Discussion: Woods

You could try Lynn Woods. Further afield there are all the essex greenbelt properties https://ecga.org/properties or Wilowdale and Bradley palmer woods in Ipswich

Oh Lynn is a good idea! Breakheart has apparently been a zoo but I bet we can do Lynn, especially in the rain.

I don't have help on the baby socialization thing, but it's definitely depressing. Don't quite know what to write that's helpful, except that I am sure Euan will be fine in the end. Kids are tough.

All I can offer are suggestions of woods. Willowdale has plenty of terrain, I did a 50-miler there. Harold Parker is probably overrun by mountain bikers right now, so I'd avoid it. Plum Island is really cool, beachfront preserve, but not sure if it's open or what. The Reading Town Forest has some nice trails, and unlikely to have too many people. I hope.

If you wanted to travel further afield, Mt. Watatic and the Ipswich range has really cool views/good bang-for-buck in terms of cool hiking and distance.

Emily Oster says that babies and toddlers just need love from their caretakers to be fine.

About the coordination...that is sad and disappointing. Wish you were in charge to sort it out.

Yeah, playdates before 18 months were really for me to interact with other moms. James was not very interested in other kids until pretty recently.

Yep, Lukas ignored all other tiny humans for way more than the first year. Pretty sure we didn't arrange any playdates based on his desires until he was three.

He loved watching other kids at daycare. No interaction, just eagle eyed watching whilst lying there. Now he just gets to watch Mummy and Daddy on Zoom calls. I know he'll be fine - this was just not what I envisaged.

i hear you... I'm debating if it's better for T to see other kids, but not be able to interact. Or...not to see them. She is SO curious about other kids and people.

We had an infant class soon this week and the singing was just confusing but he loved watching Anna crawl and giggle. She’s two months older.

if he loves watching babies, there are awesome baby videos on youtube. like the twin toddlers who have their own "language". may sound odd to show random babies but it's all equivalent to Euan at this point