This update may be a little late but aren’t we all sometimes 😊 We are currently at around 320 hours outside for the year! This is less than I was hoping for at the halfway point of the year, but I know we will be able to catch up this summer. My last grad school class for the year will be finishing up soon and that will open my weekend schedule a little bit. In the meantime, these beautiful spring days have made it so rewarding to spend time outside.
Our current hours were helped a lot by a family vacation we took to the beach at the beginning of May. O would wake up and, while still half asleep, would ask to go to the beach. We were able to rack up quite a few hours outside during that trip. The house we stayed at was right on the water, so L could nap at the house while my husband and O would go down and play at the beach. This was our first vacation with kids, and it is definitely not what I would consider relaxing, but it was worth all the effort to see how much fun our kids had playing outside.
We also finally got the playground set up in our backyard right before L’s birthday in April. This has made it so much easier to let O run around and entertain herself without having to leave the yard. Our yard also gets a good amount of shade throughout the day, so even as the weather continues to warm up I think this will be very helpful in keeping the kids outside.
We are also looking forward to my parent’s pool warming up. They live pretty close by, and we plan to spend a lot of our time over there this summer. Also, L is almost walking and that will also make it easier to be outside. While the ‘putting everything in his mouth’ phase seems to be lasting forever he will at least be able to roam without having to crawl through the grass and on the concrete.
I hope everyone has enjoyed their spring and all the nice weather we’ve been having! Remember that every hour counts and even if you don’t get to 1000 hours any extra hour you spend outside is great!