Today was unexpectedly pleasant. It's just a random Friday, but we had a lot of nice little Christmas moments.
First of all, Don and Merlene sent us a Little People nativity set. The kids had a lot of fun playing with it today. The best part was how Clara and Jane play together and acted out stories with each other using the figurines.
While Calvin was napping, the girls and I added glitter names to all of our stockings. It was a relaxing project for me since I didn't have to manage Calvin at the same time, and the girls seems to find it all pretty magical since of involved glitter. Clara said it looks like fairy dust. Jane whispered more than once that "it's beautiful."
When we were done with that, Clara wanted to write a letter to Santa. Not long prior she had been telling Jack and me about how Santa was going to bring her a Peppa pig doll. So as she dictated a letter to me for Santa, I kept trying to get her to tell him what she wants for Christmas. But she just didn't want to because she was more interested in telling him what we've been doing around the house to prepare for Christmas, such as adding names to the stockings. After I wrote out her thoughts, she signed herself and added some Christmas doodles at the bottom. She also was excited to put a stamp on the envelope.
Then tonight we took all three kids for a drive-thru Christmas light experience. It's the first year they've done this, and I imagine it was partly in response to the pandemic. No one had to leave their cars to experience it. Jack found some caramel chocolate popcorn on sale at Costco, so we brought that and drinks with us and slowly drove through all of the different displays. At one point about two thirds in was a live Santa to wave to everyone. Clara really love that. Both the girls seemed to really enjoy all of the lights. Jack and I enjoyed seeing which corporate sponsors designed which displays. For example one display was a reindeer driving a monster truck trying to run over a grandma in a walker. The sponsor was a senior assisted living home, lol. The organizers have volunteers give out candy canes for all the children in the cars, and they also broadcast Christmas music on an FM station for everybody. It was a really pleasant little outing.
I told the girls they can't get up from their seats until they eat all their food. They keep discussing the different things they'll be able to do once they eat all their food, which they are not trying to do at all. Some of it I say they will be able to do and some of it I say is a non-starter. For example I'm not going to help them do any painting today. Just now Clara starts to list all the possibilities of their post-eating day:
Clara: So! If we eat all of our food, we get to [starts counting on her fingers] have a piece of candy, paint a turkey- Me: No we are not painting any turkeys. Clara: No! I'm just saying all the things! Me: Yeah but we aren't going to paint anything. Clara: Stay calm! Me: [laughing] ok? Clara: I'm just talking right now! Clara: Okay. So! If we eat all of our food... [She continues listing things to herself without my unhelpful input.]
The other night I put the kids to bed, cleaned the kitchen, got a bowl of cheetos and a Diet Coke, then sat on my bed snacking and catching up on some FB messages. Jack was running errands so the apartment was very quiet. After 10-15 minutes I heard a thump under the bed. I leaned over, paused for a second, and then uncertainly asked "...Clara?" and saw the bed skirt move very slightly.
Me: Clara, come out of there. Clara, crawling out from under the bed: Ohhhh, I'm sorry about that! I just needed to go in my club house. Me: Honey, one - you are supposed to be in bed, and two - Dad does not want you crawling under our bed. Clara, smiling: Oh yeah, sorry about that. She walks over to my now empty Cheeto bowl. Clara: Hey Mom? Me: Yeah? Clara: When I was under the bed, I heard you eating something crunchy. Me: Yeah, I had some Cheetos. And you can't have any. Go to bed! Clara: Okaaaay, Mooooom! See you in the morning!
When I came home from work Tuesday night, Clara couldn't wait to give me this pop up card she had made. I didn't even know she knew what pop up cards were. Jack had helped her with the scissors but otherwise it was all her doing, which I think is pretty impressive. She explained it's Jack and me in a boat with a heart.
Then last night Clara was telling me how she and Jane and Calvin love me and I said "I love you guys too." She responded "Yeah AND! Dad loves you too!"
I'm grateful for my marriage in itself. But particularly as a child of divorce, I'm deeply grateful my marriage is good for the sake of my children. Clara clearly notices and cares how Jack and I feel about each other. I can't quite find the words, except to say it humbles me. And I've been thinking about it all day.
