a whole lotta lounging
this weekend was so lovely. but i think we can all agree that weeks deserve an extra helping of sunday, am i right? aren't sundays just the very best days?
so...ben has scheduled out a bunch of random days off through the end of the year so that he can get some extra time at home to spend with the little ones. it gives him the chance for some one-on-one or one-on-two time with them that he really doesn't get enough of. sure, we have evenings and weekends. but bonus days with papa are the best. and it also affords me the opportunity to switch into hard core work mode for a bigger chunk of time. AND to tackle some extra projects or tasks or even, stuff that is just for funsies.
the very best is when he schedules a friday off. it feels like such a treat for everyone. the day starts out feeling like a saturday and then rolls into a productivity and fun explosion. last week, ben took friday off and he spent the morning with the little ones while i got down to business. he had a tea party with elinor while ridley napped. he fed ridley a bottle so that i could run a few errands and pop by to visit a sweet friend with a new baby. and since he was keeping elinor busy, it gave me a chance to put my feet up for a few minutes while i polished off a snack and watched ridley kick and squawk and nibble on his toys (p.s. ridley is officially grabbing all the things and sticking them right into his mouth. and, his finger sucking has graduated into thumb sucking. and he is also flipping himself from his back to his belly and doing mini push-ups while launching forward with his feet. so, yeah. things are getting serious over here and we aren't even at the half-year mark.)
what exactly is the point of this post? well, just to say that i am so grateful for our little crew. and for extra days off for ben, especially when they take us into the weekend so beautifully. i felt so ahead of the game come saturday afternoon. we had accomplished so many things and since friday kind of felt like saturday, it made our saturday afternoon exceptionally nice. like we were granted extra hours in the day. we did a lot of lounging and music listening. we had dance parties with elinor. we played many imagination games. we did the laundry and got it all folded and put away! that's a great feeling.
we even watched charlie and the chocolate factory which elinor has dubbed her favorite movie. i can't blame her, it is pretty great. and really made me want to eat piles of candy. (also, why hasn't somebody created a willy wonka theme park yet? get on that.)
and after all of that amazingness, we still had a whole sunday to enjoy! for the first time in a long time, ben said that he actually felt like he was able to switch into relaxation mode for a bit. and i love hearing that. weeks can be so full and busy. and weekends can be the same. so when you can shift gears for a spell, that's a very good thing. a necessary thing.
and as many of you might have noticed, we have been doing some serious seasonal decluttering and reorganizing and redecorating. something about the cooler air makes me want to clean and sort and move stuff around. i think it has something to do with wanting things to be all set for the arrival of the christmas tree...CHRIST.MAS.TREE. plus, we welcomed a new sofa last week so a bit of redecorating was a must. our chesterfield dreams have finally come true. we have been talking about adding a tufted beauty to our home for a good long while. and last week, our beautiful ebony behemoth arrived. so, if you need us, you can find us curled up there for the next few months. covered by a fur blanket, sipping warm seasonal beverages. and probably some hemingway-esque cocktails that pair well with leather and books.
* and if you come over anytime soon, the first stop on elinor's home tour will most definitely be her revamped "fancy playroom". she is over the moon about it. she has been swooning and clapping and ever so giddy about all the changes we've been making. i love that she gets excited about stuff like that.
okay. random weekend recap post concluded. happy monday!