June Highlights

My last post was a little bit of a downer, so I want to use this post to highlight the good things that happened in June!

Princess Birthday Cakes

I am starting a tradition of asking my kids what cake they want (to help) me to make for their birthdays. My oldest chose a volcano for her birthday, and my youngest for hers chose Princesses. She had a hard time choosing just one princess, so I made two — Belle and Cinderella.

I’m very proud of myself for making these cakes for my kids. I love birthdays, and I want my kids to love their birthdays, and one way to make them extra special is to make an extra special cake.

They also can get involved in making cakes with me. Not just the baking, but the decorating.

Dance Recital

I really love seeing my girls dance. I was always a little bit sad that I didn’t do dance at a young age, because when I was in middle school and high school and even college and wanted to dance for musicals, I didn’t have the training or skills to get any roles on stage that required more dance experience.

I don’t want to be the mom that pushes her kids to do something they don’t want to do, but they both really love dancing and getting up on stage, and have expressed interest to continue it.

And so, yes, I was the mom that was crying in the audience at the last number. Another year of dance, another wonderful recital.

Outdoor Fun

The outdoor fun has begun! With heat and humidity comes taking out water slides and water play on the weekends.

Good Progress on Sunflowers!

Eric planted rows and rows of sunflowers this year. This is the third year he is attempting this, and was determined to have them not get eaten. So he first planted them with a cone around each seed to protect them from birds and squirrels. Then he added a fence so the bunnies couldn’t eat them. So far, it has worked.

There were even two seeds that self-sowed themselves into the ground. Those two in particular are almost ready to bloom. We are excited to see them all in bloom. And so are our neighbors!

Rose Bushes in Stunning Full Bloom

There are three rose bushes in our yard, and besides the sunflowers, these are my favorite thing in our yard. They bloom in late May/early June, but they also continue to bloom during the year. One year roses were still blooming in November. It just brings me continued joy.

Date Night

It is rare that my husband and I go on dates. We have been going out more though — this year in particular. The kids were both very little during Covid, so that really put a damper on getting to go on dates. Now that they are older, we can sign them up for events like “Parents Night Out” where we drop them off and they play games and watch movies at a local gym or rec center. Lots of towns and gyms offer things like this. The cost is comparable to a sitter.

Best part is you can make it a double date — so the adults get to hang out with their friends, and the kids get to hang out with their friends. It’s a win-win.

Strawberries

What is June without strawberries?

We went to a local farm stand to buy strawberries, and when we got there, asked where they were.

The girl at the counter said, “Oh, we don’t have any pre-picked. You have to pick them yourself!”

It turned into a fun mini adventure. I wasn’t planning on picking strawberries this year, but the universe had other plans for me that day!

The girls gobbled up these fresh strawberries in just two sittings.

Recognizing Some Transitions —

There are a few transitions happening right now in my life.

The first is the transition to parenting little kids. Not teens, but kids that are not babies or toddlers. Ages 4 and 7 feel like great ages to me. We have no one in diapers. They have more stamina. We can plan trips and I don’t have to write down 900 baby items on the packing list. We don’t have to plan our weekends around naps. We can pack a lighter bag when we’re out. They’re more independent. They play well together (Most of the time. Sometimes…) We don’t have to shadow a toddler around a rental house because it’s not baby proof. We can have adult conversations while the kids go off and play.

This stage frees up our hands a bit, and takes a little weight off of our shoulders. I’m enjoying them still being innocent kids before the pre-teen and teen years swoop in on me. I’m enjoying doing little kid activities like going to museums and places where the kids can just be, and me and my husband aren’t toting around a baby.

The second transition is a new wave of relationships. Grade school is the time where I’m meeting all the parents of my kids’ friends. At birthday parties and at school events me and my husband chat with the other parents. We all usually collectively find things that we’re all going through and dealing with. Except this time, it’s much less in isolation.

I had it hard. Like really really really hard. My second was born right in the middle of Covid. We were all socially distant from everyone. We were so isolated at the worst time to be isolated. We had a baby that didn’t sleep or take a bottle, and no support network. We sent our oldest to preschool in a mask. During this time, I grew apart from a lot of the relationships I had built over the previous 15 years of my life. That was painful. There were so many days and nights I spent so sad and so lonely. I’d send my kids to daycare, they would get sick, I would get sick, I would be working, I wouldn’t be sleeping, and it was this endless agonizing cycle that for a time, had no end in sight.

Younger families are moving in around us. For a long time, we were the only house with young kids on the street. That, too, was so isolating. When my husband worked shift work I’d walk my oldest around and around the block, and never bumping into anyone. Now, I walk with the kids and we bump into other kids! And parents! The neighborhood is alive. We are sharing stories of how our house renovations are going. Tips on how to get rid of the damn carpenter ants. What terrible viruses the kids have. And suggesting we all get together for a block party now and then.

This is all very hopeful for me. And it’s a long time coming. I definitely look back on the toddler and baby years fondly for a lot of it. I captured so many golden and joyous moments. But I also look back on it with grief, for the experience I had should not have been as difficult as it was.

Everyone deserves a support network, and Covid ripped that away from so many people. Not just Covid, though, the modern way of the world has ripped community from working parents.

Hopefully as I step into this new phase/era I’m met with more joy and less isolation.

Hello July!

So farewell to June! You were pretty decent, June. Minus the fact that I had laryngitis for 2+ weeks, you were pretty good to me. The virus I had was certainly shitty, but I tried not to let it slow me down too much.

July has a lot in store for us, and August, too.

Summer will go by in a flash. It always does.

Thanks, as always, for reading!

<3

Megan