I've spent the afternoon and evening with the kids without trying to get any other work done. I enjoyed so many things:
The girls play together and keep each other and Calvin busy a lot. He crawls from room to room to watch them. I actually got a lot of cleaning done while they were all playing with each other. I think it helps that I've taken FB off my phone and suddenly it seems like I have more time for other things. :-P
Clara has been very into drawing all kinds of things, and she's especially interested in copying drawings I make for her. I drew her some block letters and later the Big Bad Wolf from Three Little Pigs, and she was just delighted. Jane likes to color and draw alongside Clara; Jane only scribbles right now but she has started telling us that all of her drawings are fireworks.
Right: my drawing of the Three Little Pigs' houses Left: Clara's copy
We also did some crafting together. The girls got to try out some of my fancy hole punches, crafting scissors, and glue. They were very into their projects. Calvin sat in the high chair and watched, and when he started getting bored I just gave him bits of banana. That kept him busy.
And perhaps the best part of the day, the part that tipped it into a "joy inventory status" day, was that Calvin woke up early from his nap, but because the girls were peacefully watching Monsters Inc I was able to cuddle Calvin in the rocking chair until he fell solidly back asleep. In contrast with his older sisters when they were babies, I've rarely been able to rock Calvin, and it was very very sweet.
It's been great getting to spend some focused time with my babes.
This morning Jane asked me "Baby wawa?" which apparently mean she wanted to lie across my lap and have me hold her like a baby. So I cradled her and sang "Hush little baby" and she loved it. Then Clara wanted a turn. Then Jane wanted me to do it twice more. After that I told her no more until she cleaned up all the magnets, so she hurriedly put them all back on the fridge and came back to have me hold her and sing "Hush little baby" again. Very very sweet.
We decided to take the girls for a walk around the complex while it was still nice out, because lately it's been getting pretty hot in the afternoons. The complex pool is technically still not open, which is nice for us because it means no one is swimming in it. We took the girls down there and let them stick their feet in the water. Jane splashed rigorously and I had to take off her shorts because even sitting outside the pool she was getting them soaked. Clara wanted to walk along the "train track" (the lined concrete engraving outlining the pool) so Jack walked around and around with her while Jane and I sat at the edge of the shallow end. Eventually Jane realized her feet could reach the top step and she started very tentatively standing for about 0.5 second at a time. She also insisted on "fixing" her tiny little sunglasses such that she was wearing them upside down, but she seemed fine with it. We didn't stay too long because we will all get sunburned pretty easily, but it was nice while it lasted.
Then this afternoon I drove to Erin's to have a craft day. I chatted with Kale the whole hour trip there, which was really enjoyable and makes the trip seem like nothing at all. We talked about how peer review is not nearly as rigorous as people think. I like talking about anything science-related with Kale as it makes me feel still at least a little bit in the loop.
Erin's was really pleasant too, of course. She made us bruschetta and she worked on her scrapbook from Argentina. I worked on the hundreds of files Henry sent from our amateur maternity shoot last week, picking my favorite screen caps. Even as I write this I'm still not done but it's coming along. We talked about all sorts of things and later split a brownie with strawberries. I was there for probably over 4 hours and the time flew.
On the way home I chatted with Jill and told her about how great Clara's progress has been at school, so that was nice too.
Clara went to school all in black with a witches hat with silver stars. Before leaving our apartment she was singing the Halloween version of "Baby Shark," which includes Princess Shark, Cowboy Shark, Mummy Shark, etc. It does not actually include Witches Shark, but she added those lyrics, I guess because she was a witch. Jane wore an orange frilly top with three little ghosts on it.
Most of the day went as usual. The only exceptions were that Beth made us some adorable Halloween crafts using the girls' hand prints and she also sent a great pic of Jane wearing one of the many $1 witches hats I'd bought for all the kids.
