How I am trying not to let our family be a bear family

The onset of fall makes me think about bear families.

Sort of a random thought, don't you think?

In the fall, parent-bears are busy scurrying around, doing their bear thing - getting fat for the winter. When the weather is right, they hole up into their den and hibernate. Some bear-parents have their bear-babies during the hibernation, and those bear-moms nurse and grow their babies and sleep (sometimes I wish I was a bear-mom). Eventually, things start to warm up, and the bear families emerge and they have insta-toddlers. The bear-babies are now ready to wreak havoc on the mountain side and there's no stopping them. 

C/O National Geographic

I kinda feel like that's what we're getting ready for here.

Fall in the Pacific Northwest is officially here (YAY!) and like many other families, ours is getting out there and enjoying the last few weeks (days?) of fairly decent and crisp weather while we can. We're fitting in our last walks, taking trips to the local cider mill and pumpkin patch, and cooking up some delicious apple sauce, chili and other meals that stick to your ribs (one of my favorite ways to describe food). We're getting ready for colder weather by putting away our summer clothes and reaching for those glorious sweat shirts and snuggling up to blankets. The fireplace is on in the morning. Daylight is getting shorter and pretty soon the only people you will see outside are the dog walkers. Yes, that was me last winter - faithfully walking Romeo and Squirt in all of my pregnant glory with galoshes.

Like those bear families, we're getting fat for the winter and cozy-ing up our den. And like those bear families, when spring comes, I too will have a rambunctious insta-toddler ready to wreak havoc on the mountain side.

To be completely truthful, although Adam and I dream about being homebodies and holing up for weeks on end, it never happens and probably will not any time soon. We're too connected with our families and we enjoy going out and doing new things. But Penny and I need to come up with fun stuff to do during the day-to-day so that she can be challenged and stimulated so that when spring does come, she'll be running with the rest of the pack. And I'll need a way to keep my sanity, of course.

We do a fair share of visits to my friends and their babes, but a only handful of babies are within a few months in age. Penny is blessed to have 3 cousins that are between 6-9 months older than her. But at this stage, 6 months is a big difference. Most of the time, we moms get to chat while managing our kids, but the kids don't really interact too much.  I feel like my social needs are being met, but Penny needs friends too!

So I've been thinking about what we can do about that. It's been sort of tough these last 7 months, Adam and I haven't made much effort to put down roots anywhere due to our temporary living situation. Now our house is sold and we're very intently working on getting the next one. Which means, relocating again. So to me, it didn't make too much sense becoming a part of a moms group, because I figured we could be out of here at any time. I'm not the most outgoing person, so making the effort to have connections with others when I know I won't be around for long just isn't my cup of tea.

I kind of decided to give up in and go for it anyways. At the suggestion of my sister in law, I checked out our local library and found that they have story telling time. They even have different age groups that keeps the kids really close in age. So this morning we ventured out and hung out with 6 other moms and their babes, all under 1 year old, but most of them between 6-9 months. Perfect for Penny!

We sang a few songs, read a book, and afterwards the moms got to chat while the babies crawled around and played with toys. Penny made me so proud today - while most of the other babies took a while to open up when released from mama's lap, Penny was already squirming away and doing her little army-man/inch-worm crawl to meet some new friends and check out some cool toys. There was no way I could have holed this social butterfly up all winter.  So I guess we'll be filling our social calendar after all.

What kinds of activities do you and your baby do when the weather isn't up to par?

Oh, and for your viewing pleasure... Penny dressed up as a bear-baby. Adorbs or what??

From 8 - 12 weeks