Friday
It felt like our weekend kicked off early because all of the boys were out of school on Friday. We had plans to meet up with a bunch of friends and their kids at Sweetwater Farms, one of our favorite local gems.
We recently bought an annual pass to the farm and go all the time because the boys love it so much and so many of our friends frequent the farm regularly, too. Sweetwater Farms is a great play date spot and I just wanted to give it another shout out because the owner is always so kind to us when we visit and clearly pours so much time and energy into making it a great place for her animals and visiting children. It’s absolutely worth a visit for anyone who lives in the area and has little ones who love animals and playing outside!
The majority of our time at the farm was great but fast forward to noon on Friday and Rhett made it very, very clear it was time to leave. Chase actually had my phone in his hand to take pictures of frogs in the little pond as we were heading out and when I later found the picture below on my camera roll, spliced in with 25 pictures of frogs, it felt like something I should share.
It’s a real-life glimpse into motherhood. It’s what hauling a screaming toddler to the car looks like when you have to pack up and leave in 2.5 seconds because a meltdown is quickly escalating. You can barely holler a rushed goodbye to your friends and have to quickly corral your other kids to the car in a hurry before things really reach next-level stressful. You feel bad cutting playtime short for your other kids who are having a blast and also feel awful for your toddler because they’re clearly upset and you can’t seem to fix it.
I hope you all know my heart by now to know that I adore my kids more than anything in the world so please know me sharing that parenting our one-and-a-half-year-old is really, really challenging at times right now comes from a place of love. Motherhood can seriously kick my butt sometimes… and sometimes it feels like it’s kicking my butt all day long. Ryan and I joke that Rhett did not get the whole “third baby is supposed to be chill” memo because he is just his own exuberant combination of sweet and spicy. And some days it feels like the spice is much stronger than the sweet. We also fully recognize that being the third kid has to be hard because he’s subjected to schedules of four other family members in a way his two big brothers never experienced. Let’s just say that despite his ability to say no more than a couple of words at this point in his life, Rhett is exceptionally good at communicating his likes and dislikes. Ha!
I guess part of me just wanted to share this here because sometimes it can feel like so many babies and toddlers seem like they’re the happiest, calmest, most easy-going little people and if you feel like your kid is a sweet-and-spicy child who is the sweetest of the sweet but also a freaking habanero pepper, I feel ya. And if motherhood is kicking your butt lately, you are in very, very good company.
Wouldn’t you know that by the time we arrived home, Rhett was happy as a clam and content to play while I assembled lunches and then eventually got him down for a nap. Sweet as can be. Mom life is a rollercoaster.
Our Friday night plans took us to my friend Lauren’s house for our second-to-last Soccer Shots practice for the big kids. Since temperatures eclipsed 90 degrees on Friday soccer practice looked like half soccer and half water bounce house fun for the kids.
I’ll miss our soccer practices on Friday nights because we often hang out, have a few drinks and enjoy watching our kids have a blast and run around together for most of the evening!
Saturday
Saturday morning began with a family walk! Ryan and I were dying to make it over to the new house to check on everything because drywall began late last week and some of the upper windows we had to wait to have cut until after framing arrived.
We aren’t going to have a formal dining room, but you can see the drywall and the new windows in the dining area right off our kitchen:
And this will be our home office:
It’s going to have built-ins along the back wall (to the left is a large storage closet and to the right is a smaller closet) and in the middle of the office, we’re planning to have a round table with chairs to use for kid crafts, homework, family puzzles, etc.
And here’s the play loft area at the top of the stairs where we’re planning to have one of those jumbo modular sectionals that allow everyone to stretch out in one big pit. (If you have a couch like this that you love, please let me know.)
After our family walk, we set up a bunch of water play toys in the front yard — a kiddie pool, water table (it was basically a terrarium we had to clean out before filling with water) and sprinkler splash pad — for the kids to play with while we enjoyed slowing down a bit and watching them have a blast.
In addition to the water fun, Rhett was quite content to polish off the bag of crackers I brought outside for myself for a snack.
Mom snacks = The best snacks
Given their propensity for eating our food, I was admittedly a little surprised the kids didn’t go for the big batch of seasoned pretzels I made on Saturday afternoon but you won’t hear me or Ryan complaining about that one bit. More for us!
(To make the pretzels, I just tossed a whole bag of pretzels in 3/4 cup oil with 3 tbsp. Tastefully Simple garlic pepper seasoning and cooked them at 200 degrees for 50 minutes, tossing halfway through.)
After water play and Rhett’s nap, my father-in-law joined us and we had plans to boat over to my friend Carrie’s parent’s house on the lake.
We had a fantastic time with our friends and the boys were in heaven playing on kid kayaks, jumping off the dock and collecting rocks along the little beach.
The dads were the real MVPs for braving the cold water with the kids!
I love swimming in the lake but am the biggest baby about cold water. Soon enough!
After a delicious dinner of hot dogs from Josh’s Farmer’s Market (we NEED to get these the next time we’re up that way), pasta salad and corn-on-the-cob, we stayed as long as we could until we figured we should make it home before our ticking time bomb toddler went off. (Spoiler alert: It detonated HARD on the drive from our boat slip to our house and somehow miraculously shut off and became delightful again when it realized being cool and adorable buys you extra awake time before bed.)
Ryan and I then said goodbye to Greg, got the boys and bed and climbed into bed ourselves to read. I am currently reading The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory and loving it! I was not all that enamored with The Wedding Date, a book so many people seem to love by the same author, but so many of you encouraged me to read her novels in my last book post so I figured I should give her work another shot. I’m so glad I did so thank you for the nudge!
Sunday
Sunday morning was a blank slate and we began the day with pancakes and a short bike ride around the neighborhood. We then packed up way too much stuff and made our way to a little beach near our house for some lakeside water fun with the boys.
It felt like a lot of effort for a very, very short amount of time because Rhett was not having it. We came back home and once Rhett had a bag of crackers in hand all was right in his world again.
He’s a cute little stinker, that’s for sure!
We repeated our Saturday morning and set up chairs in the driveway to watch the kids run around and play with their water toys again until Rhett and Ryder went down for afternoon naps.
As the younger boys slept, I worked and Ryan took Chase fishing. By the time everyone was awake again, we were content to stay home and do chores and stuff around the house to get ready for the week ahead.
I hope you all had a great weekend and, as always, I appreciate you making my blog a part of your day! Enjoy your Monday!
The post Sweet and Spicy Toddlerhood, Drywall Begins and Feels Like Summer appeared first on Peanut Butter Fingers.