We had originally planned to take the girls trick-or-treating with Hunter at the end of the day before heading home, but halfway through the day Beth learned from a neighbor that trick-or-treating doesn't really start until like 6:45 pm, far too late since we pick the girls up at 5 pm. Jack tried to look up other trick-or-treat options, like maybe going store to store at the mall, but he couldn't find much. I know Clara wouldn't have known the difference but I was a little disappointed because this is the first year she has seemed aware of Halloween (vaguely - she understands pumpkins, witches, pirates, and now Jack-o-lanterns) and I thought she'd be pretty excited to see what her kids' videos mean when they talk about trick-or-treating.
But then Jack saved the day. Or rather Generations Church did. He found an ad for Trunk or Treat at this church all the way from 6 to 9 pm. Most Trunk or Treat events had already happened on Sunday, but this was on actual Halloween night.
So I put on my witches outfit and we picked up the girls and headed over there. We arrived a bit early and they were still setting up the trunks, but it was kind of fun waiting in the parking lot as more and more families arrived and everyone anticipated the moment when they would let us all in. Clara spent most of that time "flying" on her broom back and forth along the sidewalk and even cackling to herself, which was great. Jane also toddled all over happily. I don't think they even realized we were waiting for anything.
Once they did open up we decided to go to the very opposite end of the parking lot rather than along with the crowd. We wanted to check out this massive pirate ship but it wasn't actually done being set up yet, so instead we went first to the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown trunk, and that was Clara's first experience (with prompting) of saying "Trick or treat" and then being given candy. She was confused but excited.
Next we went to the Nightmare Before Christmas trunk. Most of the trunks included games to play before getting candy, and in this case "Sally" showed us a bean bag toss into jack-o-lantern buckets. Clara missed the first time but once she stood directly over a bucket she got 2-3 more bean bags in it on her first tries. :-P Then she got another piece of candy. She was literally jumping all over the place with excitement.
(Meanwhile Jane watched stoically from Jack's shoulders. Not unhappy but not super impressed either. Or perhaps she was just confused and taking it all in.)
The Robin Hood trunk included some kiddo archery. The Toy Story trunk had no game I can recall, just nice decor. Clara tried to take one of the stuffed animals in it and had to be redirected to the candy.
Then we came across a guy with a helium tank blowing up the tye-dye style balloons that had very tiny lights inside them. It was still dusk at this point so we couldn't tell yet but it wasn't long at all before you could see them glowing in the dark. That balloon was by far Jane's favorite part of the night.
We went on to an Alice and Wonderland trunk (with pin the tail on the Cheshire cat), Little Mermaid trunk (can't recall the game as we skipped it and just got the candy), and Wizard of Oz trunk (bean bag toss again). Every trunk was pretty beautifully decorated (Alice and Wonderland had an entire table with tea set) and everyone was very friendly and easy going.
The Little Mermaid
Alice and Wonderland
Wizard of Oz
The last trunk we went to was the most elaborate: Candyland. There were colored squares on the ground like the game. There were big stand up lollipops and a gingerbread house and a table covered in glass bowls all with different candies in them. The game was a ring toss onto some cones painted like candy corn. Clara basically placed all of her rings at once on the first cone. Then she got a bunch of candy--they were giving out like 6-10 pieces per kid.
So we were basically done with the trunks and hadn't been there super long yet, so we headed over to the play area where there was a giant bouncy slide and a giant bouncy platform, separately. The platform had a column in the center with two harnesses tied to one another, and the bigger kids (all boys) would harness up and each try to get a ball into a basketball hoop while the other tugged in the other direction. It was actually pretty hilarious. Clara was very curious about it and eventually climbed onto the platform and sat at the very edge watching for quite a while. There were a few times when I thought she'd get scared and want to get down, including when bigger kids basically climbed right over her to get on or off the platform, but I'd offer to help her down and she wanted to stay.
Meanwhile Jane was carrying the glowing balloon everywhere and toddling around the glass with Jack by her side, quite content.
After a while we headed back to the pirate ship, which was almost but still not quite done. We revisited and retried the Nightmare Before Christmas trunk. Then Jack and I decided it had been enough and it was time to go. When Clara realized we were leaving she did start to fuss a lot, but once we got her buckled in and offered her some candy she was content. (We had brought gluten free candy with us to use just in case we weren't sure about the kind she'd gotten. I gave her a full sized Reese's.)
