Seattle is beautiful during summer. All the plants, flowers and trees rejoice the bright sunshine and blue sky, and people seem to be in a better mood, too. The word "seasonal depression" floats around all winter long, so the warm cheerful weather is like a dose of good medicine for Seattleites.
What's a mother of four like in the first week of summer break? A hyper-maniac energizer bunny! At least for one mother in our town (moi), it is a fitting description. It's like a runner with fresh legs and eyes for the gold. I was motivated to make the summer break eventful with fun outings. They say time goes by faster if you are having fun, right?
On days that were sunny, I took four kids to the zoo in Seattle and a large park they like in Mercer Island. They also had playdates with friends which included a bike ride together to the nearby park (about 1.5 miles away). The bike ride sounded good until I found out that my bike had flats. I had to run behind them the whole way and back! I had to run fast because the kids won't slow down for me despite my numerous pleas... I didn't want the child I was watching to get hurt or endangered, so I ran furiously, probably looked pretty funny from the side. I was all breaking sweat when we dropped the friend off at her house.
Noah did surprisingly well at the zoo. The zoo is quite large and it has various statues of animals through out the park. Noah loves statues, particularly the animal kind. I was so sure he would hug one and never let it go but to my surprise, he only gave a few good pats on them and moved on! I felt silly the worries about the statues were preventing me from bringing him to the zoo! It's tiring but I know my children enjoy outing with all four. Sean was being awesome and held on to Noah's safety leash most of the time.
Noah wears a toddler leash when we go out because holding hands with him all the time is challenging. The moment I let his hand go, he will be looking for an opportunity to run off and he runs FAST. I sprint after him, but I usually have a hard time catching up to him. I get stares, sometimes unfriendly kinds, from passerby for putting an 8 year-old on a leash, but I try not to take it personal. One time, someone yelled out from a car "put him off leash!!" but of course, they have no idea what our situation is. As long as we need to, I will have a safety leash on Noah. The toddler-sized plush leopard leash is getting small though, so I have to find an alternative.
I guess I wanted to make sure kids spend time together and have fun because I was leaving for Japan in the following week with the girls. I knew Sean was a bit sad about not being able to go and being apart from us. I had some preparations to do for the trip, but I wanted to take time and spend quality time with the children. I was exhausted, but it was totally worth it. The kids were pretty tired, too, and they fell asleep contently every night without a fuss.
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