I’m not sure a better weekend could have been had here. Seriously. The weather? GLORIOUS. The health? GOOD.
The weather turned into an instant spring on Thursday, when I IM’ed dave to let him know that Family Walk was back on. When Ingrid was just born, we did a walk almost every night when Dave got home, and we’d done a few when there was a warmish winter day, but I have so missed the balmy family walk! Thursday, we just went on our usual route. Friday, we went on the double-long route, that swings through the park, and Ingrid got to swing! She’s been once or twice this spring, but more out of desperation than appropriateness… anyway, it was gorgeous, so, swinging!
Saturday, Dave had to work the canoe race, so I put Ingrid on a blanket outside and raked out the front flowerbed (thinking the whole time that I should lure Amity over so she can at least tell me what I have growing! It’s a shame that this house used to win the grand prize of the Bangor Garden Club or whatever – it was a selling point in the house — and now I’m like "well, if it IS a weed, it’s at least kind of pretty.") Ingrid LOVED being outside — she entertained herself for a while by putting things in her block bucket, dumping them out, and putting themback in… then as I was raking, I heard her laughing, and as I was going along, when the big tree gotbetween she and I, she thought I was playing peekaboo, and thought that was great. Seriously. Raking in the yard, with a baby giggling behind me and the sun beaming down? Wow.
Dave got home in the early afternoon, and his sister dropped in, so that was nice to visit with her for a bit. After she left and another nap (I think) Dave was exhausted, so Ingrid and I headed to Brooks and to the park. There are certain families that I got to know on the stroller brigade last year, not know-know, but worthy of a "hello!’ or "fast asleep, huh?" in passing. There are the twins down the street, who I know are three, as I remember their mom pushing them in a double-bucket stroller past our house that first summer. There are the grandparents who take care of the grandkids, a boy and a girl, and hustle around the neighborhood like racewalkers with Jeep jogging strollers. There’s the working mom who is out after 5, with the blonde little boy… anyway, when Ingrid and I were out, I saw the working mom in the distance, leaving her house with a bucket stroller and the little boy, and her husband, but she didn’t get half a block before they turned around and she lugged the bucket into the house and the dad got the little boy into the regular stroller they used all last year. Once again, I’m soooo glad I found babywearing before I had Ingrid, and that it worked so well for us…
At Brooks, Ingrid waved to everyone, the pharmacists, the cashier, other customers, and squealed in basic happiness. And! They had Mini Eggs on clearance! I thought I’d totally missed the Mini Eggs in the months of sick, so to get them on clearance = double happiness! From Brooks, we went to the park, and Ingrid swung for a while, and we walked home.
Last night, I worked on updating my local mom site — this spring, my plan is to do reviews of the playgrounds, and so far I have two done. I updated all of my software, installed a spambot-killing mod on the forums, downloaded a new theme for the blog, and set up a flickr map for the flickr account.
Today, I got up and made Sunday pancakes for breakfast, but mixed up a double batch. The first batch were breakfast pancakes for Dave and I, and into the second I added a bunch of shredded zucchini and cheddar cheese, for Ingrid to take to daycare. She eats pancakes there, that they provide, so I figured it’d be a good vehicle to get a little more nutrition into her, and they should freeze well, I hope.
My parents got here around 10:30, and Ingrid and I went with them to the Home Show, while dave worked on the yard. At the home show, I had one mama ask me about my wrap, and doing the babywearing secret handshake ("I had a ring sling, and didn’t learn about wraps until she was really too heavy…" of course, an hour later I saw her carrying her preschooler, anyway!) and I got info on replacement windows. (Aside — I hate baby buckets, we all know this, but I saw one family with a baby Ingrid’s age/size, EASILY, with their baby in the bucket, clipped into the stroller. HELLO, you don’t NEED to use thebucket with the stroller. That almost irritated me more than the general bucket issue does, because the kid was clearly big enough to be able to handle a stroller, at least.)
After a few hours there, we came back here, and my folks went home. We got a sub from the place down the street, and split it, and then walked to the other park, which we realized is probably the closest one to our house, but because it’s across a very busy street, we never go over there. I got some pictures for the website, and we came home, fed the baby, bathed her, and she went to sleep. I made dinner, which was way too much work and effort and mess for what it was, but whatever. Dave did his laundry, I washed most of the dishes, and watched TAR, and here I am. So not ready for work tomorrow. It’s supposed to be 78! SEVENTY EIGHT! Crazy.
Life is good here — I hope it is there, too.
Edited to say, oh, right! There’s a new April album.
