Day 4 was spent seeing PaPa Pat, Aunt Mary Kaye and Cousin Lisa for lunch at Bob's Big Boy. (Photo by hubby) Since my dad, aunt and cousin live rather far from us, they are often surprised at how much the babies have grown and changed since they last saw them.Lunch went well. Both munchkins were well behaved... though I probably should've left the kids harmonica in the car rather than subject everyone in the restaurant to a concert, but it was fun... anyway, being unplugged means unplugged everywhere, so the mini-DVD player stayed home. My minor worries were for naught. Em played with my Cousin (who is 40) and they drew on his portable chalkboard while Ro flirted with my Aunt and munched on french fries.
Day 6, Em and Ro had Daddy all to themselves for the majority of the day while I caught up on officework in preparation for a busy week ahead. Rather than zone out in front of the tv, they played in Em's room with his train set and the creativity flowed endlessly. After dinner, rather than wind down mindlessly, we took the munchkins for a bike ride! They were so tired from the non-stop activity of the day, but half an hour in the bike trailer was a perfect end to their Sunday I think. They didn't even get baths, they both just conked out the second they hit their beds. Rob and I watched our one guilty hour of tv (I cannot miss the end of the Sopranos!) pre-recorded from HBO's east coast channel and we got to bed early. As I drifted off, I thought about everything we'd done this weekend and realized much of it could not have been done if the boob tube had been on.
Misc. things about being Unplugged:
- The looks you get from family and friends... you'd think I've grown a second head when I mention that we are not watching TV to some people.
- Finding the remote control: it took me a few minutes to find it Sunday night since we hadn't had the tv on in several days.
- Dusting off the board games. Now that Em is of board game playing age, we spent some time finding good games to play with (and without) him. More on those later.
- Cooking: Rob is fantastic in helping out while I'm making a meal... but it's even better now with the living room nice and quiet. Usually, while Rob is outside with Em and Ro, I have a cooking show on while I'm in the kitchen. Now, I turn on my own music and chop and cook and bake to my hearts' content!
- Mealtime: We already make mealtime, family time and have been eating in our dining room (house renovation updates later) ever since the walls were put up. But, being unplugged seems to have made meals more enjoyable... see Peek-A-Boo pic above.
That's it for now! I've got to eat a quick breakfast before the munchkins are up. We're going for a nice walk this morning around the neighborhood.
