It's been a full week in House Holt.
For starters, on Monday, I had to take my very first sick
day in three and a half years of being a stay-at-home parent. In other words,
Bethany had to take a sick day in order to take care of Ellie and Ethan while I
worked to get myself healthy. I think it's necessary to clarify that my illness
wasn't a result of too much partying after the Chiefs won the Super Bowl.
Unfortunately for yours truly, my illness actually predated that very special
moment by about 16 hours.
By the time Tuesday rolled around, I was feeling well enough
that I could manage the kids by myself for the day. However, that day did
require a pretty lengthy nap that Ellie had to wake me up from all by herself.
As pretty much everyone and their brother can guess, the kids and I spent Wednesday
watching the Chiefs Super Bowl parade on TV. Actually, it was mostly just me
watching but Ellie and Ethan were in the room with me so that counts for
something. Thursday was one of those days that really amounted to nothing
interesting which brings us to today, Friday.
After a week of being stuck in the house nonstop, the kids
and I were very ready to spend some time out in the world. Therefore, we put
together a small itinerary consisting of a trip to the Woodneath library and a
local exotic pet store.
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| Yes, I'm aware this is a 'Gilmore Girls' gif. However, there are scant few gifs using the word 'itinerary'. |
If someone were to ask me when the last time we had been to
the Woodneath library was, I would definitely have been hard pressed to deliver
an answer. I know for a fact that I still was carrying Ethan around in a
carrier strapped to my chest although the fact that he's walking around now
tends to date that example quite a bit. It also would have been nice enough out
that Ellie was able to play with sidewalk chalk on the outside patio. Neither
of those things were in the cards for today though. Instead, our trip to
Woodneath was centered around one thing: playtime.
While Ellie has
experienced little playtime sessions at Woodneath before, it was a very new
experience for Ethan. Perhaps the best thing about this trip to Woodneath was
that Ellie immediately parked herself in front of one of the children's
computers and began playing age-appropriate games. That left Ethan and I with
some much-appreciated 1:1 time.
We started off our time by finding a massive basket of
blocks and building towers so that Ethan could play one of his favorite games,
"Knock down". It's played exactly how it sounds. Then, we found a toy
barn filled with all sorts of animals. Conveniently enough, Ethan's favorite
toy at home is a barn filled with different animals so this kept him busy for
quite a while. After that, Ethan just spent some time walking around the
children's area of the library while I trailed along behind.
After about 40 minutes, I began to think about getting my
partners-in-crime loaded up so that we could travel to our next destination.
However, at that exact time, the librarians announced that Learn & Play
time would be taking place in the storytime room at 11:30 sharp. With nothing
pressing on our agenda, it didn't take much begging from Ellie to convince me
to stick around.
Over the next 30 minutes, I sat back and watched Ellie
scamper from activity to activity as Ethan and I centered our play in the baby
area. It was actually really fun to watch him explore all of the various things
he could find to play with. My favorite may have been watching him excitedly
wave around a scarf in the air, cackling all the while. Actually, come to think
of it, that was my second favorite part. The highlight of the day would have to
be when the librarians started blowing bubbles. Ethan, who was in my arms at
that point, frantically began trying to hit every stray bubble he could find.
In fact, his zeal was so intense that he almost fell out of my arms on several
occasions.
Eventually, noon rolled around and I made the tough decision
that it was time for us to head home and eat lunch. That was despite the
continual begging from my daughter to stay. Let's face it, Ethan probably would
have loved to stayed a while longer as well. Regardless of how badly the two of
them wanted to stay, it was time to go home.
So what if we hadn't seen the exotic pet shop with an
enormous snake desperately trying to digest something the size of Ethan. That
could wait until after naptime. No one will perish from having to take a nap.
Well, maybe the thing in the snake's belly but that's beside the point.
#DaddyWrite
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