June 19, 2023

Parental Leave - Week 4

Greetings!

I am now on the second part of my parental leave for Jonathan, which will take me through the beginning of August. I will be providing weekly flash updates on how things are going!

Happy Fathers Day!

On Saturday we spent the afternoon at Swans Trail Farms. They had a number of activities, such as Strawberry picking, a petting zoo, and games and rides for kids. Amelia's favorite activity was bouncing on the big Jumping Pillow, followed by the indoor slides. She also loved holding the baby ducks and chickens.

Jonny:

• We’ve had some good morning walks together. Some laps around Green Lake, shopping trips, and strolls through University Village.
• His absolute favorite thing in the world is to pull my glasses off of my face and put them in his mouth, or throw them on the floor.

Amelia:

• Still working on building up a rhythm when it comes to good habits. The biggest challenge is definitely the variance in her energy levels; impossible to do anything when she is tired. She has been enthusiastically tackling her Kumon work sheets, instruments and cleaning up less so.
• We bought her a kid’s ukulele a long time ago, but this week she showed interest in having me help her play it. We did that instead of practicing violin one day; I hold her how to hold it properly and play a C chord.
• Amelia's preschool has a toy, Frank the Fox, that takes turns spending the weekend at home with different kids. This weekend it was our turn. We got to take pictures with him and Amelia at the library, playground, zoo, eating out, and more.

Me:

• Good week for exercise. Had a couple of walks/jogs around Green Lake, as well as a yoga class.
• Finished Siblings Without Rivalry. Not a lot was immediately useful, as I wouldn't say Amelia and Jonny have a rivalry exactly. However, what I took away was that we should respect Amelia's "property rights" with respect to her toys, even if we think she is too old for them.
• Started Foundation and Empire.
• Finally tried out Warby Parker for new glasses. Curious to see how the end product looks. They're considerably cheaper than getting glasses from my optometrist (by hundreds of dollars).

And as I mentioned before, please shoot me an email if you'd like to grab brunch one of these mornings.