The sun is shining

And our kids have been outside all day. Well, except for lunch and nap. First a nature walk that quickly ended when both kids fell into huge mud puddles at the same time. Then, a bike ride to the park..which is also exciting and exhausting during the Saturday morning rush of parents eager to play with their kids. And now while Kate is napping soundly, I hear Charlie and Adam racing around the backyard drilling holes in barrels for potatoes, planting veggies, laughing, working hard. When the sun shines after what feels like months of cold and rainy days, everyone wakes up with a smile on their face.

But what about those rainy, cold, windy days? Are the wet clothes, cold bodies, and at times hard moments worth getting our kids outside? I believe so. Yesterday I took Kate to Kaiser for a check up and read that we as parents should be giving our kids at least an hour of time outside a day. An hour? That seems like so little. Charlie needs at least 3 to feel complete. He is like a puppy when we hit the bluffs, he makes a b-line for only god knows where and runs until he can barely hear you and races back. Just like Lilly did 6 years ago.We are lucky to not live on the East Coast, to not have to battle crazy snow storms and freezing weather. We are also lucky not to live where it is so damn hot and humid that you can only go out when the sun is not. And we are fortunate enough to have a backyard, live by a park, and next to the ocean and miles of bluffs.

We try as much as possible to follow a waldorf-inspired rhythm in our home, best described as an in-out breath type pattern to your day. It helps provide structure that the child can predict, prevents any sort of boredom (on parents or child's part), and helps chip away at long days for stay at home parents. Basically the idea is to plan or do something more active/outside for a chunk of time, followed up by something more mellow (perhaps inside). I find that when I plan two "outs" in a row is when C has a meltdown, because his body is too tired to react successfully to challenging feelings. For example, nursery school is most certainly an "out" activity. Why I thought it would be fun to pick him up after 2.5 hours of exhaustive play and then bring him to the park for more stimulation, is beyond me. And so he freaked out. Lesson learned. He would have been much better off with a healthy lunch and some art time, or quiet play in the playroom.

And our Friday Field trip days are back. It is the only day where I don't tutor, the kids don't have swim class, nursery school, playgroup. And so I go to bed Thursday night excited, excited to spend the entire day with my two sweethearts. Last week we went to the discovery museum:

and I watched the kids play together so nicely:

we hula-hooped in the rain together...

enjoyed nuts, dried fruit and leftover pasta together...

and with two toddlers getting older, I got to sit down a lot and just observe GREAT creative play...much better than nursing a babe, or chasing a 2 year old who won't listen.

The Friday before we went to the SF zoo for the first time in almost a year. And I had an amazing day. Despite the fact that the animal's homes are sad and depressing for the most part, it is a perfect place to see my little animals free. There was almost no one there, and we ran around happily for nearly 4 hours. We saw the smallest baby gorilla doing somersaults, playing dress-up, and being silly. We saw the young giraffe up close, gay penguins that were raising a young penguin together as a couple for 6 months, and fed the goats way too much food.

Charlie is very protective of Kate when we are out and about, as shown in this pic. He took his job of keeping her on this bear way too seriously.

Here is my two year old big girl learning to ride her balance bike. Although hmb doesn't have many seasonal changes, we are excited about spring, about the days being longer, a bit warmer, about gardening, and about more and more time outside.