Have I mentioned that I worry?

I’m trying to line up my winter plan as the cold weather is just over the horizon of the beautifully breathtaking climate we are currently experiencing. Yesterday Noah ran free at the zoo for nearly three hours and then ran around the park for over an hour after dinner – and as we were walking back to the house I realized that in the dead of winter he’ll be lucky to have that much outdoor physical activity time in an entire week. Sure I plan to bundle him up and run him around frequently but in the cold I might only get a half hour of running around in before I need to return to the warmth of the indoors.

So the plan was just to get some core activities nailed down. The weekly playgroup on Monday mornings is a great place to start. Activities, socialization and getting us both out of the house on a regular basis - we need more of that stuff. So today we went to an open house session at Little People Music. Unfortunately the woman I spoke to forgot to tell me that the 11 am session was geared towards babies – but Noah had a good time anyway. The instructor was great and he assured me that the toddler classes are far more active. Good stuff. I’m signing Noah up for a ten week session of music classes that start next week. That takes care of a midweek activity. I’m not sure if the informal neighborhood playgroup we were going to on Fridays is going to continue in the inclement weather as the woman who hosted it did so in her garden space – but I hope so. But now that I have a couple of concrete things to do with the boy I feel a hell of a lot better.

I’ve also been thinking that maybe I should build more structure into our time at home. Like maybe I should have activity blocks for art, reading, free play, etc. Does that seem nuts? I think it might benefit me in the way that then I’d have some guidance for what to do with him at any given moment. Anyone do this? Anyone have toddler activity books they can recommend? Or am I being insane?