Jane held the glowing balloon nearly the entire way home. Jack and I talked about how much easier, safer, and more fun Trunk or Treat is for little kids compared to neighborhood trick or treating. I need to send that church a thank you note for putting it all on.
After we got home we gave the girls dinner and then let the girls have a bit more candy. While we were all sitting at the table I lit our Jack-o-lantern. Clara kept asking me to blow it out because she likes watching the smoke swirl from the candle. Instead I just kept relighting the used matches and blowing them out, and she was pretty happy about that. Jane still played with the balloon all evening until it was time for bed.
Even though this is technically Clara's 4th Halloween, it felt to me like her first because we actually celebrated and she seemed aware of what was going on. I really love reliving the holidays vicariously through her. That's something I've looked forward to since before even having kids and certainly since Clara was a newborn, and now that season is starting!
We planned our last full day in Chicago well, I think, mostly
because at the end of the day we were going to get dinner at a dine-in movie
theater. I really love movie theaters, so looking forward to that all day just
made the day more cheerful. Neither of us had eaten at a dine-in theater
before, and I was eager to see what that would be like. Plus by now we were
both getting very tired and sore from walking so much more than we’re used to,
so I’m glad we planned the final evening to involve a lot of time off of our
feet.
But to begin with, we did walk to the John Hancock building again.
I pointed out we could take a Lyft but Jack opted to walk. It was nice. I like
the old, large limestone buildings such as the Catholic church we passed. We
also went by the water tower again, and this time we realized you can go inside
for free and take a look around. We didn’t stay long, though, because we had
expected historical information about the water tower itself but instead the
displays were about using photography and other activism to get certain parts
of Chicago formally recognized as historical landmarks. Can’t say I care that
much about that. We did stop to examine a large map of the area and point out
all the places we’d already been, but overall we were in and out in probably
five minutes.
We were heading to the Signature Room for lunch, partly because
our brief time at the Signature Lounge on the first night was a little too loud
and a little too tired, and also because we had wanted to see the view from the
other side of the building, which isn’t an option from the Lounge. I thought
maybe there would be a wait or at least a crowd for such a popular spot, but I
guess arriving only 20 minutes after they open on a Tuesday has it’s perks. We
were seated immediately at a two seat table next to the windows looking North,
just what we had wanted.
The view was excellent. We could see Lake Shore Drive; a beach
with tiny volleyball players, sun bathers, and swimmers, and, further out,
sailboats; the Lincoln Park Zoo; Wrigley Field; part of the El train tracks; the
blue dots of rooftop pools all around; city balconies with little potted
plants; and so much more. I spent so much time examining the amazing view that
I kept not noticing when our server would come back. He surprised me many
times, haha. We did manage to get some drinks: Jack got some type of beer and I
got a “Skyscraper” (Bacardi Superior rum, pineapple juice, cranberry juice, and
a pineapple wedge – just my type). I got the Caesar salad with salmon and Jack
got seafood pasta. Actually ever since we went to the aquarium and saw
freakishly large lobsters and the like, Jack had been mentioning he wanted to
eat some seafood. So this lunch was sort of two birds with one stone.
As we ate and (distant) people watched, a few other tables filled
all with more people taking photos of the view, but the restaurant never did
get super busy while we were there. They were playing instrumental versions—I think
mostly violin—of pop songs like Train’s “Soul Sister” or Great Big World’s “Say
Something,” and we enjoyed trying to name the lyricless tunes. When we were
done we walked halfway up the flight of stairs between the Signature Room (94th
floor) and Signature Lounge (95th floor) to take in the view from
three sides. Pretty great. Also on the way out we admired the unusual fountain
the building has in its ground floor lobby: the water pours over a large smooth
black stone-looking surface, so smooth you have to double take to even realize
there’s water there. Hanging above the water is a large sculpture that reminded
me of a nucleus with an exploded atom around it, all sparkly and silver. Not
sure if that’s what they were going for or just how my brain interprets a
circular sculpture, but either way I liked it.
I asked Jack if he wanted to take a Lyft back to the Art Institute
(our next stop) but he still opted to walk, and I’m so glad we did. At the base
of the John Hancock building we noticed a statue of a red dog, and Jack took my
picture next to it to add to our growing Chicago statude/sculpture photo set.
