As new parents or new parents to be I know that many of us wonder what do you do with a newborn for fun?
Well to be honest for the first month or 2 I don’t think you really have much to worry about. You are both going to be very busy, from changing diapers, visiting close family members to showing off your newest member of the family, and doctors appointments, oh and not sleeping through the night, to catching up on sleep when you can, that you won’t have much time for anything else.
However, if you are one of those very efficient parents and or maybe just plain lucky, where your child sleeps through the night right from birth, and feeds on a schedule, isn’t at all fussy, and is essentially a perfect baby, then you may find yourself with some free time on your hands.
If your one of those lucky parents, then we can’t talk to each other anymore, lol just kidding. Count your self lucky.
Well if you have a newborn and are wonder what to do in order to entertain your little one, the reality is. They are probably so stimulated by everything going on around them because absolutely everything is new to them, that they are already entertained. If you have the urge to get out and about it’s most likely because you are the one that needs some sort of stimulus?
Ok well the suggestions I will be making in my blogs over the next few years will be based on a month to month with a newborn to around age 5 and also based on relatively inexpensive activities.
Everyone has their own perspectives of what is expensive or not and some of the activities I’ll be mentioning will be free as well however the purpose of this blog is to give my personal opinions and reviews, on local activities and experiences my family experience over the first few years of life with a newborn.
So hold onto your hats because here is my first review.
https://www.waddellapples.com/
Waddles apple picking is just north of Kingston on Highway 15, approx 20 minutes drive from Kingston.
My partner and I decided we wanted to do something together, and, with our new baby boy. We are both active people and simply wanted to just, get out of the house for a bit.
Our son was about 10 days old. We decided to make a trip, after visiting with her mother, to go pick a few apples.
We looked online for the nearest (to us) apple picking spot and came up with Waddlles apple orchard. Since we had been to an apple picking farm last year called Cricklewood farms. It was around this time of year and we had a really good time there with a friend of my wife’s.
We decided to give this place a go this year as it was closer to home.
Well to be completely honest I wasn’t super impressed. There was no corn maze or play area for kids or kid games like the other place had. The orchard it’s self seemed small, at least the area of it they had opened to the public. Most of the orchards they had were taped off as a no go zone for customers. The area they had opened had been picked heavily and was hard to fill the 20lb bag we had to purchase prior to entering the orchard it’s self. The pathways were uneven and rutted, hard to walk over, and the grass was long which our concerns for ticks were apparent. The ground being uneven was an issue as my partner had just had a C-section and was sore as it was, the uneven ground made it that much more difficult for her to navigate .
I’m guessing they made people purchase the bags you are supposed to fill with the apples prior to entering the orchards, because if they saw the state of the trees, and terrain first, I’m guessing most people would have just turned around and left.
Ok now that the bad parts are out of the way, I’ll talk about the good part.
Going on this outing was something both of us were looking forward to do as a family. Especially after last years trip to Cricklewood farms. Here’s the link to their website. https://cricklewood.ca/
It was our first outdoor adventure with all three of us. The walk to the orchard from the parking lot was quite close which was good as my partner was in no shape to do any long hiking after her operation. The apples we did pick were delicious and after doing a quick comparison in price compared to the grocery stores prices. Sure they were a bit more expensive but not by any astronomical amounts. And the time we got to spend together as a family was memorable. We didn’t have to be on any long walks around a huge orchard or corn maze, and we could spend as much or as little time in the orchard as we wanted. The pies and crumble we made together when we got home. were delicious, and again brining my partner and I together with our newborn sleeping close by, creating yet another opportunity to do an activity together.
Apple picking is a perfect outing and activity that a family with a newborn could do in order to get some bonding time. Also it’s a socially distant activity which makes for a great choice during the pandemic times.
The orchard we went to may not be my first choice to go, and if I do it again I will make the trip to Brighton as we had a much better time there with more to see and do.
The cost of apple picking will range depending on the amount of apples you pick but as an average bank on around $40 plus your gas.
Not a bad activity for the amount you’ll spend.
If you have ideas of something to do with newborns I’d love to hear them, also I may just give it a try myself and write about the expeerience
1 Dads Opinions 
Leave a Reply