We recently wrapped up a two week trip to California to visit my family. Life is so easy when visiting them, mostly because everything is prepared for us - we have a car at our disposal, the grandparents and aunts are more than happy to babysit at our whim, meals are mostly prepared for us, etc. In addition to all that, it seems like Oliver blooms more in the environment where he can swim in a blow-up pool, run around the yard, dig in the dirt, eat unripened tomatoes off of the tomato plant, etc. Here in NY, he is mostly confined to the indoors, venturing outdoors only to visit the park or for mom and dad to take care of their errands or be social with our friends. Is he being hindered in this environment, or does this concrete jungle also provide intellectually stimulating activities? Maybe I see things differently since I grew up in the suburban life and remember all of the fun things I used to do that he won't be able to experience. But, he will of course experience things in this environment that I never did. Despite some of the benefits to being here, I really don't want him experiencing the positives and negatives of city living while growing up.
Some days are hard, though I can't really put my finger on why sometimes. Socializing with our friends just really seems to be a disservice to Oliver because it interrupts his pattern of life and we already have enough challenges with getting him to eat at a normal time. Spending the day out confines him to eating snacks that are not a meal and by the time we get home sometimes, it's very difficult to come up with something that he decides to eat. If we spend time preparing something for him and he decides it's not what he wants, what can we do? I worry sometimes about malnutrition and maybe we need to create a schedule of meals so that we at least we know what to prepare for when we're not home during the day. Or maybe we shouldn't socialize too much with friends without kids!
