You know you had a great weekend when you come out on the other side with a million photos (I just had to document all the fun we had!) or exactly zero photos (we were having so much fun, I forgot I had my phone and my camera in my purse!).
This was one of those weekends where I left all my electronic gadgets alone. I think those are probably the best weekends.
Lilian occasionally chooses to spend a Saturday morning chilling in her crib, singing songs to herself, and reading one of the many books that I strategically placed around her head the night before. Unfortunately, Lilian chose a morning (Saturday) when we had plans to grab an early breakfast with some friends.
(Let’s be honest here, it’s never unfortunate when your child decides to let you sleep past 8am).
Famous last words: “We don’t need to set an alarm, because the toddler is going to wake us up anyways.”
Luckily, our friends also have a tiny human who wakes up early on the weekends. So, they were totally cool with waiting an extra half hour or so while we all put pants on.
I know blogs about food are usually incredibly boring, but if you have a chance to eat at La Qchara, you really need to avail yourself of the opportunity. They’re kid-friendly, and the food is unbelievably tasty. The service was a little slow (you order at the counter and our friends were already finished eating by the time our good was up), but Lilian was a good sport about it and I only cried a little bit about how hungry I was.
After brunch, we headed back home, packed up the car, and headed off to Connecticut for my grandmother’s surprise 85th birthday party. My aunt graciously hosted the whole shebang in her backyard, and it was just loverly. My grandmother was well and truly surprised, and she was very much happy to see us all. She cried when she realized that her best friend was there (they don’t get to see each other very much at all). Lilian and my cousin’s almost-five-year-old daughter played together for most of the afternoon.
My contribution to the event was to hire a photographer to take a family photo of all of us together and to get some candids in as well. Hopefully, I will have some pictures to share with you later this week. He showed me one photo of Lilian and her cousin playing in the grass that made my heart melt into itty bitty tiny pieces.
We usually stay with my Grandmother when we’re in the area, but I’m pretty sure the jig would have been up had we asked to stay the night ahead of time. So, we made plans with my sister…. to leave our child at her house and go spend the night at a hotel.
(Yessssssssssss.)
If 8:15am had felt decadent the day before, sleeping in until 10am seemed practically obscene. But there were no complaints from this corner. There weren’t even any complaints from my sisters when we got back home and were informed that Lilian woke everyone up around 5:30am.
(My family is pretty ok, if’n you ask me about it.)
Us: “Hey guys…. uhhh… where’s our kid?”
Sister: “An hour ago, she crawled halfway up the stairs, put her head down, and then said ‘night-night’ so we figured it was nap time.”
Us: “Wow, she usually doesn’t go down for a nap until like half an hour from now.”
Sister: “Well, she did wake up at 5:30, soooo….”
(Alrighty, my family is very ok.)
Lilian woke up around noon, which is around the time we were planning on heading home with her napping in the backseat. But you can’t argue with sleeping until 10am. You really can’t. So, we just kinda went with it. Instead of heading home right away, we made our way over to the Coventry Farmers Market. Which, as far as I can tell, is where every single person in Connecticut who has a tattoo brings their small children and their dogs on Sundays during the summer.
I will also tell you that there were a lot of vegetables on offer, but we pretty much availed ourselves of the food trucks, lemonade, and apple cider donuts.
Lilian fed an alpaca. Or, as she like to call it, “packa!”
(She used to say “kitty!” whenever I put her alpaca shirt on, dashing all my hopes and dreams of sending her to Harvard.)
We normally listen to podcasts on long car rides, but I tried to put one on and Lilian yelled “Nooooo! New soooooong!” from the backseat. Sorry, Terry Gross, she’s just not a fan.
You have no idea how long it takes to drive from Coventry, CT back to the Boston area until you are forced to forgo podcasts in favor of the musical tastes of a tiny tyrant.
(I’ll give you a hint: there’s enough time to listen to They Might Be Giants greatest hits with plenty of time leftover for the Frozen soundtrack. In its entirety. Twice.)
(I think we may have unintentionally bent the space/time continuum on our way back home.)
It was approximately a million degrees at our house when we got back, so we set up a slip and slide in the backyard. Lilian looooves the slip and slide. And by “slip and slide” I mean “watching mama throw herself down the slip and slide like a mad woman while yelling ‘again! again’ and clapping.” What she does not love so much? Touching the slip and slide. Going near the slip and slide. The very idea that she might participate in slip and slide related shenanigans.
(My knees will never be the same again.)
(But it was like a bazillion degrees outside and it kept us both entertained while Kristian cleaned my car out.)
(Worth it!)
As with any good weekend, I feel like I need another weekend to recover. Lucky for me, I have Thursday and Friday off. Happy birthday, America!