Then we realized there were several more such dogs around the plaza, all the
same shape and size but colored differently. We took pictures with all of them
and continued to do so as we found more and more all the way down Michigan
Avenue on our walk. That alone made walking worth it. It reminded me of the
late 1990s when I came to Chicago with my family and there were countless cow
statues of different design.
Most of the walk was pleasantly overcast, but by the time we
crossed the river it was getting sunnier and warmer. We felt a blast of air
conditioning from the open door at a Starbucks so we popped in and got
frappuccinos (summer specials limited time only – triple mocha and ultra
caramel) and then enjoyed that cool treat as we walked past Millennium Park to
the Art Institute. We pointed out all the groups of people that looked so
similar in build and height and hair and even very similar clothing styles. I
guess you end up socializing most with people like you.
We arrived at the Art Institute and, again thanks to City Pass,
got to take the shorter queue and nearly walk right in. I say “nearly” because
as we were offering our tickets to the attendant we realized they had handed us
two tickets for entrance but also two tickets for a free audio tour. We almost
didn’t bother but decided to grab the audio equipment in case we changed our
minds. I was expecting a Walkman type set up with headphones, but instead the
equipment looked like old 1990s remotes. We soon learned that some of the
paintings and other art had headphone symbols on their plaques with three digit
numbers, and if we put those numbers in the “remote” and put it to our ears (so
more like a cordless phone) we could hear recordings explaining what was going
on in the artist’s life at the time, who or what the subjects of the paintings
were, where the paintings were completed, how they fit in with art movements at
the time, and so on. It was fantastic! The info made so much of the art so much
more interesting through context.
We originally went to the Art Institute because Jack wanted to
wear his “Save Ferris” shirt and get a picture with the painting Cameron stares
at in Ferris Bueller: “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” by
Georges Seurat. But the audio tour added so much to it that we ended up staying
from 1:30pm until they closed at 5pm. If it weren’t for them closing and us
having a movie to get to, I could have easily stayed another couple hours. Jack
and I both really liked the Impressionism section, hated the Modern section,
and found stuff we both liked or didn’t in Contemporary, American post 1900
art, and the Renaissance. We didn’t actually realize the institute closes at
5pm until we asked someone for directions to Chagal’s stained glass windows
(also of Ferris Bueller fame) about quarter to 5pm and he helpfully pointed us
the right way and said we still had a few minutes. We got our homage photo
maybe five minutes before the institute actually closed. Worth it.
When we left we walked by the Route 66 sign (signifying the start
of the famous Route) before heading to the movie theater for dinner and a
movie! The theater had the pleather reclining seats and tray tables with big
cup holders and menus and ketchup bottles next to us. I got a margarita and a
surprisingly large pile of nachos. Jack got a beer (maybe?) and chicken and
fries and coleslaw. We saw Incredibles 2, which I really enjoyed, not least of
all because Bob Odenkirk was one of the main voices, and I really like him.
Favorite characters, though, were Jack-Jack and Dash. And seeing Jack-Jack
reunite with his mom almost made me tear up a little, which is ridiculous since
it was a wholly unsentimental scene. I think I just missed my kiddos, haha.
On the way home we tried to swing by Garrett’s Popcorn to get a
bag for Beth, but they had closed maybe 10 minutes prior, alas. So we went back
to the hotel and relaxed. More Breaking Bad. Jack ordered another to-go Malnati’s
pizza (the third Malnati’s of our trip!) and walked over to pick it up. While
he was gone I chatted with Neil for the first time really all week (kind of a
long time for us between phone calls) about philosophy and moral secularity.
Later Jack and I video chatted with the girls one more time. It was a laid back
evening.
A few days before Father's Day I was working at Picasso's and decided to walk down Main Street and see if I could find any good gift ideas for Jack. I went to this really charming bookstore called Main Street Books and they had all kinds of unique, thoughtful, and funny greeting cards. I picked out a sweet one for Jack and then also found a pair of Hungry Caterpillar socks, which I figure is kind of Father's Day-themed since our kids love that book. I imagined him wearing the socks and pretending his feet were caterpillars. Who knows if that will ever happen but it was the best idea I had so I got them.
