son-day at the playground with Oliver

I had great plans for the holiday, eleven days of CD not going in to the office (note I did not say "not working"). Our office room was going to be cleaned out, the basement was going to be organized, we were going to the Aviary, the Zoo, the Children's Museum, maybe a couple of other museums that are so close and yet rarely visited by us, storytime at the library, etc. It's probably pretty clear where this is going.

We haven't done squat. Well, that's not entirely true. CD spent parts of three days organizing paper and filing, and I spent a few hours clearing and organizing in our office room. We did go to the Children's Museum last Friday. We planned to meet one of Oliver's buddies but they bailed at the last minute (with a really good reason). It was just as well. Oliver napped until 3:30pm that day and the museum closes at 5pm. I think we got there at 4:06 and shut the joint down.

I took a lot of photos and this is the only one that is close to in-focus. Both boys enjoyed the Garage room. Oliver sat in the driver's seat of a mini cooper and looked like he was in love. And Oliver and I made it to the library for storytime once, the Saturday before Christmas.

Our problem, it seems, is mornings. If we don't do something in the morning, the day is pretty much shot. What seems to be happening is Oliver and I get up around 7:30, with Eleanor joining us soon after. CD makes his appearance around 9:30. Eleanor nurses and goes down for a nap, and I take a shower. What should happen is that one of us takes Oliver somewhere. What usually happens is the daily viewing of Cars or Finding Nemo. Eleanor wakes up around 11:45 and it's lunchtime. Then Oliver goes down for his nap right after lunch, and the day is essentially gone.

Today I decided we needed to break the cycle. Eleanor woke up at 11am and I said we should go to a playground. We have lots of choices in playgrounds nearby, and our first choice was closed. That was okay, since we tried a new playground a while back and had to introduce it to CD and Eleanor. CD took lots of pictures but hasn't shared any with me yet.

We also went out for lunch so there was fresh air, followed by social interaction. Oliver was wearing his Steeler's shirt, along with half the other people in the restaurant, so he took the opportunity to let everyone know he loves the Steelers. He also informed everyone that in football you "run and fall down." He really is in his element when out in public. I have a feeling he's not all that different from how I was as a kid. Sorry Mom! Precocious, I think it's called. So far I haven't felt the need to hide under a table but I know the day is coming.

The naps that followed were glorious. It's been quite a while since both kids napped at the same time. Oliver slept from about 1:15 to 3:30. Eleanor was out from 1:30 until just after 4. This is how I managed to work on cleaning up the office.

Side note: This is post #502. As usual, I intended to pay attention to the 500th post milestone. Oops. Probably just as well, since #500 was just a couple of links to Christmas photos.