April In The Burbs

We found Sailor on  Craigslist   and adopted him in 2011 when I was 27. I told my husband that I either needed to get pregnant or get a puppy.   I definitely needed something to mother and give that maternal love and attention to, besides my amazing husband. We had actively been trying to get pregnant since we were married in October 2008, a puppy was the logical choice since it didn’t seem a baby was in the cards for us.   Therefore making our dog Sailor, our first baby. He went everywhere with us. He would ride with me to take Darren to and from work, to get food (well obviously only through drive-throughs). He has never, not once, been left in the car by himself.   Now if I won’t leave my dog in the car you know I won’t leave my kids in the car! When he was a puppy I would refuse to go out with my friends if my mom could not watch him for us because he was not crate trained and I didn’t want him getting into something and getting hurt.  ...

Dottie started gymnastics/cheer class today. 45 minutes once a week. She turns 4 in September, but can’t start pre-K until next school year because of her late September birthday.  She was so excited to start gymnastics & listened very well to instruction.  I’d love to find something that’s more than once a week, maybe dance in the fall when Bubba starts kinder full time? We signed her up with a local  Recreational Center  and we’re paying a small fee for a month of classes, once a week.  I’m going to ask her at the end of the four weeks if she’d like to contine. Her father and I would be happy to have her enjoy an activity outside of home, just as her brother has school to look forward to.  What kind of casual classes did your kids take for fun? 

Summer, summer, summer time!!  Okay let’s be real on the real real right now. I’m struggling with Johnny and excessive screen-time.  His heath hasn’t been great over the last year or so and I think we’ve let him get a little too used to having some type of screen nearby.  This is something I am concerned about, and making a concerted effort to drastically decrease his time using screens. He’s more of an “indoor” type of kiddo which is completely opposite from Dorothy.  I know they have different interests, and I don’t want to squash his love of  video games  or anything, he’s a smart boy, but something has gotta change.  So far my strategy for this summer has been to just get us ALL out of the house more. Now I need other suggestions.  Anything that’s not related to a screen. Anything that’s free or cheap or that I haven’t thought of yet?