Anyway so this morning I gave him those gifts before he took the girls to church, and he seemed to like them.
While everyone was at church I relaxed and enjoyed the quiet and time to myself. I made a plate of nachos (with the mango peach salsa I have been really loving this trip) and watched 2-3 episodes of The Office uninterrupted. Frankly it was awesome. I also tried to remember Pachelbel's Canon on the piano but I couldn't quite get the whole thing. Still enjoyed playing it without little hands pounding the keys on either end.
I went ahead and got dressed and prepped a couple things to take to Mom's house later. Jack came home with the kids and the sermon had been Father's Day related and church had given all the dads bags of M&M's with a little card, so that was sweet.
We all caravaned to Mom's house for my informal birthday potluck. Jack dropped us off and ran to Costco to get rotisserie chicken (from us) and canned chicken for Everett's buffalo chicken dip. (Side note: I like how proud Everett is of that dip. It's freaking delicious and all of it always gets eaten at get together's, which he likes to point out.) Ellen made Sunshine fruit salad and she was so thoughtful as to make one version completely gluten free, which means a lot to me.
Thanks to Ellen and Everett the basement was already totally clean and prepped for company. Good thing, too, because Zoey forbid me from going down there while she worked on my birthday gift, haha. But once she was done we all moved all the food and drink to the downstairs table. The Bairds came over with bacon wrapped smokey mini sausages in a crock pot (which also all got eaten), Don & Merlene brought gluten free chips and cheese, and I think Julie brought a bunch of veggies and hummus. Later Linda got there with apple fritters.
Blurry pic Mom took of everyone visiting. I'm having grapefruit juice with white wine, mmm.
We all hung out and chatted, and we played a few games of Quiplash. One of the questions was what to name a cheese shop and I won with "It's all Gouda." Lol. Everyone loves puns. Zoey and Malcolm stayed upstairs for this part because the game is not always kid-friendly. Clara is too young to understand, though, and she stayed with us and happily danced to the background music and watched the animated characters as we entered our answers. At some point Katie Jackson came over and joined us, which was really great because I hadn't been sure if she'd be able to make it (Aaron is home with poision oak, but the kids were napping so she snuck away for a bit). She played Quiplash too and laughed a lot.
Zoey's sweet card.
We were able to play only a few games because the Bairds had to go tend to other things (alas), but then it was time to open presents. I actually wasn't really expecting presents because I'd told everyone not to worry about it, but I had several anyway. Zoey made me a handmade card all taped shut, and inside it was her gift: a drawing! Very very sweet, and she was so excited for me to open it. Ellen got me a stainless steel baking dish (I am slowly converting all bakeware to stainless steel for ease of cleaning and gluten free cooking), Don & Merlene got me a sweet card with some cash, Jack got me a book on teaching our kids to read, and Mom painted me a fresca based on the lyric book "It's a Wonderful World" that my girls enjoy. That was especially creative and touching and she even copied the exact style of the birds and butterflies in the book's illustrations.
We didn't have any cake, but Mom stuck 7 candles in an apple fritter (3 and 3 for 33 and "one to grow on") and then everyone sang "Happy Birthday" and I blew out the candles with Clara's help. I was pleased to see that Clara has evolved from being shy and intimidated by everyone singing "Happy Birthday" to enjoying it and wanting to aslo blow out the candles.
I think it was after that Linda had to get going and so did the Jacksons and the Wolks. Everett, Jack, and I hung out and chatted in the basement for awhile and then quickly cleaned up. Jack and I took the girls back to Don & Merlene's so we could hang out with Dave while he was there after work. At some point Merlene put a candle in half a gluten free fig bar (lol) so that the Jacksons could sing me their much more professional, harmonized version of "Happy Birthday." Clara loved that too, and again helped me blow out the candle.
3/4 of the Jackson singers that night.
