When it’s Too Hot to Take Baby Outside
As far as I’ve been able to discover, there is no temperature cut off for taking baby outside. That being said, I think every mom has strong feelings about the weather and her children. I live in coastal Texas and the sweltering heat starts up around March and doesn’t let up until after Halloween. As far as I’m concerned, most days are just too hot to take the baby outside.
Older children, like my toddler, can take the heat and keep on trucking. In fact, heat doesn’t seem to bother Jake at all unless the concrete burns his feet – yes, its been known to happen. Heat used to not bother me, but I swell so badly during pregnancy that the sticky Houston weather was too much for me and I haven’t built my immunity back up yet. Now, Baby Brian is only six weeks old and overheats in air conditioning wearing cotton pajamas, at least according to the nurses at the hospital, but that’s a story for another time.
Since Houston weather has conspired against me, I have an entire plan of attack for when its too hot to take a baby outside.
1. Head to the AC. There are lots of places that have air conditioning that are not your house. As often as I can, I throw the boys in the minivan and head out. We go to the mall and I walk as many laps as Jake the toddler can tolerate (we’re up to two, but it’s a big mall.) I wear Brian in the Bjornn in just a onsie with no socks to keep him relatively cool and give me some resistance.
It’s amazing how many stores and libraries have kid sections. We’ll go to the local Carters just so Jake can play at the table with blocks while I very slowly pick out two adorable matching shirts. On a side note, its very hard to find matching boy clothes in size 6 months and 3T; Carters has me covered!
The library has a nice toddler story time that we’ve yet to make it to yet, but I think we’re going to go this week. It’s on Tuesday, so I’ll keep you posted. Even the grocery store can be exciting. Any change of scenery is worthwhile. I’m even considering Chick-fil-A for a Diet Coke and the toddler play area. Oh, and I sweat while getting two boys in and out of carseats, so that makes it FEEL like I’ve spent hours outside!
2. Enjoy the mess. When you’re stuck in your house all day, you can’t be too concerned about keeping it clean. If you want to entertain a toddler inside for hours on end, you’re going to have to get down and dirty. Build tents out of blankets and let your toddler put all his treasures inside.
Let him explore your closet and play with all the neat things you forgot you had lying on the floor. The contents of at least three kitchen cabinets are on the floor at the moment – I’ll clean it up later (maybe), but its amusing him in the meantime. I think the contents of an entire drawer are next to the bathroom sink where’s he’s been “washing dishes” for the last ten minutes.
3. Take on a project. Doing something special together makes a toddler giddy. My husband is out of town at the moment at a family wedding, and Jake and I are making cupcakes tomorrow in anticipation of his return. We picked out the cake mix, icing and just the right sprinkles with excruciating slowness today at Wal-mart, and tomorrow, we bake. It should be an adventure.
4. Don’t worry about the baby. Babies may love the outdoors, but don’t sweat it if you can’t take him outside for the recommended hour or two a day. The people that offered that recommendation must be living up north somewhere. If it’s too hot, it’s too hot. There are plenty of ways to exercise and burn off steam without suffering from heatstroke or stinky mom sweat.
Open the blinds to let in the sun, crank down the AC to keep the heat at bay and fix everyone a cool drink. You’ll get your time outside when the weather’s nicer. In the meantime, just enjoy all the family togetherness.
