Friday Recap 8/3/18 - Kaner's Birthday, Beach Date, Solo Lake Time, Garden Love, "Motherhood in the age of Fear"

Well, it happened again, I should've known it would ;) We started celebrating my Mom's birthday weekend on Thursday last week......so my Friday post isn't happening until.....Wednesday......yikes. This might be my latest one yet!! Oh well, we are on a summer schedule over here! Without further ado:

1. Kaner's Birthday

Kane chose ice cream sandwiches for dessert - my SIL is a great baker & they were tremendous!

 I love being an aunt so much. I've been "aunting" for longer than I've been a mom & it is such a fun role to play. We had a great time celebrating our nephew Kane's birthday last week! Always nice to have a family birthday celebration - makes me think of being a kid myself in a warm, fuzzy, nostalgic kind of way. 

Happy Birthday little man, suddenly you aren't that little anymore! You are growing up by the minute it seems & getting funnier every day. We love you.

2. Beach Baby Date

I had plans to meet up with 3 of my Mom's Group friends at the beach, which is fun in of itself. Then 2 more Mom's Group moms showed up & it became a much bigger group! What fun to get together with so many smiling faces and so many great kiddos. I didn't take enough photos. Oops.

3. Solo Lake Time

Typically speaking, we spend "big" family time up at the lake. We pack as many as 15 humans into our house that felt perfectly sized for 5 of us when we were growing up! So when Lulu & I unexpectedly had a day & an night at the lake by ourselves, it wasn't half bad :) We were there during weekday time when things slow down immeasurably and the shared neighborhood space is totally empty. 

Lulu did a lot of rock throwing and rock playing while I soaked up as much quiet as I could. Funny how nice it can be to just be quiet. This coming from an avowed talkative extrovert ;) A good change indeed.

4. Garden Love

Our tiny harvest was gobbled up by our love bug in a minute flat! She didn't want me to take the picture!

Lulu is becoming my little garden gnome. Despite the fact that we have a total of 6 edible plants (& 4 of those are herbs), Lulu seems to really like our garden & being in it. Well, mostly eating from it. Yes, eating from our garden is the best part for Lulu! I hope in the coming years she wants to learn about how plants grow & help take care of our garden plants!

5. "Motherhood in the Age of Fear"
I shared this opinion piece on Facebook - but it bears sharing again. Here is what I said in my Facebook post: Kids need independence. Kids need the chance to play, explore, live bits of their lives without us watching. I felt sick to my stomach reading this article, but reassured by the practical advice offered. If confronted by the police: ask what law you’ve broken. Clearly & calmly ask if you are under arrest. If not, you are free to go. If a random stranger is confronting you by yelling or saying they will call the police, begin recording them & Clearly and calmly ask that they move away from you & stop harassing you & your child. We do NOT have the right to assume the worst. For goodness sakes; take a minute to watch what’s going on, assess the situation, be rational. Do not assume the worst & call 911 for something that might be perfectly innocuous. Calling 911 is not, in my most humble opinion the best way “just to be safe”. asking the kid if they’re ok, taking a minute to observe to see if things are ok are 2 ways of being safe that don’t have potentially lifelong consequences for the mom & kid in question. 
I would like to add that this was shared by one of my Mom's Group friends which makes me feel so much more comfortable in my style of parenting. I knew that I wasn't an outlier in our community, but man it is reassuring to have a tribe of people who feel the same way I do. The unfortunate reality (for me) is a low grade sense that I am constantly being judged by strangers for the choices I make in how I take care of the Bug on a day to day basis. It is a major bummer. I suppose it is the flip side of the "it takes a village" coin. I can't (we as parents can't) raise kids in a vacuum, by its nature taking care of kids & raising them is undertaken by more than just the kids' parents. Sometimes this backfires in ways outlined in this article and that makes me feel all sorts of negative feels.