HOLDING ON TO SUNNY DAYS

I have this whole new appreciation of parks now that I have a toddler*. I notice parks everywhere I go and I find myself rating them and collecting them in my mind for us to go explore.   Thanks to our friends, I discovered a new park close to our house the other week and went to go check it out with a few of Sloane's friends after work.  It thrills me down to my toes that there is an extra hour of daylight after work these days because that means I can pull off things like an hour in the park before it gets dark. 

(* I said 'toddler' up there but that doesn't seem right; I'm constantly noticing these days how she seems entirely like a little girl now - limbs, affectations and all...)

I was meaning to post these park photos days ago, but then this week was just kind of a big fat UGH. I kind of hit a brick wall in regards to any kind of the usual momentum that gets me through the week and even the smallest of tasks seemed exhausting. Then on Wednesday I walked out of work to find that I had a flat tire. Which isn't a big deal, I mean it happens all the time right? But somehow, the combination of the facts: that Sloane had to be picked up before daycare closed, that the car didn't have a spare, that I wasn't sure if we had any roadside assistance and that Ken was out of town - resulted in what seemed to be a catastrophic event. Thank the heavens for friends; friends who are willing to pick Sloane up and watch her while I figure things out, friends who come from all the way across town with their own baby to help me figure out what to do and give me a ride home and then pick me and Sloane up the next morning to give us a ride...I don't know what I would have done otherwise! I had to leave the car at work overnight, so the next day I got the car towed to a dealership and then used Uber to go pick it up when it was ready.  Guys, I have a newfound love and that love is Uber. I had used it in other cities and heard that it had come to Richmond but didn't really believe it until yesterday. I downloaded the app and it was so easy that I was stunned. The guy came in 5 minutes, he was incredibly nice and gave me a free ride since it was my first time. The experience was as if I had gotten a pleasant ride from a nice stranger ...and that shined some more light into this soul. What is it about good encounters with strangers? It really does do the thing of restoring faith in humanity. 

And funny! how this seeming catastrophe and the people who helped pull me through gave me a second wind....life lesson alert! Noted. 

Anyways, as I was saying...savoring things like bits of sunlight, friendships, and looking for signs summer are the propellers for me being able to mosey through these weeks, and here are some more of those photos:

The warm glow lasted all over 20 minutes but we basked in it while it lasted. 

I have this strange sense that the expanse of time happening all at one moment when I look this photo: I see what they looked like when they were newborns, I see their faces now, and I see what they might be like years down the road.

These gaggle of babes make me clutch my heart. Look at them ladies flocking around little Isaac! 

And a few more photos that I took over the past couple of weeks when the weather was at its best.  I've been checking the weather obsessively, like I do, and it looks like next week is finally going to be my kind of spring weather and hopefully stay that way.  A few weekends ago, it got up to mid-80s and all of a sudden I had to have ice cream in a cone. We made it happen and Sloane got to have an ice cream cone all to herself for the very first time and she couldn't have been more pleased about it. 

It's safe to say, what helps get me through the week is the promise of an ice cream cone at the end of it!

I saw a watermelon at the grocery store the other day and I thought, can you do watermelons in April? I employed my best watermelon-picking skills and brought one home, and to both of our delights, it was a good one. We feasted on watermelon that day on the porch, watermelon juice dripping down our chins and the promise of summer just around the corner...