As soon as the calendar neared February 1st the weather turned nasty. The Grahams have been freezing their tootsies off, huddled inside under blankets and layers of clothing. There were a few days when highs were still negative numbers, as in “-18” and “-6.” That doesn’t even account for the wind chill, and Wyoming winds can be brutal; one day the wind chill was actually -40. Brrrr!
On the semi-decent days Samuel and I have been itching to get out! Now that Samuel is running full speed ahead all day, every day, it’s important to get out a little so he can burn off his energy. He also enjoys being around other kids his age, even though they don’t exactly play together yet. Since I enjoy adult conversation and girl time with friends, we have been play dating a lot. In the past couple weeks we have had several play dates.
One day Kristen and I went to the gym and ran while her daughter, Taylor, played with Samuel in the kids play area. Our gym has a special room with an enclosed space full of toys so parents can use the cardio machines or lift weights while also supervising their children. It’s been a great way for me to get out of the house with Samuel since he likes to play with any toys that are not his own. He does especially well when other kids are there to entertain him. It’s also a nice change of scenery from running on the treadmill in our scary school-bus-yellow basement. Later that day, after we went home and cleaned up, we went to the city library to let the kids play inside and had dinner downtown.
We met up with Shannon and Charlotte at Coldstone Creamery on “National Ice Cream for Breakfast Day.” They encouraged the kids to wear pajamas and have French Toast ice cream sundaes. Samuel is crazy about ice cream or even frozen yogurt (and so is his mom), so there wasn’t much protest from either of us! I did feel a little guilty later when I thought about our sugary, indulgent breakfast, but we both enjoyed the food and the company that morning.
A couple of days later Susannah and I went to Cool Beans in Fort Collins so Payton and Samuel could run around indoors. Cool Beans happens to be my very favorite wintertime hangout since it is literally a baby paradise. There are slides, a foam block pit (Samuel’s personal favorite), dress-up clothes, a play kitchen, tons of ride-ons and push toys as well as more manipulative toys than a day care center. As an added bonus they have great food and coffee drinks too. Samuel loves it there and will play for hours. It was great to visit with Susannah while we watched the kids amuse themselves and have fun.
On two different occasions I’ve met my friend Sarah and her two toddlers at the mall for lunch at Chick-fil-a and playtime at the mall’s indoor playground. We’ve also tried to do a little shopping at Gymboree but my little hooligan always tries to escape from the store. Then he goes tearing down the mall court giggling and screeching. Each time I retrieve him he does it again since he thinks we are playing a great game of chase. There was one time that he escaped and I didn’t see him so Sarah had to chase him down. Thank goodness for girlfriends! Sarah, having two active boys herself, had the brilliant idea to tie a balloon on his wrist so we would see the red balloon bobbing away if he started to leave.
When Allen has been off from work, we’ve also been fortunate to get together with some of our couple friends. The Sanders’ (Jason, Susannah and Payton) invited us over to watch the Superbowl with them, which was great! We usually never watch or even think about it each year, but it’s definitely a fun evening to spend with friends. We watched the halftime show and a couple commercials, but mostly just talked, laughed and enjoyed watching Samuel and Payton interact with one another. They are so funny and do the silliest things. At one point during the evening they discovered Payton’s box of wipes, pulled about 20 out and carried them all over the house. They even held on to a few, and had fun shaking them around, so I joked that they were our Superbowl cheerleaders.
We also had our friends the Layman’s (Matt, Mariana and Corbin) over recently to have dinner and play board games. There have been two other occasions that we’ve gotten together for dinner, but ran out of time to play games, so this evening we kept dinner simple and ordered pizza. The little boys entertained one another playing with Samuel’s trains and his climb-on bus with a slide. We introduced Matt and Mariana to one of our favorite games, Last Night on Earth, and played guys versus girls. Mariana and I were in dire straits towards the end, surrounded by a herd of flesh-eating zombies, but we rallied together and beat the guys! Allen and Matt have bonded through their enjoyment of role playing games and obscure, strategic board games. They are both well-versed in Warhammer and Magic the Gathering. As dutiful wives Mariana and I indulge them by playing some interesting games that are unheard of by most people. I secretly love it though, and now that I’ve been initiated into the realm I don’t think I could ever go back to Monopoly and Cranium, although we own both of those too!
It’s been a wonderfully busy couple of weeks for us. We sure are fortunate to have some great friends to help us beat the freezing cold winter blues. I just don’t think life in Cheyenne, Wyoming would be tolerable without them!
