We have had a lot of not-so-great weekends, lately. In fact, the past 6 weeks or so have been–aside from some holiday goodness–pretty difficult.
I’ve kvetched about it a lot, but it has been a really trying time. Sona and I keep joking with one another. “Are we being tested?” we ask. And then we kind of nervously giggle, because we both know the truth: yes, yes we are. We are being tested by our one year old.
Finn is 17 months, and I shudder a bit to think about what two and three will be like. Those are supposed to be the tough years? How can anything possibly be more difficult than what we’ve been experiencing, lately?
I’m being a bit melodramatic, sure, but the other truth is this: we’ve felt like we are barely hanging on. Nonstop family visits. Holiday madness. Work stress. An ear infection. Erupting molars. A stomach-flu-from-hell that had the whole family out of commission for nearly a week and a half.
We also have a rabbit who is currently–but hopefully not permanently–severely disabled and on approximately 27 medications a day. But, I digress.
The point is, I’m functioning at the limits of my sanity.
However, there is a teeny tiny burst of light, glimmering at the end of a very narrow tunnel. Finn seems to be well, finally, and his behavior has turned a corner. He’s back to being his mostly-sweet self, and this was the first weekend that we’ve sincerely enjoyed family time in a long, long while.
It started off with breakfast at home on Saturday morning, followed by lots of a play time, a long nap (which let mommas get housework done), and a visit from Finn’s BFF, Veen.
They exchanged Christmas presents, which was totally adorable.
Finn was pretty taken by this little musical gadget.
Bro hugs.
We went to BBQ for dinner Saturday night, and the boys both behaved. We even felt confident enough to order a dessert that takes 20 minutes to prepare. That’s a parenting win, for sure! (Finn may or may not have eaten an entire hamburger bun, a half pound of cornbread, chips, mac & cheese, and ice cream. He’s having a carb moment, what can I say?)
Sunday, we got up, got dressed, and headed to our new favorite pastry spot, La Boulangerie. After even more carbs than I feel comfortable sharing with you, we headed to the Garfield Park Conservatory where, despite it being 30 degrees outside, was warm and balmy!
It actually proved a great spot for Finn. There are semi-guided paths, which meant that we could let him run wild, but he could only really go in one direction. Parenting win #2!
I do love this silly bug, despite everything.
We did have one small tantrum, which was the result of our refusing to let Finn swim with the fish. (I mean that literally, of course.) Mean mommas!
Still, we made it home just in time for everyone to take a long nap. Then we woke up, made a big pot of Sunday soup, played hard, watched Rio for the 47th time this week, and got the little one to bed on time.
If every weekend could be just like this one, my blood pressure may settle back in to something remotely resembling a functioning human. But even just this one weekend, if it’s all we get for a while, was enough to remind me that I actually do really love this little family of mine, after all.
Did I mention that we have leftover cupcakes and episodes of Outlanders, waiting to be binged?