Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Long Fall Walks

Matthew was home with me in the afternoon yesterday during the big birthday day off. He went to day care in the morning so I could do some of the dreaded holiday shopping. (I did not get as much done as I hoped but I finally bought Kevin his Father's Day gift - better late than never, I always say ;)

Matthew came home with me around noon or soon there after. He ate SOME MORE (can you believe that Kelly?!) and we (being Kevin AND I) finally got him down for nap around 1:15p or so. I was sad and glad he took a nap because I was able to play on the computer and when I say play I mean I got to read the numerous blogs I now read, write my own entry and also upload 400 photos. I still need to print the photos but I was excited to upload, rotate the photos they were going in the correct direction (mostly) and reduce red eye on as many as possible. I love photos so I looked at all of them again and again. I am hoping to post some more on here in the next few days because there are some great Fall shots that we took a couple of weeks ago plus well I am behind but even some Halloween shots that I want to share. Well, it seems when I am at any computer the hours just slip through my fingers because the next thing I knew I looked up and it was 4:00p... OPPS!

I am usually super conscious about "the nap timing" because too long and we are up until 10p with him (or later...); too short and you have a crabby kiddo. But yesterday the glory of the photos and the Internet just sucked me in and then spit me out blinking and confused. I rushed upstairs and there stood Matthew also looking confused and blinking from his long nap.

We ate some leftover birthday ice cream cake. Then we quickly threw on coats, hats and shoes. I figured a long walk in the breezy warmish fall weather would help to tire him out a little bit. We ended going for an hour and 15 minute walk! That is longest he has ever gone and he biked most of the way!

Matthew was great. He rode along and chattered on about the new houses being built in our neighborhood. He talked about the wind, the storm clouds and the leaves. We picked up leaves for a little fall display I hoping to get done soon. We wandered down to the walking trail to see the horses. Matthew even pushed his own bike because he said the trail was too bumpy and talked about the other bikers and runners on the trail.

It was lovely fall evening for this kind of thing and he never once lost his temper and seemed to really enjoy himself. So much so that he did not want to turn around and go home. However, the storms clouds were getting closer which is not so much an issue - neither he nor I mind getting some rain on our heads. Mostly it was getting dark and I knew that Kevin would be home from work and wondering we had gone off to. We made it home ahead of the rain, barely.
The point of this story? No point, just that I thoroughly enjoyed a lovely fall walk with Matthew with little to no drama (okay he did make my heart pound when he said "weeeee" and went down the little hill onto the street... Ack...) and it was generally just a wonderful birthday day off! Hope your Monday was as wonderful!

PS: he still went to sleep at reasonable hour but woke up around ten to 6 (which is about a 1/2 hour earlier than he normally wakes up.) Likely the early wake up call had to do with enough rest between the regular night time sleep and the long nap which just re-enforces the fact that Matthew is on the perfect schedule at this point in time!

2 comments:

Tess said...

Great day! Way to go on the shopping. I'm curious what you got, but I know you can't reveal if the fam reads your blog. OR CAN YOU?

Christina Schmidt said...

Hmm, welll... I bought a set of those Leapfrog maracas for our friends who recently had a baby; Matthew will be receiving Lincoln Logs from us (versus the train set he will receive from Santy Claus.)

What the hell did I buy? Yeah so Kevin received his long awaited label maker??? I guess my hubby is as fussy pants as yours ;)

Matthew is in love with those sticker books so I bought him the mother of all sticker books. I Also bought some items from Target's stocking stuffer area (the mini travel doodle pro things, a light of ball thingy, some Christmas themed weebles, and I think that is it from that section.

I bought a new ornament for the tree and a gaudy Christmas place mat to put in the middle of the table as well as an ugly picture frame - I thought I would put a photo each year of the fam in there... HA, it will probably stand unfilled the entire time but whatever.

I bought my mom a pretty orange-red scarf from a local gallery made by a local textile person.

Oh and I bought Kevin a watch per his request though I think he asked for a sport watch and the watch I bought him is much less sporty and much more business man like which if you met my dear husband that would make you laugh but I kept the receipt and we can head to K-Mart and get a sport watch if he does not like the one I bought...

Hmm, that is not a lot, huh? Well, I have been internet shopping as well (crate n barrel and of course the mother of all shopping sites Amazon) so I made up for some of the lack of shopping at the actual store by shopping online as well!