getting out

During Donovan's first year, or at least those first 6-9 months, I made a conscious effort to spend lots of time at home. Especially in the beginning, I'd carefully plan what I wanted to do which days so that we didn't have two outings back-to-back, and D got plenty of calm, peaceful time at home with me. Part of this was b/c of the logistics of going anywhere from our house in Switzerland-- I could drive a few places, but to go into town I'd take the bus which was a 30 minute ride each way and then we'd usually spend a couple hours in town, which always meant naps in the stroller, etc. They were kind of big to-dos. But I also just in general worried about over-stimulating him, over-whelming him, and also wanted to make sure he got lots of free time not confined in a stroller, being able to instead stretch out and play on the floor or just be held. There was also the complicating factor of D's short-but-frequent naps, which made it tough to plan things around (unless I just planned on walking him in the stroller as he slept, but that never seems to provide as good a sleep as in his own bed).

It's amusing to me that now we've done an almost complete 180. These days, I'm focusing on how much we can fit into each day, where else can we go, what else can we do? D seems to just get bored or restless at home, and I'm finding that especially on those days when one or both of us isn't at our best it is imperative that we leave the house and go somewhere ANYWHERE to distract us and give us some fresh air and a change of scenery. He's finally (finally!!) on a pretty consistent sleep schedule as of the past couple months (ever since he dropped his 3rd nap, actually). Most days he wakes at 6am, takes one nap from 9-10ish, a second from 1-2/2:30, then bed by 7pm. And so I'm starting to plan places to go at 10:30-noon and 3-5p as many days of the week as possible. I think we'll be spending lots and lots of afternoons at the local parks this summer...