Hang Up The Heels

I never really appreciated my hometown while I was growing up there.  Maybe it’s because I moved out of there faster than you can say “eighteenth birthday.”  I was too busy wanting to go out and meet new people and soak up the city life to notice how beautiful and easy life is there.  This trip was a great reminder of what kind of charm a small town can bring.

Mom and I picked up my Uncle Leigh, who lives very close to my parents and we spent an afternoon strolling through Grape Park -  called Grape Park for obvious reasons, as you’ll see below.

I can’t wait for it to really start warming up, but in the meantime we are getting some days that are swim-able.

Poor Berkeley loves the water more than anything in the universe, but she can’t swim.  Lucky for us, she looks even cuter in her neon yellow life vest plus she can jump in and we don’t have to dive in after her.

The sweet combination of sun and water sent this little baby into snooze town.  I stripped her down into her birthday suit and placed her on my lap and she drifted off.  I sat and relaxed – soaking up the warmth joined by a perfect breeze blowing in from the coast.  I looked around and enjoyed the truly majestic view that I never really noticed nor cared about when I was a kid.

That night I laid down to sleep in my old childhood bedroom and stared at the stick-on glow in the dark stars I stuck all over the ceiling making a perfect replica of space when I was 10.  My baby slept deeply, she snuggled into my chest synchronizing her breath with mine and I thought to myself… this is crazy.  Here I am a grown woman sleeping in the bedroom I used to have slumber parties in once upon a time -  and now my baby daughter is asleep with me in this very room.  So often I feel like I’m still a kid, despite my growing population of gray hairs.  I just don’t know how I got here.  It’s as if I blinked and now I’m a wife and mother. Then I look at my sleeping baby and think, I am so happy.