Oops! Lizzard doesn't exactly love being late on this post, but my usual time to write it was occupied by catching up over the fence with a neighbor (while standing in the sun) and walking the dog; 2 things I do love :)
Without further ado:
1. Unexpected bonus of traveling with a baby
I've been so surprised these last 11 (!!) months of having Lulu by the kindness extended to us by strangers while we travel. I always sort of assumed that everyone on a plane or train would cringe when they saw us coming - but I've found the opposite to be true more often than not. People smile & wave & make faces & generally make Lulu a HUGE fan of travel.
Her jam is meeting all the friends she hasn't met yet - so a crowded plane or airport packed with people is right up her alley. Other travelers offer help (especially when I've traveled alone with the bug), hold doors, pick up dropped toys, and pretty much always comment on Lulu's cheeks. I honestly don't notice her cheeks! It makes me chuckle to myself every time because I'm lucky enough to have these chubby beauties as a part of my everyday! We traveled to the Philly area to see Chris' folks last weekend & it was a great reminder of the smiles Lulu brings to travel. Not just for us, but for our fellow passengers too.
2. The joy of a granddaughter to her grandparents
So sometimes being a stay at home mom is the best thing (most times) but sometimes it feels like all I do is wipe bodily fluids from myself & the bug, cook, clean, do laundry, repeat. In those moments where I feel overwhelmed by the amount of literal shit that occupies my days - all I need is to get Lulu in front of her grandparents. The bug is lucky enough to have 4 grandparents, a luxury which not every kiddo has. We live near my parents & see them a good bit and through a combination of travel & Facetime we see Chris' parents a good bit too. To see our daughter through the eyes of her grandparents is a reminder of what a gift she is. How incredible she is. How quickly she grows. The weight of her accomplishments. The humor in the shit (more easily viewed from the vantage point of not having to deal with it daily :) I love having the support of my parents living in our area (I can call to mind a very specific example - back in December when I was laying on the floor of Lulu's nursery sick with the flu & my Dad came to help.
Or every time my Mom offers to babysit. Also all the times we just hang out - because being with adults I love during the day helps me maintain some shred of sanity!)
So in those moments where I am filled with doubt about my ability to parent, keep a decent looking house, basically function in this job as a mom - I only need to get in touch with the 4 people lucky enough to be Lulu's grandparents for a fresh perspective and a good dose of love.
3. Exploring a new town - Kennet Square, PA
I love to poke around a town I've never visited before. I suppose I also love to explore towns I have visited before........but in this case - Chris, Lulu & I checked out a town new to all of us. There was a bit of a stomach flu scare at my in laws house- so we did some Lysol-ing and left for a few hours in the hopes of keeping ourselves healthy (turns out it was a false alarm - but our absence allowed Chris' parents to rest & us to have an adventure). Many of the towns in Chris' parents' area are lovely old main street towns. Many of them have cute shops, good food & enough to keep you busy for a day or more! I think Chris & I both would've stayed longer to go to some other shops - but Lulu needed a nap, so we headed home. We started by exploring WorKS a garage or auto body shop turned into shopping paradise! There were maybe 20 vendors selling everything from fresh flowers to bath products to furniture and vintage clothing. It was so fun to poke around what felt like several "in real life" Etsy shops. Airy with big windows and great selection, we did several laps before we were ready to head toward the main street. We had lunch at Philter, a coffee shop filled with light and reclaimed wood and delicious sandwiches. Quite kid friendly (which is not always the case for a good coffee shop) but not the friendliest service, maybe the barista was having an off day.
We had fun in the kids store called Penny Lane Emporium, found some treats for Lulu & the shopkeeper was a delight - very friendly & talkative. Not to mention helpful :) A bottle shop affiliated with the Kennet Square Inn was filled with an array of local beer combined with bottles from around the country. KSI Crafts felt a bit austere for my tastes, but the man working there was more than willing to talk beer with us & it looked as though they have a tasting room for parties which is cool. State and Union is a high end (mostly) apparel shop with a slight bent towards the outdoors. Beautiful stuff, but a lot of it fell outside the price range I was willing to spend. I got a great hat for the summer & we got a fun mug. Oh the s'mores pie at Nomadic Pies was amazing. It was straight up delicious & wonderful & made me wish we could justify buying more than the slice we did. The shop was cozy, smelled amazing & had an incredibly helpful woman working there. They didn't have the mini s'mores pie - so she was willing to cut us a slice of a full size pie & sell it as a mini. Those small kindnesses from strangers go such a long way in my book.
Lulu fell asleep while I was nursing her in the pie shop, so we knew it was time to go home!
4. Mom's Group Book Club
I love that one of the other mom's suggested starting a book club. I hosted the 2nd meeting last week. We read Donna Tartt's "The Secret History" which I would recommend but caution is really very dark. It is also long, which makes the darkness seep into you over its 550 pages. I had to take several breaks from it along my reading way!! I hated the characters but did want to know what happened to them, which I suppose is a testament to Donna Tartt's writing prowess. I adore the chance to hang out with these moms without our lovely littles around. It means we actually can converse in full sentences without constant interruption. We can eat a potluck meal and drink moderate (for me) amounts of wine & think and talk about adult topics. What a delight. The Mom's Group is less than a year old & the book club is only a couple of months old - so these are all budding friendships, but I do love the little community we are forming. Plus I love the excuse to set the table & make a GIANT pot of lentil soup with a few loaves of bread. I love having people over, its one of my most favorite things.
5. Cousin love
I love the rampant cousin love that Lulu is exposed to! I was the youngest of our 23 cousins; so I wasn't terribly close to too many of my cousins. Lulu will be somewhere in the middle of her (much much smaller) batch of cousins & so far has been showered with love & attention from her big cousins. This past week she got to spend lots of time with her big cousin Samantha in PA/DE,
FaceTime with her baby cousin Neva & big girl cousin Hennie in CT,
and hang in real life with her big girl cousin Anne at the Zoo.
All in one week :) It makes me so happy that she will really get to know & (hopefully) be close to her cousins both near & far.
6. OUR BULBS ARE COMING UP!!!!!!!!
I swore to myself that I would plant bulbs the fall I was preggers. I did not plant one bulb. So in the 2 weeks that Chris & I had alone together before the bug made her debut; we walked around our neighborhood & I admired (with a significant amount of envy) my neighbors beautiful spring flower beds. Daffodils, tulips, hyacinth, crocus, oh my. A beautiful display of spring color was gracing the front of so many homes on our block. Not ours. Damn it. THIS YEAR IS DIFFERENT!
I asked both Chris & my Mom (oops) for bulbs for my fall birthday. It made me feel obligated to plant them.......because we ended up with upwards of 200 bulbs (double oops. don't ask 2 of the closest people to you for the same gift for the same holiday....the gift will rain down on you & you might feel equal parts overwhelmed & foolish). So while Lulu took naps last November (yes, we waited until effectively the last possible weekend to do this) we went outside in the chilly damp weather & dug trench after trench in our various garden beds. It was mildly miserable since we had waited so long, but see above regarding my sense of obligation.
I am beyond thrilled to announce that each day this week another area has started to show little green plants that could!! All over our (tiny) yard - the little plants who stuck it out underground all winter are ready for their close ups! We have virtually no idea what we planted where.....we were sort of dumping bulbs willy nilly by the end (see above re: damp/chilly weather) so it is going to be so exciting to see what these baby plants turn out to be! I can't wait.
I think perennials are basically magic. To plant something once & enjoy it for years to come is nothing short of a miracle. Happy first few days of spring everyone. I hope you find some joy in the bits of green showing themselves, despite our local highs in the 30s!
