Summer Recap: Still Here, Just Busy!

I have tried to start a new post so many times in the past few months, and ended up with exactly zero time to follow through! It seems to be the story of my life lately. I picked up some additional work commitments recently, so it's been back to the drawing board on finding a new balance between child, household, and business tasks. It's not perfect (but when is it ever going to be?), but we're getting there.

*If you're interested in an example - just Friday to Monday last weekend included meal planning, a Costco trip, grocery shopping, deep cleaning the utility room, a trip to the dog park, laundry, vacuuming, dusting, a trip to the farm to say goodbye to my poor old doggie of 14 years (Jake and Zoe are still going strong), and toddler fun-and-shenanigans in between whipping up (from scratch) banana muffins, blueberry muffins, zucchini muffins, mini meatloaves, mini pot pies, squash-quinoa stew, and mason jar fajita bowls as well as chopping/freezing strawberries, cleaning/reorganizing the fridge and freezer, and prepping fruit and veggie snacks for the week in addition to all of the usual business tasks.

We're finally starting to move past the "must-put-everything-in-the-mouth" phase, so we've been able to start branching out on development activities. Cloud dough (5 parts flour to 1 part vegetable oil) wasn't a huge success. Jr takes after me in not wanting stuff to stick to his hands - the exact reason I never make bread by hand. Blech! Painting with water, however, was a hit! Container + water + cheap paintbrush. Can it get any easier? He liked it so much that he started pretending to paint with any container/brush combo he could find. Pretty much anything involving water is a good time for him these days. An edible sand sensory bin (cornmeal + beach toys) did not go over particularly well. We're making progress, but he's still getting hung up on the stuff sticking to his hands. Play Dough has been moderately well received and he is really starting to enjoy coloring!

Summer Highlights:

We took Jr. to the beach and aquarium at the beginning of the summer. It's fascinating to see an old favorite through new eyes when you have a little one in tow! His favorites were the seals and the bright fish in the shark area.

His first haircut went well, the only tears were from me!

We managed to sneak in a midweek trip to the Oregon Brewer's Festival while it was running, which was quite pleasant. Having attended on the weekend in previous years, I was happily surprised by how family-friendly it was on weekdays. Not much in the way of crowds, an improved layout, and a nice breeze to balance out the afternoon warmth.

Jr's first visit to the zoo was fantastic! A beautiful day, quite a few of the animals were active, and the crowds were moderate. The only (minor) disappointment was the new elephant exhibit. I had heard it was 85% complete - which in my head was going to be amazing, and in reality was the least interesting 85%. We still had fun though!

Our trip to the State Fair was a bit of a whirlwind as Jr. was/is still working on transitioning to one nap per day. We saw the animals, listened to some music, looked through some exhibits, and let Jr. ride a pony.

The look on his face when he realized he was sitting on an actual animal made the $7 price tag worthwhile!

Overall it was a busy, pleasant summer with adventures and lots of time outdoors when it wasn't 90+ degrees!

The dogs have learned that Jr is a never-ending source of tummy rubs.

The cat is decidedly less enthused about petting, but tolerates it now that Jr has learned how to feed him.

"To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring."
George Santayana