible. Matt and I have even made plans to get away overnight by ourselves (we have not yet done this since Lyle was born: a crime against couple hood) once in July and once in August. We'll stay at nice hotels downtown and enjoy Chicago on our own!
We are definitely ready to embrace the fun - welcome, summer!
3 comments:
Totally jealous, here. I would love to see a ball game!
It is hard for me to wish away the days when The Poo is wee, but I also look forward to having a bit more freedom to play.
Or when Mr. Chicken's ankle isn't sprained. Ugh.
That's a funny comment you made about the littlest things seeming like too much to do when you've got tiny children in the house---because it's so true, and I'm sure childless people especially must think we're all nuts to voice something like that! But we certainly feel like that all the time--with a toddler AND an infant in the family, we've gotten totally used to planning just ONE errand or outing at a time, and nothing "big" on two days in a row on the weekend---it's just too much. That's reality with babies! And it's fine.
I also had to laugh at the end because--don't gasp with horror now--C. and I have NEVER spent a night alone since becoming parents 3 years ago! Really! It would be nice, and we'll do it sometime, but that's truly been fine too. My babies--they're big bedtime/wake-up nursers, and well, with no family nearby too, it just hasn't been easily feasible. However--that doesn't mean you shouldn't enjoy every minute!
And hey, I know--June, isn't it wonderful? In MN too! As I'm sure you remember!
Have fun, take care!
Well, of course, by the time we do this in July it'll be 3 years since we've done it, too. And we only had 1 night at a time a couple of times in the 4 years before that. But it's time, my friends. There's nothing like some couple time to rejuvenate the whole family, let me tell ya.
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