We are closing in on the end of my three-week vacation with the children (our staycation).
Having kicked the holiday off with the derecho (unexpected storm with high, persistent winds) and several days of power outage during which we camped at different hotels, and at my office at work, I proceeded with the following primary agenda: let the children have experiences they don't normally have at preschool. This agenda requires balancing the following opposing forces: 1) their desire to stay home and do nothing (legitimately something they don't get to do on a typical school day) and 2) my, and sometimes their, desire for novel experiences.
In #1: we've drawn, made an entire first nation's community and their teepees out of playdough, played endless games of Zingo!, read a lot of library books, built things out of furniture, blocks and pillows, swept up after mowing the lawn, made structures with marshmallows and spaghetti, made a racket with musical instruments, made a water-glass orchestra, made pizza from scratch, and ridden scooters on our own front sidewalk.
In #2: we've gone to the library on a weekday, taken the dog to the vet (more informative and entertaining than you might imagine), had playdates with a variety of different friends, swum many times in 4 different pools, 3 of which were outside, tried on Clara's BIA school uniforms, bounced on castles at the Ultimate Playzone, and (thanks Husband) finally had a weekend outing to a museum which didn't entail yelling at the children to stop running.
Today's #2 adventure was to, finally, take a city bus. There's one that runs past our house (#36). My plan was to take the bus north, go for a playdate at a new friend's house, and then take the bus south again. On the MTA transit map this looked entirely do-able AND it's only 91F today.
Thing is, the walking distances are given in minutes, not miles, on the MTA site.
You try walking a "16 minute" walk with a pampered 5 and 3 year old. I dare you.
The 3 year old rapidly collapsed into a whinging sweaty lump requiring carrying and demanding only to be carried on my left hip ("The other side's not nice, Mummy"). The 5 year old consequently walked the whole way, and I walked the whole way, to and fro, holding her sweaty hand with my right hand and 35lbs of cranky Winton in my left (surely now much longer than its counterpart).
Coming home and calculating distances with the help of a map, I see we walked 10,500 feet or so, which is about 1.99 miles, or 3.22 kilometers.
The buses were a hit though (perhaps because they offered ac and seats).
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