A Wintery Weekend

Here'a little peek into some of the things we attempted (you'll see 

why in a minute) this past weekend. The weekend began a little

early for Mama as Max was not at his babysitter's (her son had

strep throat).  My parents agreed to watch him until lunch time

and then I took over.  Max has been struggling with taking

 a nap at home (saying he's "not tired" which I'm not even 

sure how that's possible).  Either way - I gave up and enforced

some quiet play time.  My rules sounded something like this:

"you have to play by yourself during quiet time - you can't

talk or touch mommy" hahahaha!  It worked and he actually 

did play alone for close to 45 minutes. 

 

When Daddy got home around 4:00 we decided to head

down to "Winter Park" which is a huge outdoor ice rink

by Nation Wide Arena (where the Blue Jackets play). 

Max was SUPER excited about this, even asking me on 

the way there about the "ice shoes" - which I told him 

were called ice skates. I casually asked Rob if he had

been ice skating before and he said yes, so I felt

pretty good about the situation. We got to the 

rink (not without some drama of course, realizing we 

had no cash and that we were way early for their

designated skate time). 

We passed the time watching the Zamboni

machine clear the ice (this was probably Max's 

favorite part).  He also climbed up and down 

the bleachers (with one pretty terrible fall

in which I thought he might be concussed)

and we contemplated makings s'mores but

in the end did not because we hadn't even had dinner. 

Finally, it was time to get our ice shoes skates on!

And helmets too (if you're a first time skater like Max). 

He did really well walking in the ice skates 

(which I took to be a good sign). 

We took to the ice...all holding hands....

and promptly became a three person wobbly crazy mess. 

(Max's face says it all)

Max was like a noodle.  He was practically

horizontal between Rob and me.  And, Rob was actually

not much better (sorry Rob!).  I was the only member

of the Hauck family who was proficient enough at skating

to actually be vertical.  And here I was trying to hold 

up two ice clowns!  just kidding...kind of. Both 

of them checked off the ice about three quarters of the way around. 

So, I did about three laps solo..

and then we called it a night. 

(exiting the ice park...barely holding it together)

On the way home, I was teasing Rob about his

skating performance and he retorted with "I think you 

thought I was going to be freaking Wayne Gretsky"

and I laughed and laughed. I mean, I was just 

hoping for a little Brian Boitano myself :)

With the ice capades behind us....we kept Saturday 

pretty low key with a trip to the grocery store....

another non-existent nap...and Zoo's Chilly Open

Event (lots of food vendor tents and a kid's play area).  

There is sadly no photographic evidence 

of any of these events. And with no nap, 

Max fell asleep at 7:00 pm. Wowza!

On Sunday, I had a new plan - tire this child out!

He asked to go to the conservatory, and we did!

They had a new orchid exhibit...and they put back out

this light screen and pegs (which is Max's favorite). 

It looks like a huge Light Bright (remember those?).

He also loves this tower in the islands room...

And a smaller version of his beloved train was out too!

We watched the train for quite some time. 

 

The orchids were GORGEOUS and had I not 

been a toddler wrangling machine, I would have

photographed all of them! 

We noticed a cool park just a short walk from 

the conservatory - so we hit that up too!

When we finally left - he had one major meltdown

(over tired much kid?) about the CD book in my car.

And then, he promptly fell asleep!  I win!!!

Rob and I successfully transferred him to his bed

and did a well deserved victory dance! Then, we spent

and hour and fifteen minutes in blissful, 

restful silence (it really is golden). I woke him up 

because I did not want it to ruin his bedtime. 

We continued Super Fun Sunday with some chalk outside

and a February wagon ride/walk....because that's how

we roll when it's 50 degrees in the middle of winter.

(into dressing himself lately) 

(this should be a video of the wagon ride if I did it right?)

(and one more video because, why not?)

We celebrated Super Bowl Sunday with a delicious

pork tenderloin, and asparagus.  Oh, and a trip to 

Whole Foods (just me and Auntie Stacy) - that

place truly is kind of amazing! 

Hope your weekend was fabulous...and hey, 

it's already Wednesday! Hooray!

xoxo