If I wait until I transfer all the photos from my phone to catch up I will never post again... so for a start, here are some pictures of our hike up Mt. Monadnock during my mom's recent visit. It's more of a scrambling climb to a 3000' and change "peak" in New Hampshire than a hike, and let's just say that we won't be doing it again with a baby on the back. Steve and I had done it years ago, as had the intrepid Sarah who joined us, but the theme of the day turned out to be "... this is not how I remember it..." It's a fabulously fun climb, and Grace was amazing - she's part mountain goat, apparently - but it was also hard in the heat and with Henry in the pack. Steve carried him most of the way up and I carried him most of the way down and none of us had enough water. And I had remembered the trail totally differently so hadn't properly prepared my mom, and she was stuck scrambling in running shoes. And the route down was easier but not easy. Suffice to say, we earned that trip to Flatpatties.

Oh, and the other photos I can get quickly are of our visit to Old Ironsides (aka the USS Constitution) and a decommissioned battleship at the Navy Yard in Charlestown (along with a stop at North Point Park). Old Ironsides is about to go into dry dock for several years so we thought it was our patriotic duty to finally visit (we used to see it from our window)

Telecommute camp

Ed: I wrote this a couple weeks ago, but didn't post it for some reason... better late than never?

Grace has been out of school for two weeks now. It's funny how having a child on a traditional school schedule really makes it feel like official summertime. Well, that and the dramatic change in weather. The winter felt so interminably long that I can't really believe we are wearing shorts and staying inside near the A/C. 

Anyway, Grace has a few things lined up for the summer - a couple weeks of GoGo camp, a couple weeks of day camp, and her current stint in telecommute camp (or as she called it today "tecolommute camp"). I didn't want to book her into camp all summer long - I figured that after the busy school year, she could use some true downtime so I planned to just let her stay home these first two weeks. This would probably be terrible if I worked full-time, but since I work only three days a week, it has worked out because the days are split up. She has also had some wonderful friends who have taken her out a couple hours at a time so she gets some kid time. It has also been so warm that we have been playgrounding in the mornings before taking Henry to daycare and swimming right after we pick him up. Evenings swims are such a summer treat.

So, she has been a champ. She does her "work" (workbooks, practicing writing the alphabet), watches too many DVDs, colors, plays dress up, sings and dances, does puzzles, builds things, plays elaborate imaginary games, and manages to occupy her time very well. She  lets me work, and it's nice to have her company and get adorned with stickers or receive cards or just have her crawl into my lap for a cuddle now and then. A bit of boredom and loose ends is good for development (say the experts), and seems exactly the way summer should start.

Evidence...

Mid-afternoon ice cream sundaes

 

Chair massage

Chillaxin'

Early swings 

Evening swims 

All this is turning out to fit very well with my general plan for summer: 

- playground

- pool

- bike/scooter

- library

- popsicles

- simple dinners to keep our evenings flexible 

We don't need to accomplish anything other than enjoying being together outside (notice - no crafts, no overly-ambitious outings - i learned my lesson last year). We are lucky to have so many families in our neighborhood that even when we aren't organized, we run into friends when we're out. I love that an urban childhood can be filled with all these simple pleasures.