Oh and of course I got a lot of well wishes via text and on Facebook. My favorite this year was from Nick Reynosa:
Jack got up early and went to Starbucks to get some work done for a couple hours before I would leave for the afternoon. When he returned, I took the hour or so drive to Vacaville to join Erin for one of those paint and drinks classes for her birthday. It's pretty appropriate that so much of our friendship blossomed from crafting sessions and now we are celebrating her birthday with more creativity.
Most of the drive there I talked to Neil, which makes the drive go quickly and serves as good visiting time. When I got there, I found a parking spot less than half a block from the location. It had a sign for 2 hour parking only, which would have been a problem, but in smaller print the sign said "Except Sundays." Yesss.
The venue for our painting class.
Erin was already there when I walked in and she had reserved seats for her group. Sarah arrived not long after. I'm really glad she was able to make it. Vacaville is roughly halfway between us and so a shorter trip than if she had hauled all the way to my place.
Erin was kind enough to buy the tickets for the paint event, which is so sweet, and so the only cost to me was gas to get there and money for food or drinks. However I am trying to spend a bit less because this time of year there are so many birthdays and Mother's and Father's day coming up and it takes a toll on our budget. So I ordered a slice of pizza (one of the less expensive options). To my delight, the "slice" they brought me was huge! Easily as big as a personal pan pizza, just slice shaped. So that was a pleasant surprise. Later on Sarah treated me to a glass of sangria, which by the way was delicious.
It was pleasant sitting in the sunshine (indoors but near a wall of windows) between Erin and Sarah and painting and visiting. And I like the way my painting turned out--I added some stormy clouds for contrast. I think this is the third one of these types of classes I've been to, and at the end I always enjoy seeing the different twists everyone puts on their own paintings.
Erin's painting on the left, mine on the right
On the drive home I talked to Julie most of the way, which was again pleasant and made the drive go fast. It helped that there was very little traffic. When I got back, Clara was very interested in my painting and wanted to just lay on our bed and look at it, so that's pretty high praise. I showed her where the sun, clouds, sky, ocean, and beach were, and she kept pointing to each and naming them. Very sweet.
Erin has asked me more than once over the last few months whether I'd have a baby shower for Jane. I never planned on it because to my mind baby showers are mostly just for the first baby when you don't already own a lot of the supplies you need. Since having Clara we've vastly expanded our baby/toddler supplies to where another baby shower seems, I don't know, maybe greedy? I considered doing a "shower" that was just diapers and wipes (also Erin's suggestion, I think) but I've been too preoccupied to set it up, and I forgot about it.
So today (39 weeks and 2 days) Erin came over for a visit, and she brought with her:
1. A big box of ultra sensitive baby wipes
2. A box of 132 newborn sized diapers.
3. A bottle of some kind of fancy sparkling fruit juice, and
4. A wrapped gift with three white balloons and one "It's a Baby Girl!" balloon attached.
She said it was my mini baby shower just with her. I thought it was absolutely the sweetest most thoughtful gesture. We each had a glass of the fruit juice (after a "cheers!") and Clara really loved the balloons. She's seen balloons in grocery stores and things but I don't think she's ever had a chance to play with helium balloons before. They kept her busy for a very long time. They also made her hair very static-y, which was funny.
The wrapped gift was actually for Clara - several bath sponges decorated like bunnies and some bath-friendly books. Very thoughtful, given Clara has been having a hard time with baths and new distractions help.
So that was definitely the highlight of my day, but the rest of the visit with Erin was lovely too. She told me all about her bridal shower and showed me the scrapbook her mom and maid of honor put together. She also had pics and videos on her phone to show me. It looked like it was a lot of fun. I worked on (finally) my spring 2015 scrapbook while we visited and she made a very cute sign for one of her wedding crafts - a "honey pot" for donations since they aren't asking for gifts.
It was also nice working on the spring 2015 scrapbook, because that's when Clara was born and brand new, and it helps remind me of what we're about to get into - both the difficulties but also the cuteness and newness. Gotta say I'm also looking forward to having so many people come cook for us. Even when I'm not pregnant I don't cook that often, and Merlene, Mom, and Jill (and really also Don and Dad) are all great cooks. And given how much calorie counting I've been doing throughout this pregnancy, I think it will seem especially delicious!
The main point, though, is that Erin is a wonderful friend. <3
