Weekend playtime - a photo post!

I like weekends that are not too busy. Especially with a toddler in our lives, we need more unstructured playtime as well as downtime to unwind from the week. I don't know how people can keep up with large groups of friends, and attend gathering after gathering every weekend with young kids in their lives. My life has certainly taken a U-turn in that respect, and I'm actually quite enjoying the way things are at the moment :).

Since I switched to a reduced work week, I have every Monday off from work. Every weekend is a long weekend, and I look forward to spending all that time with my daughter :). We've managed to find a play-date and activity to do every Monday that I have had off so far....and it has also helped hubby and I manage our other responsibilities in a somewhat relaxed manner. We also usually keep the baby home on Fridays, so that she only goes to daycare three days a week; on rare occasions she would go for 4 days. Ultimately, I felt that I needed to be a mom first, then an engineer, atleast until our daughter starts preschool. I'm lucky and blessed to be able to figure out a schedule that works in my favor. Of course I need to thank my hubby and manager at work who supported me unconditionally and is extremely sensitive to how I feel about leaving my child in someone else's care while I come to work.

So this past weekend, I declined 3 party invitations - 2 birthdays and 1 Halloween party. I just was tired from the previous 2 weekends where we had Diwali gatherings (which are once a year) as well as festivities going on during the week. The celebrations were fun, but we needed a break. So we spent the weekend by ourselves, just the three of us, and we had an awesome time!

On Friday evening, right after feeding dinner to Ruhi, we went to the new Whole Foods that just opened in Palladio Mall. I had gone for a sneak preview tour but had not visited after it officially opened. We loved the store, and shopped some real good stuff - including organic fruit for Ruhi. We got this huge organic Mango grown in California - it weighed close to 4lbs, and cost $3.99 each. I cut it last night and it was delicious. Ruhi loves mangoes so I'm going to get a couple more before they run out of stock.

Saturday morning was her usual swim class, which she always enjoys. We got home, and spent all morning/afternoon either playing with Ruhi or cleaning the house. We played with our stacking cups - Ruhi loves swirling them with her fingers, and she is quite good at doing that.....

Then we did bubbles.....

In the evening, I took her to play with our neighbors boys. She had a blast, as always! At night, she enjoyed some juggling from daddy (he is quite good at it).....

 Love this pensive look of hers in the photo below.....

Then she tried some juggling herself....but failed (which is OK :))......

Then we had some cuddling time with Mommy....and some giggling sessions....and some laughing bouts.....

Sunday morning, we went to the Sacramento Children's Museum and had an absolute blast out there....

In the toddler section....

At the waterways section.....

 In the Art Studio.....

 Artist in the making.....

 Rocking her No-No-No-No-No.....

 And doing an impromptu dance.....

 Enjoying the lights before finally leaving the museum...

We came home, ate and napped. And then in the evening, we read by the fireplace.....

We did animal sounds (this is doing the Wolf - but Ruhi knows cat, dog, owl, wolf, lion, snake, horse, octopus, fishie, etc)......

 And here we are doing the "small" and "big" signs - we have a Pocoyo book which explains this pictorially, so I am doing Pocoyo (who is small) and Ruhi is doing Ellie the elephant (who is big).....

 We gave tons of kissies to daddy.....

 And the weekend was over....

It was loads and loads of quality bonding and playtime....and it was fun n relaxing as well!

I had a day off today too, so we had a play-date with my friend's daughter Bree who just turned a year old, and we went to MyGym for a class. We love the Monday instructor Caprice - she is the most fun and her classes are always very enjoyable....Ruhi played so much she dozed off on the ride home!

Now I can't wait for the next weekend and our next set of adventures!