I came across this group of photos tonight and they clicked with my thoughts and mood.
I'm winding down a long weekend of solo parenting. The hard part is that Brian is back visiting our former home in California and I so wish we could be with him. I was grumpy about missing out on seeing dear friends and revisiting favorite haunts. That didn't jibe well when I was also behind on sleep and wrangling an unusually obstinate four year-old. Today, though, I rededicated myself to enjoying the weekend just as it was...
Thunderstorms woke us up early, but we ventured out for toasted bagels once the sky quieted. We watched a movie together, curled up like puppies on the sofa while the rain came down outside.
We baked cookies, put them in pretty bags, and distributed them to family.
We went to see an art show that a dear friend is participating in. Despite protests that he wasn't tired, Eli fell asleep moments before pulling into the art show parking lot. I juggled umbrella and limp boy to get inside, but soon was settled in a big, comfy chair in a quiet corner. From where I sat, there was a lovely view of misty blue hills and green trees outside. Inside the gallery, there was a stunning technicolor quilt above us with the most amazing, intricate stitches. I held my snoozing child for almost an hour, enjoying a stolen moment of "little-kidness" that is becoming more and more rare. When he woke, we explored the gallery together. (There's nothing quite like a preschooler explaining paintings and photographs. Eli was often hilariously off-base yet at the very same time amazingly perceptive!)
We then weathered a crazy-busy late afternoon birthday party but ended the day in the calm, sparse quiet of a Japanese restaurant. So Eli could better learn how to eat noodles, I turned regular chopsticks into kid-friendly "food tweezers" with the help of a rolled paper napkin and a pony tail holder. (Take that, McGyver!) The table got quite messy, but we both had a lot of laughs.
We drove home through the wet streets, glad to put our jammies back on and sink into bedtime stories.
Grateful.
I love my boy. I love my life.
Comments