she's just sayin'

Summer is in full swing, my baby boy is now six months old, and life is good.  Gone are the days when I had to stay cooped up in the house with Drew because he was so new, so wee and so unvaccinated. Gone are the slushy, slippery, epically cold days of winter. Gone are the every-two-hour feedings that threw a wrench into any plans to be out of the house for more than an hour and a half at a time.  Let’s face it: the first few months of a baby’s life are tough (on the parents, that is; the baby seems quite content to sleep and eat on endless repeat) and there’s really not much to do other than get through it, usually by ending the day with a nice hearty glass of wine.

Now that we’re in a different stage, one characterized by an alert, curious baby, the challenge is coming up with activities to get us out of the house, (and away from that godforsaken singing plastic snail I keep tripping on) keep him stimulated and, hell, I’d like to be mildly entertained myself.   So what have we been up to?

You’ve heard me talk about this several times before, but our number one most frequent activity is Baby Boot Camp. It gets us outside for a good hour and change, lets Drew see nature (the class takes place on a trail that runs alongside a river) and interact with other babies, and allows me to get a good workout and chit chat with other moms. Win, win win.

The library. It’s a free place to go when it’s super hot outside. Free air conditioning and free books!  In my opinion, the biggest benefit here is that I get to pick up some different books to read to Drew so that I don’t want to poke my eyes out at the thought of one more reading of Blue Hat, Green Hat. And, there is the occasional baby music class…

The community pool!  We signed up for a family membership to our town’s pool for the season. It’s been so much fun to see Drew discover the water; over the past couple months he’s gone from ambivalence to excitement, and is now an expert splasher. While I don’t enjoy hauling two beach towels, a picnic blanket, a cooler and a diaper bag across a hot parking lot while also pushing a stroller, I do enjoy seeing Drew become more and more comfortable in the water each time we visit. And, of course, I also enjoy the mom chit chat. I swear, the power of a good ‘mom network’…where else can you turn when you want someone to listen—and listen eagerly eagerly—to you describe the consistency of your child’s bowel movements?  Besides the internet, of course.

Horses! We happen to live near a horse farm and just yesterday we stopped by to see a show jumping competition. I don’t know if I’m using the right language here to describe these activities, but you know what I’m talking about, right?  Girls in their riding gear, horses jumping over those bars, like they do in the Olympics? I figured it might be fun for Drew to see real live horses rather than the cartoon one that lives in one of his books. For a while he seemed pretty curious, following the horses’ movements as they cantered through the barn, jumping over this and that. Eventually he grew fussy and disinterested, but I chalk that up to the combination of late afternoon timing, the heat, humidity and smell of horse poop inside the barn.

On tap for future…a visit to the nearby botanical gardens, maybe a walk along a hiking trail with Drew in the Ergo, and a return to Manhattan, where we don’t have to do much other than park ourselves on a street corner and observe. People watching is free AND priceless.