Went North: Part II

In the first half of 2021, my sister moved north and bought a house, my cousin Anna bought a new house and moved her family of five, our family of five moved to a new house … and not to be outdone, my cousin Liv remodeled her kitchen. Which sounds less intense – but we all know that remodels always take way longer than expected. So Liv was kitchen-less for months with a toddler and a preschooler. I’d rather move than do that!

All that to say, Saturday morning, the kids, Auntie, and I headed out to see Anna’s new house and get some baby Arlo snuggles as a bonus prize. It was interesting to see how the shift from Little to Big plays out in an environment other than the cabin (where everyone is just all in). Declan lived his best life wandering around the yard and the woods with Otto and Milo, jumping in the new trampoline, climbing on the playset, and running around the rink (which is a soccer field in the summer … Yes, they have a permanent full-size rink in their yard. Yes, we will spend most of winter break right there).

Meanwhile, the girls didn’t quite know what to do with themselves. As it turns out, adults just sitting around visiting is still so boring but the little boys don’t need “mothering” anymore (and in fact, also don’t care for mothering. There was a definite spat!). So they kinda flopped about and waited for baby Arlo to be in the mood for snuggles. At least there is one tiny cousin who still wants them to mother him. This tween thing is for real. They simply don’t know what to do with themselves and don’t know where they fit in the ecosystem.

Thankfully, there were Big Girl plans for the afternoon that took out some of the sting from the morning. The girls had a special date with Grandma. It was Quinn’s idea. Gma asked me if she was being hustled. I told her to always assume that Q has some sort of long-game hustle going on – but in this case, I did know that the core of it was just wanted some special time with Gma. The hustle report reflects the procurement of two “grown up” outfits, a swimsuit cover up, and make up for Fiona – but Gma didn’t seem to mind. Sounds like they had a great time together.

Since the girls had a special date, I told Dec that I’d take him on one of his own. And then his daddy showed up too. We were going to go fishing, but ended up just meeting Auntie at the Hale Lake boat landing (about 5 blocks from Gma and Gpa’s house) because no one was there. We fished, we swam, we lounged in the sun, we made 495 trips back to the house for potty breaks and towels and snacks and whatnot. When the girls were done with their date, they joined us. It was the best time!

Day 2 in the lake was in the books!