Love of Sunshine

This past weekend, the Mr had to attend a delegates meeting in New Jersey. So, instead of staying at home, Lil’Man and I flew to Texas to visit my parents. It was his first plane flight, so I was seriously nervous. I’d heard nightmare stories about the TSA harrassing nursing moms, and I wanted to make sure my little guy had enough food for the 5 1/2 hour flight. I was worried about how my munchkin would do on the plane. I was worried how I would do on the plane. I packed the carry-ons for almost every contingency.

Thankfully, the Oakland Airport TSA was wonderfully informed about my rights as a mom–I got no grief about my pumped breastmilk or the baby food packets I packed in Lil’Man’s diaper bag (the TSA in San Antonio was a completely different story, but let’s not dwell on that). And as a bonus, the Mr was allowed to get an “escort pass” and go through security with us, so getting to our gate was a breeze. And my little man did beautifully. Not that he didn’t have his moments, but he slept, played, and looked out the window most of the time. I’m so proud of him.

Despite all the toys I brought, he found my empty, plastic cup the most interesting.

And he loved Texas. Yes, it was ridiculously hot and muggy (at least, to us pampered Bay Area dwellers; my parents thought the weather felt nice and cool), but he scooted around in his little summer onesie and was perfectly happy.

Our first day there, we headed out to the zoo. Now, the zoo in San Antonio is part of a larger…complex, if you will. It’s several hunderd acres of awesomeness. There’s a large public park, a golf course, a wildlife museum, a children’s museum, a mini amusement park and sunken Japanese gardens. Connecting all of these sites is a small train. I personally love riding the train, so we hopped on that first and I’m so glad we did. Lil’Man LOVED the train. L-O-V-E-D it. He was riveted as soon as he heard the whistle. He bounced a few time (which he does when he’s excited) and he’d turn around now and then and give me a huge grin, but otherwise, he just leaned forward, grabbed the railing and took it all in. I think he takes his train riding very seriously.

We stopped at the Sunken Gardens — a large garden which you have to walk down into. It’s got some beautiful plants, but the main attraction for kids seems to be the koi ponds. Some of those koi are as big, if not bigger, than my little man. He liked them, but they weren’t as cool as the train.

We never did make it to the zoo. After the train ride, the gardens, more train riding and then some strawberry ice cream, Lil’Man was plumb tuckered out.

And that was just Friday.

My car got broken into this past Friday. The thieves broke one of my back passenger windows and stole my breastpump bag and Lil’Man’s diaper bag. While they will probably be horribly disappointed in their take, I’m very much upset that, among other items, they took a day’s worth of pumped milk, some brand new onesies (we had just moved up to his 9-month clothes) and a container full of Cheerios. I’m pretty sure they expected a laptop or, at the very least, a wallet or phone. This makes me particularly sad because I’m quite sure that they opened the bags, scoffed at the contents and promptly threw my belongings away in the nearest dumpster — no one profits from this fiasco. So sad.

That aside, this week has been awesome.

Absolutely awesome things this week:

9. Finding a company that will replace a broken car window during Easter weekend. The shop our insurance set us up with wasn’t going to come out until Monday. A terrible option for us given that my car is parked on the street (“Why, yes, please help yourself to my radio and anything else you can detach from my car!”) and it’s been raining off and on for the past few days. My husband found a company that came to our house Saturday morning and fixed my car right there and then. Lil’Man found the process fascinating — particularly the very noisy shop vac.
8. Matching Easter outfits. The Mr and Lil’Man wore sweater vests for Easter Mass. They looked so dapper!
7. Designing your own tartan. While looking for tartan sashes to wear to the Brave Wrap party, I found a website where you can design your own tartan. I designed one using our wedding colors. I think it came out quite nicely. It’s probably a bit too pricey to actually buy, but it was still fun.
6. The sun shining while it’s raining. The weather has been crazy this week — it can’t decide what it wants to do, but the plants in our yard are loving it.
5. Thunderstorms! More crazy weather. I dearly miss a good thunderstorm since the Bay Area doesn’t get many. This one was a doozy and I loved every snap, crackle and boom.
4. Pixar’s Annual Chocolate Festival. It’s held on or just before April 15th to lessen the sting of paying taxes.
3. Date night with my wonderful husband. Once a month, we get to have a Parents’ Night Out. We both read the books, so we’re going to see The Hunger Games.
2. Being tickled by Lil’ Man. I was laying on the ground next to him as he was playing with some stacking cups. He turned to climb onto me and started zerberting my belly. It made me laugh, so with a big smile and a giggle, he went back for more.
1. Crawling! It’s the most adorable thing I’ve seen since the last adorable thing he did. A huge grin across his face and his little butt wiggling as he makes his way across the room — absolutely priceless. Of course, this means the babyproofing has begun in earnest.

All the above photos are mine except for the wonderful lightning shot. That photo went viral shortly after the storm and rightly so. It’s a great shot of the Bay Bridge getting struck by 8 lighting strikes!