Summer 2016 Recap!

Now that it's November and we're a week away from Thanksgiving...what better time to do a little summer recap?  In my defense it's 75 degrees here today and a most perfect breeze is coming through the windows.  We had an excellent summer; weather was mainly mild, we stayed busy both at home and with planned outings, and even made it to the pool a couple of times!  All a win in my book.  For my record keeping purposes I'll break it down month by month.

May:  May is always a crazy busy month in our family.  We celebrate numerous family birthdays, our wedding anniversary and Mother's Day.  So we figured 'what's one more thing?' and had the twins baptized on Mother's Day.   Other highlights of the month include Tom running in his fifth consecutive (!) Flying Pig Half Marathon and Reese's first Red's game.  May flew by in the blink of an eye but we were lucky to spend a lot of QT with friends and family.

  

 

 June:  This June was a big month in our family as the twins turned ONE!  It is a little bittersweet celebrating the last first birthday but honestly I was just so proud that we made it.  The adjustment to from one child to three, under the age of 2, was huge and every month we had to grow and adapt to the rapidly changing needs of our family.  This year was hands down the most challenging, but wonderful, year of my life so we celebrated this birthday BIG TIME!  We celebrated Father's Day and spent endless hours playing outside.  I spent a lot of time this month transitioning the twins from bottles to cups and finally, finally, said goodbye to breast pump FOREVER (all the praise hands).

 

 

 July:  July is equally as special as our big kid and very first baby turned three.  We celebrated her little face off and had so much fun!  It got fairly hot this month so we spent a lot of time playing on the porch with our water table and baby pool and even braved the pool with all three kiddos for the first time (talk about an anxiety attack).We enjoyed 4th of July at home and visits from out of town friends.

August:  For some reason I just don't love the month of August but we had a great time just spending some quality time with friends and family.  And the big excitement of August was me taking my first trip away from the children...to MEXICO!  I was treated to a long weekend with my mom and sister while Tom held down the fort for three days with the kids.  It was such a nice getaway but of course I missed the babies a ton.  I'm very grateful for a husband who can handle all of my daily responsibilities with the kids and supported me taking a break.  After I got back from my trip the rest of the month filled up with play dates, church festivals, trips to the zoo and preparing the big kid for preschool.

I'm already looking forward to next summer!

Case of the Mondays

Monday is one of my two full days home with the kiddo (Thursday is a half day) and how we spend the day all depends on how much work I need to do, what chores around the house need to be done, and what errands in general I need to run.  Not to mention what kind of mood Reese is in when she wakes up :)  Luckily I didn't have too much of the non-fun stuff to do this past Monday so the day was jam packed (well, as jam packed as you can get with a 12 month old) with fun.  After she woke up from her morning nap we went to story time at a local book store around the corner.  We regularly hit up the library for the baby class on Wednesdays but I had high hopes we could add this to our rotation of Monday activities.  We got there about 10 minutes before story time started and it was PACKED!  R was definitely one of the younger kids there but she had a great time.

After story time ended we played there for a bit and headed home for lunch and nap time.  After she woke up we made our way downtown to play at Washington Park in the beloved fountains.  I had hoped that with schools starting this week that we'd have the place to ourselves but I was wrong...there were kids everywhere.  We had a great time despite me being a Debbie Downer cutting in on the fun to re-apply sunblock a thousand times (it was HOT).

I am no fan of summer but our first real summer together will forever be my most favorite.  I'll always cherish this time with my little buddy.

Washington Park: Cincinnati, Ohio

If you would have told me five years ago that I would be taking my baby, by myself, to Washington Park to play I would have promptly responded that you were smoking crack (which you likely picked up at Washington Park).  Fast forward a few years and thanks to an amazing renovation, Washington Park  is flourishing amid what seems to be a renaissance in central Cincinnati.  Since 2008 several phases of development in Over-The-Rhine have taken place, making it one happenin' spot in 2014.  Now don't get too disillusioned, there are a several very nice and highly developed blocks bursting with restaurants, bars, and condos....all of which are surrounded by an area filled with crippling poverty and violence.  So, ya know, be careful where you park and such.  BUT, where it's nice, it's really nice!  Anywhoo.

Last week, on one of my days off, I felt the itch to get out and do something different with Reese.  Our pool doesn't open until 2:30, which tends to fly a little too close to the "in-between-naps meltdown" sun.  I packed a lunch, towels, all the necessary "water sport" items we require and after her morning nap we headed downtown.

One of the HUGE benefits of not yet moving to 'burbs is that we are centrally located to pretty much everything in Cincinnati.  We may pay a stupid amount of taxes for schools we'll never use and plummet in to potholes every 5 feet...but damn if we aren't in a great location.   I figured what the hell...if it was a bust we were only giving up about 30 minutes of our day.   Well.....we had a blast. 

Reese is still quite little so I was a little worried that she would be terrified or completely uninterested, but I couldn't have been more wrong.  Being the water bug that she is, she was lovvvvving it (mental pat on the back, mama).  She braved the big kids and made her way right into the middle of the foutains.  My kid is awesome.

We had so much fun we came back over the weekend with Tom.  After the usual and very sad carseat-screaming-drama and unexpected parking snafu's we had a blast, yet again.

It should be noted that Washington Park has tons of events going on all the time so check the website for details.  I know there is a huge city flea market, fitness and yoga classes on the grass and even concerts and parties.  If you're in the area check it out!