Tuesday, May 22, 2012

The May 2-4

When I was younger, the May 2-4 –the Canadian long weekend celebrating some queen or something but actually celebrating the summer, and booze – was a time best spent at a cabin or camp ground, with a stack of booze and a murder of good friends. Then, I thought that to be the best possible way to spend the first real long weekend of the summer.
This year, I did it different (though I did still consume a respectable quantity of rum; Bacardi Oakheart, for those interested). I took Friday off of work to hang with my son; Nicole works till 1:00, so we had the bulk of the day to ourselves.
We went to Breithaupt Park, and spent most of the morning there. He played on the swing, the teeter totter, the bouncy whale thing (as seen below) and the jungle gym slide. We went for a walk in the woods for about an hour, and he collected a couple more rocks. We had a little picnic in the shade of a tree, and he ran through the splash pad fully clothed.

We went home and puttered in the yard till Nicole got home. I put up a gazebo we inherited, and Kenny helped by passing me tools. He also took the time while I was reading the instructions to perform a little maintenance on my trusty old mower.

It was a very good day.
Friday night I hung out at a bonfire with some neighbors after Nicole and Kenny went to bed, and they invited us to an alley party on Sunday. Cool beans.

Saturday was grocery day, and Kenny went for his 18 month photos for his great-grandma (a family tradition; she has one of all her grandkids and great grandkids). We puttered around the house a bit in the afternoon while he napped, and then puttered some more after he got up.
Sunday was spent doing yard work, while Kenny played. And yeah. I took lots of breaks to play with him too. I got one of our weed gardens all ripped up, and I’m almost done building a new brick perimeter. Later afternoon and into the evening we had the alley party.

Boy, that kid can run now. Nicole and I took turns chasing Kenny. He tore after the TONS of older kids, and had fun exploring the alley and disappearing into the neighbors back yards. We had a great time hanging with the neighbor’s and making some new friends, after only 6 years living here ;)
Kenny went down like an exhausted sack of potatoes at bed time, so mommy and daddy got to go back out to the alley to drink with our new friends. Good times. Oh, and the Veggie Chip things that Nicole’s mom gave us to bring were not that bad, I’m told, and tasted a bit like cold McDonalds French fries. I passed on those.

Monday Grandma Grace (my mom) came to visit and we all hung outside for the day, and Kenny and I splashed around in his kiddie pool. When he went down for his nap, Nicole and I crashed; we relaxed and watched a movie (Don’t be afraid of the dark, not very exciting) and decided to order pizza. Exhausted after a long weekend, we all stayed in for the evening and rested. And I went to bed two hours earlier than normal (10:15) and slept like a baby. Kenny also slept like a baby ;)
So looking back, it was one of the best weekends I can remember. And it had nothing to do with rivers of alcohol, and everything to do with time spent as a family, working, playing and relaxing. Our little buddy Kenny has filled in the gaps in our life that we didn’t even know where there; I wouldn’t trade a minute of yard work with Kenny hanging off of my leg for a hundred long weekends spend drunk out of my skull, and any time he wants to dash away laughing and screaming, I’ll be there to chase him down, tackle him, and tickle him till he needs a diaper change.


1 comment:

  1. Oh yeah... the "puttering" on Sunday also invloved a couple hours spent fixing the line to my outdoor tap. The damn pipe had burst over the winter, and I really wanted to fill Kennys pool.

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