Treats

This summer, I really want to savor the laid-back lifestyle.

I told Aaron that I wanted to do some summer-y things and really spend quality time together and being intentional about what we do.

Now, it's astronomically harder to just be spontaneous and take your kids out for ice cream cones when one of your kids has Type 1 diabetes and he's not yet 3.

I believe when he gets older, it will be "easier" for us to count an ice cream cone as a snack, etc.  But for these days, when his eating schedule and timeline is pretty strict, we opt not to include the kiddles in the treat receiving-- although I will admit that both Aaron and myself give "bites" (only one or two) of our snacks to our baby birds. :)

So far this summer we've made a couple of swings through the Starbucks drive-through.  I'm actually realizing I don't like frappuccinos as much as I thought I did.  I'm the world's slowest frappuccino drinker.  Aaron, on the other hand, is the world's fastest frappuccino drinker and the fact that he is getting something coffee related thrills me, and so I participate.

One night last week, we took an after-dinner trip to Dairy Queen and got a Blizzard.  I did share a bite of mine with Michael.  It was mid-point between his supper and his bedtime snack and I was watching his blood sugar trend on the CGM.  I knew he was safe to have a couple bites, and for the love of everything good in this world, we can't deny our child fun summer treats.  Noah happened to receive his bedtime bottle and get tucked in shortly after we returned home-- otherwise, he could have cleaned out each of our blizzards-- he is a bit of a bottomless pit.  We stuck our blizzards in the freezer to stiffen while we tucked in Noah and played some with Michael.

A "treat" doesn't have to be just food related.  Especially these days when we're being very conscious of our eating choices.  We try to eat whole, natural foods and we've both experienced comfort in wearing our clothes that were once too tight.  We also feel much better overall. 

So, for non-food "treats" we do things like after-dinner trips to Home Depot-- affectionately known as the Orange Bob the Builder Store to Michael.  Lowe's is the Blue Bob the Builder Store for obvious reasons.

Another non-food "treat" is to have a "stay-cation date night."  I discovered last week that Aaron had never watched the movie "Hook."  We instantly decided we'd look it up on Amazon Instant Video and watch it together that weekend.  So, on Saturday night, we tucked the boys in and watched the movie.  It was great!  So fun!  Even though I had seen it many times before, I still picked up on things I didn't remember, and it was fun to see Aaron's reactions and to hear his interpretation about it.  I enjoyed this stay-cation date night so much that I told him I wanted to make it a regular thing.  There are lots of movies that one of us has seen, but the other hasn't.  So we'd be able to recreate the experience by going through our movie repertoire and finding out if it's available on Amazon Instant Video.  Of course, we have our stand-by movies that we both could watch over and over again.  They include "The Proposal," "Definitely Maybe," and "I Love You, Man."  Spending quality time together is so much fun and doesn't have to be expensive.

Until Next Time,

Much love, Reba