Five on Friday | Safer at Home

Well, we have moved on from "shelter in place" to "Safer at Home" here in Alabama. However, besides Max and Parker heading out to get their first haircuts since February, and a socially distanced picnic lunch at The Botanical Gardens, we're pretty much still practicing our quarantining. Here's what else is new...

We celebrated Mother's Day! And even though we spent the entire day at home, I had zero dishes thanks to yummy take-out and delivery (all the praise hands). I feel like the only "present" I ever want for Mother's Day (besides sleeping in) is pictures with the kiddos. This is a common request of moms, right? We're always the ones behind the camera? Well, Max totally delivered with the sweetest photo shoot and I just love that he captured this special moment in time with my boys.

Also, Finn learned to toast on Mother's Day. I just about died from cuteness. 

I'm pretty much a Yale student now 😂 No, but really, I enrolled in Yale's The Science of Well-Being free course online and I've been loving it! It's affectionately referred to as their "Happiness Class" and it covers all the research and studies correlating actions and happiness levels, and encourages putting the findings into action. Nothing like a pandemic to prompt some self-care, am I right? I mean, is it true that I have a reoccurring nightmare that it's the end of the undergrad quarter and I have a class that I didn't attend at all or complete any assignments for all quarter? 100% So you'd think it would be counter-productive for my wellness to enroll in such a stressor, but it's super laid back (and contrary to my dreaming, I looooooved "doing school" though apparently it caused me more anxiety than I had thought).

Distance learning is done! For now. I really can't think ahead any more than a few days right now for fear of spiraling. So instead, we can look back. Here's Parker on his first day of school, back when he wore real clothes and had teeth.

He's changed so much! He's our old soul and rule follower - always throwing out big words that sound semi-ridiculous coming out of his mouth and I love it.

 

His school had a drive through yearbook and art pick-up on the last day. Finn was less than thrilled to accompany us (he's already forgotten what it was like to wait for big brother each day in car line, haha!).

Speaking of Finn, he's living his best life. Like I said - no long days getting in and out of the car. No waiting on big brother at soccer practice or piano. Finn gets toys and walks and FaceTime and books and hot tub and food and he is not one bit sad about any of it. By the way, I use the term "toys" loosely - right now Finn most enjoys screws (plastic toy ones and the real ones if he can get his hands on them) and the giant cardboard box his diapers came in. Current favorite game - dropping a screw through the handle hole of the box (and also trying to fit said screw into any hole he can find... future engineer like daddy?).

We really try to get outside each and every day and we have succeeded for the most part - even with rain and crazy weather things. Above is our family selfie before run/walking the virtual 5K for Parker's school. But with two kids at home every day, and the studios I usually frequent (barre, Pilates) closed, I found myself missing out on exercise. So, I started a campaign to convince Max that we needed a Peloton in the house. I made several mini pictures like the one below, all with my head superimposed on some other bike rider. 

And it worked! Our Peloton is arriving June 30th! Who else out there has one? What should I know? I'm twelve kinds of excited about this.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!