TLDR – Took the kids to Marley park, Bought a bike, Khaleesi got some shots, we had Thanksgiving with some friends.
Marley Park
Walked the kids to Marley park last weekend to have some adventure and give Michelle a break from all of us for a bit. Me not working and the weather has been a bit crap; we’ve all been in the house together more than normal. Michelle needs space every once and a while and I like to give it to her. The route that looked good on the map turned out to not work in real life. It stopped working not far from the house. We ran out of sidewalk on a busy road and had to divert down a hill through a housing complex. Our 75-minute walk turned into a 100-minute walk with the new route.
Maddex says ” this walk is boring dad. Good thing I have my rubix cube with me. ” The girls did not mind the walk at all. Maddex was solving his cube most of the walk. Impressively he didn’t run into anything. Near the end of the housing complex, we came upon a small Centra. Kids are not annoying me right now, so we went inside and bought a roll of Oreo cookies to eat while we kept on walking. The last 200 meters of the walk we were forced to walk single file on a narrow sidewalk that sure made me a bit nervous. At the end of the nerves zone, we arrived at the park and bam right in front of us was a small play area.
The little park was not doing it for us. We were promised a massive mega brilliant play area in this Marley park we worked hard to arrive at. We found a map and worked out the route to the real play area. On the way, the kids were nice to each other helping the smaller ones onto tree stumps where they played like they were big statues. They even held hands a bit. Sure warms my heart and brings me happiness to see the kids getting along and helping each other like this.
The Big park was spectacular. So many fun things for the kids to do and explore, but, yes there is a but, it was packed, and watching four kids in a large packed space is not a simple task. I did the best I could. We took some slides, climbed on things, rode more slides, tried to spin around but the spinning thing would not move well without massive force. The play area had some big fast slides. So fast the kids would fly off of at the bottom. I had to catch them to control the stop. Otherwise, they ended up shooting on the ground or falling over.
We made it about a half hour playing in the mega busy play area without conflict or issue. Kids, for some reasons unknown to me, are on their best behavior possible. Which is something to say because it is a bit cold out and we’ve already walked about 11 kilometers getting to and exploring the park. Next stop is Nut grove Mcdonalds. The kids asked for Happy meals and they’ve been so good I’ll buy them anything they want to at this point. After Mcdonalds, we walked another few Ks to a Dealz where everyone got a toy as a reward for being amazing before we took the LUAS home. – Great day – Michelle got her break, and the kids and I had an adventure. We walked 18km by the time we arrived home.
Bought a New bike
The new work is about 15k from home, which is a bit more than I can run in a reasonable time. Taking the LUAS into work every day is not top of my list. I figure I’ll bike it most days I go into the office. Once I start I’m going to take advantage of the Bike Scheme and purchase a nice bike with electric assist. It’s 130m of downhill drop to work; going should be simple. Science means it is going to be 130m of uphill on the way back. Which will not be horrible most of the time, but I can imagine times where it would be nice to push a button and have the bike do the work for me.
Between now and push button powered magic bike I need to get into some bike shape. I’ve been shopping on adverts (Irish Craigslist) for a while now looking for a bike. Finally one came up that was close enough, in the right price range with enough discount to appeal to me and I bought it. Offered the guy 40 Euro and he took it. We met the next day at Milltown LUAS stop to finish the transaction. From there I rode home. WOW did my legs and ass hurt when I got home. The seat felt like bones on metal the whole way. My ass still hurts. Going to need a new seat for sure. The 9k ride was all uphill on the way back which left me with some significant leg burn.
Shots and too cute
In American crazy town, dumb ass people are avoiding vaccinations. In Ireland, they give your kids shots in school for free to make sure everyone is vaccinated. To combat the American helicopter over protective cover the world in nerf thing that seems to have spilled over here a bit the school also sends home letters telling parents they are not welcome or allowed at school when the kids are getting shots because it will make things worse. If super parent MUST be there with your little child then you should take them to get private shots and send in proof, otherwise, your kid is getting a shot.
My personal view on parenting ” you have to ignore your kids the right amount” Meaning you ignore them enough to let them grow, become self sufficient, and work out life on their own while giving them enough attention they know they are safe, supported and loved.
Khaleesi did great; she came home showing off her plasters. Did my best to get the picture of her plasters. Her shirt was already off the only hard part we getting her to slow down and sit still. The next picture is Khaleesi dressed for school. Michelle and I told her she looked too cute and had to change. She took us as joking and refused to change saying she liked the cute. – we let it slide for now
Thanksgiving with an American Mom
Michelle’s friend Rachael from the kids old school is American. She and her Husband Rob have four kids about the same age as our kids. They invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner and we said “sure, sounds great. We will bring pie and rolls” – We means Michelle will bake those things. The Pie was Tremendous, the rolls did not turn out perfectly, but they were still good. The kids went to town on the ham and turkey and tators. The pie was 100% finished on the first round being dished out after dinner. Mila somehow walked away being given a fancy princess dress she’s hardly taken off since.
Was great getting out of the house having some adult conversations with Rachel and her husband. The kids got along brilliantly and hardly annoyed us at all. We had a grand night. We stayed until a bit before 20:00, which is a bit past the kid’s bedtime. On the way home, a few of them passed out on the train. Michelle was texting my mother the next day and they worked out what went wrong with the rolls. Michelle used hot water from the kettle which prevented the dough from rising as much as it should have; lesson learned.
Bonus Pictures
