Hellobee

We don’t get many days off. Between running our business, shuttling T to and from visits, attending foster care training and taking in respite placements, oh, and bottle feeding baby goats, we keep ourselves really busy. This week though we had one day with no visits or appointments, and our bottle baby was starting to nurse from mom so didn’t need feeding nearly as often. One of our favorite things to do before T was take off for the day on an unplanned adventure. Sometimes we would drive somewhere we’ve never been before, just to see where we would end up. Other times we would have a destination in mind but no plan once we got there. We were so excited to do the same with T now that we know him well enough to know how to make it a successful trip.

T started the day with one solid nap in his crib. We didn’t want his entire day to be napping in the car or on the go, so we waited until after his first nap to head out. Our first stop was our favorite breakfast place about 45 minutes away. We had a delicious brunch and T enjoyed smiling at the servers (he’s their favorite, they all say) and eating his own breakfast. He loves restaurants and we are trying to enjoy it while it lasts, before he’s mobile and wild!

After breakfast we headed to the beautiful park in town. There’s a creek running all through the park, lots of green space, tons of flowers blooming, a duck pond and of course a playground. T has never been on the baby swings before, as he hasn’t had the strength to sit up well enough until now. We played on the grass for a while as he practiced crawling and then headed over to the swings. What a hit. He had the best time and gave us some really big smiles. Sadly I can only show the back of his head, but you can imagine the giggles and smiles we could see from the front.

We detoured after the park to a small, local children’s store. They mostly had clothes (the CUTEST girls clothes…I’m jealous) but we found a great stuffed octopus with lots of different textures and crackly parts, and a board book version of Peter Rabbit. As T started getting sleepy we headed back to the car. We are really lucky that if it’s near nap time he falls asleep in the car and can sleep for hours on a long drive. He was sound asleep by the time we were on the main street of town. We made a quick stop for a cup of coffee and headed out of town.

On the way home we were talking about wanting to explore the road that runs along the river northwest of our house. We got to the turnoff and T was still asleep, so we decided to head out that way. It was a beautiful, quiet drive along a very full river, thanks to the increased precipitation this past winter. T stayed asleep so we ended up driving out to a tiny town famous for its amazing pizza place. We stopped there to pick up a pizza and drinks and to feed and change T. He had a nice two hour nap so he was happy and had fun smiling at everyone. We got our pizza to go and headed back up the river a little ways. We had been scouting campgrounds and day use areas along the river on our way out, so we had a spot in mind for a picnic.

We found our spot and sat near the river eating pizza, drinking lemonade and playing with T (who ate his share of puffs, wouldn’t want him to feel left out). We had a great time showing T the river and the sand after our picnic. He loved the sand and actually seemed to like standing in the edge of the river too, although the water was pretty cold. I think he’s an adventurous little guy who will be up for anything.

On the way home, T fell asleep again for about 30 minutes, which gave us just enough time to have a nice, quiet, non-fussy bedtime routine when we got home. The highlight of this entire day was the night, as T slept through the night (11.5 hours straight) for the first time! I guess he needs to go on adventures more often!

Honestly, though, the best part of the entire day was spending time together as a family of three away from all of the appointments, meetings and daily reminders that we might only be a temporary family. As time passes we are, of course, becoming more and more attached to T. Although I’ve tried to avoid thinking too far ahead into the future with T, it has become harder and harder not to. Missus Turtle and I are beginning to talk about him as if he is ours and as if we will have him permanently. We know, of course, that this is far from guaranteed, or even likely, at this point. It is a unique challenge of foster parenting to live entirely in the moment and yet worry constantly about your child’s future, which is so incredibly out of your control. Sometimes this all gets overwhelming. Our unplanned adventure was just what we all needed.