That's 575 more weekends that we'll spend together as a family.
What do we all want to do together? Discussing Dr. Harley Rothbart's No Regrets Parenting, Motherlode blogger KJ Dell'Antonia mentions that we have 940 Saturdays with our kids. She continues,
Dr. Rotbart knows that the days are long, and that telling a parent to “seize” them — when child A is singing “Come on, vamanos! Everybody let’s poop!” and child B is hitting him with her “Dora” doll in the drugstore aisle while child C wants to know what a “Tampax” is and child D just took off toward the Band-Aids — is just asking to get punched in the nose. It’s the years that are short, as anyone who has ever looked at the calendar and tried to figure out how it got to be March already when it was just New Year’s yesterday can attest. Dr. Rotbart writes to help us turn painfully long minutes into funny moments, and he does it practically, in one- or two-page essays on everything from ice cream sundaes to college counseling. It’s short, it’s sweet, and it’s more about being a parent than it is about actually parenting the kids themselves — no star charts here.We've already had approximately 365 Saturdays together, all but about 100 of them recorded on this blog. We've flown kites, watched movies, gone to zoos, built giant sandcastles at the beach, built fairy houses, baked, grilled, played baseball, blown bubbles, drawn in sidewalk chalk, ridden bicycles, built Legos, gone for car naps, visited the Renaissance Festival, been to DC and Boston and Texas and NYC and Chicago, explored Old Sturbridge Village, gotten ready for Easter and Christmas and Halloween, had six birthday parties, hosted Groundhog Day brunch and Applepalooza, watched dolphins swim, watched the Olympics, eaten dim sum, been to art and science and natural history museums, played with grandparents, made ice cream, built snowmen, made snow ice cream, raked fall leaves into piles for jumping, gone to kung fu, attended church events, played with neighbors, sold Girl Scout cookies, taken baths, cut toenails, painted toenails, cleaned, gardened, jumped in rain puddles, had game night, looked at the stars, played with flashlights,gone boat riding, gone fishing, read Harry Potter, read poetry, pet the cats, seen ballet, gone to a puppet show, played piano, had singalongs had dance parties, . . . . what does that leave?
Here are some things I'd like to try to do together (some suggestions are from Mama, Sis, and Bud) in the next 11 years of Saturdays, in no particular order and clearly not exhaustive (fancy things are easier to think of than quotidian):
- Broadway show
- Philly
- Florida for Disney World, Harry Potter land, and Lego Land
- canoeing
- snowsledding
- lighthouses in Maine (Mama, too)
- and in the Carolinas
- Colonial Williamsburg
- remember the Alamo!
- meet Cousin Hungry
- plant pole beans
- remove training wheels (Sis)
- family bike ride (Mama)
- tea in London/visit Lambeth
- and gelato in Rome
- the Alps (Mama)
- walk on the Great Wall of China (Mama, too)
- kung fu classes in Shaolin (Bud, too)
- UU family camp
- slumber parties
- teach the kids to drive
- Prom!
- take language classes
- and music lessons
- tie dye
- sleepaway camp
- New Orleans
- climb Montauk light (Mama, too)
- eat cherries in Door County, WI (Mama, too)
- Thanksgiving Day parade in NYC
- and fireworks on 4th of July
- and New Year's in Chinatown
- and Radio City Christmas Spectacular
- and Groundhog's Day in Punxsatawney
- and Pumpkin Blaze near Sleepy Hollow (Mama)
- stay up for New Year's (but not in Times Square)
- professional sports games--WNBA, maybe football or soccer
- help build a house with Habitat for Humanity
- volunteer in a soup kitchen
- beach clean up
- do a charity walk
- Project Linus
- lemonade stand
- letterboxing or geocaching
- sukiyaki night (Mama)
- fondue night
- deep discussions over long meals
- more family readalongs and singalongs
- sleep in!
- watch kids at sports/music/whatever competitions and performances
- make mozzarella cheese (or ricotta)
- build something together--birdhouse, bookcase
- sketching trip
- photography outing (Mama)
- scrapbook our outings
- swim (Sis)
- do fingernail polish (Sis)
- Antarctica to see penguins (Mama and Bud)
- Boston for a week (Sis)
- Gettysburg again (Sis)
- sleepover with grandparents without M&M (both kids)
- overnight at natural history museum (Bud)
- ride a ferry (Bud)
- a really big picnic somewhere (Bud)
- go camping (Sis)
- Thailand (Bud)
- milk a cow
- Indigo Girls concert
- Shakespeare/concert in Central Park
- ice/rollerskating
- Niagara Falls (Mama)
- whale watching
- see oldest building in the world (Bud)
- San Diego Zoo (Mama)
- Shenandoah (Mama)
- Anza Borrego State Park (Mama)
- Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve (Mama)
- Key West/Miami (Mama)
- Nova Scotia (Mama)
- Thai vegetable and fruit carving (Mama)
- see origami tree at AMNH
- see a meteor shower from the beach
- Grand Tetons (Mama)
- Hawaii (Mama)
- models and/or model trains (Mama)
- transcontinental train ride (Mama)
- "Family" days in P'town on the Cape
- sleep in a lighthouse
- sail on a masted ship
- stay at the Grand Hotel in Mackinac
- paint a mural
- Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty (Mama)
- Cloisters (Mama)
- compost and collect rainwater
- Death Star Lego (Mama)
- Lord of the Rings trilogy (Mama)
- and Gone with the Wind
- role-playing games (and Gen Con?) (Mama)
- La Boheme at the Met
- make a souffle (Mama)
- make a family chalice
And that's just a start!
