It’s my first official week as a “stay at home mom”. So far, so good! Actually, so awesome. I love making my own schedule and going with the flow of a 21 month old. I’m really trying to step back and slow down. It’s hard going from a nonstop pace of teaching to the pace of a meandering and curious toddler. It’s easy to look at my to-do list and want to conquer everything. But I’m trying to focus on one or two items per day and then consider everything else bonus. My husband asked me to try that perspective after I would get so down on myself and feel like a failure for not getting all billion items crossed off the list in one day. It has definitely changed my thinking and now I feel like a champ for getting three things done, haha.

This week, I helped out a couple of friends by watching their toddlers for a few hours. It’s so funny to watch Ben play and see how the other kids have grown. We’ve also checked off 2 new parks on the official summer list! Kathleen and Elliot showed us Murphy Park in Urbandale, a small area that was pretty Ben-friendly. I also made my first solo bike trip to Greenwood Park! This is a little less Ben-friendly, as there is no real barrier between the toddler and big kid parts of the play set. He just wants to keep climbing and going, and I can’t squeeze through the tunnels fast enough to keep up with him. Still, it’s good to have a park within biking distance. When I get tired of chasing him, he loves to run in tennis courts – best playpen ever. We also went to our first wading pool of the summer at Union Park (the one with the carousel). The water was cold, but Ben still wanted to charge in the water. I left his change of clothes in the car, so he ran around in a fresh diaper for a while after the swim. Good times.

So this is our new normal life. A little cleaning, a little TV, lots of outside play, snacks, friends, errands, meltdowns at grocery stores, books, blocks, and getting dirty in the sandbox. I love it.