It’s starting to feel a little silly titling these posts “quarantine” now that it seems most people have forgotten we’re amidst a global pandemic. I’ll have to re-think that for next week. In this 15th week we’ve spent out at The Lodge, we had cool and stormy weather and it was a bit of a stormy week for our toddler, as well.
A big highlight from the week was Alex’s new mountain bike! He’s been talking about wanting to get into mountain biking for a while now and decided to take the plunge because, well, what a better time than now!?
He took it for a few test rides with the kids – we even did Allen Family Bike Camp in our yard so everyone could practice their maneuvers.
Over the weekend he really put it to the test with some actual mountain bike rides on his own. He biked up Natapoc Ridge, the ridge just behind our house. He ended up riding the exact route I ran a few weeks ago so it was fun to compare notes about the trail/forest service road.
We ended the weekend with a family trip to Ski Hill where Alex got to ride the mountain bike trails and I took the kids on a hike. Ski Hill is known for its mountain bike trails in the summer and I think we’ll be coming back as often as possible to foster this newfound love.
One of our favorite things about having our mountain house is the proximity to hiking, nature and now, for Alex, mountain bike trails. The opportunities are endless.
On that note, we’re working on putting together some summer activity lists {Alex won’t let me call them “bucket lists”} and I’m pretty sure Alex will have his own checklist for mountain bike trails to ride. I’ll post about this separately.
I had a low-key running week. I ended up only running one day and had a whole week to make up for, so I made it a long one. Unfortunately I didn’t hit my weekly running goal {goal: 15 miles, actual: 10.3 miles}; however, I am quite proud of the accomplishments in the run I did take.
Another fun highlight from the week was celebrating Ben’s last day of preschool.
Ben’s teachers put together a very sweet Zoom graduation to commemorate the year.
Our week was a little rocky at times, as Hannah has been going through a massive developmental milestone, both physically and mentally, it seems. She just outgrew her old shoes, overnight it felt, and is approaching the next clothing size and she has two teeth that just cut through. All of a sudden she can reach more things on her own, including the rings on the swing set. I’ve been seeing more and more two-year old behaviors from her lately which for some reason caught me off guard.
One of the delightful two-year old behaviors was her enthusiasm towards learning how to ride the balance bike and Ben’s scooter independently this week! It was a major accomplishment for her.
Side note: did you know that a three-year old is not considered a toddler!? Here I’d been calling Ben a tot as a three-year old but I now know that he was a preschooler instead. It feels weird to say I only have one toddler, even though that’s been the case for a year now!
It’s hard for me to believe that we held out on screen time longer with our second child than our first, but we made it to 22.5 months with Hannah, so we almost got to age 2, American Academy of Pediatrics! This week the kids’ new Kindle Fire tablets arrived. Hannah has been enjoying watching Daniel Tiger {modern day animated show based off of Mr. Rogers} and Ben, of course, has been watching Octonauts. There is a steep learning curve and I’m very much at the bottom of it, so I have a lot of exploring to do to figure out some high-quality content for both kids.
Ben and I had a super quick date on Saturday night. He wanted to come with me to pick up our take-out. It ended up being a really, really special time. We chatted and I carried him into the restaurant and we snuggled in our matching masks as we waited for our food. I even let him have a bite of cookie in the car on the way home. Plus, it was a really great {and quick!} way for him to start getting used to wearing his mask.
Last bit of very important news: I got new slippers and they are basically the best things that have ever been on my feet. How did it take me so long to try Ugg slippers!? I’ve been a Minnetonka Moccasin and LL Bean slipper wearer for many, many years but I’m moving into Ugg camp from here on out!
I decided to splurge on ordering some peonies from Sinclair & Moore, a Seattle-area wedding planner. With weddings being canceled for the foreseeable future, they pivoted and are offering flower arranging videos, and of course, flowers to arrange. I certainly didn’t do any out-of-the-box arrangements but I did learn a bit and put together two beautiful arrangements.
We’re launching into the first sixteenth week of summer vacation like Ben and his rocket!
