My Perfect Mother's Day

When making our plans for Mother’s Day this year, we didn’t know if we would be in the hospital, be a family of four, or still be our little family of three, so I decided I wanted to plan a family outing that could either be canceled last minute or accommodate however many of us there happened to be.  Family trip to the beach it was!

I love the beach.  It is my happy place!  I have been very fortunate to have worked and/or lived within a five to ten minute drive to the beach for the past decade.  Whenever work gets too stressful, I can just hop in my car and take my lunch at the beach.  We don’t live as close to the beach anymore, so packing up Guinevere and all the baby accouterments makes it difficult to get there as often as I would like on the weekends.  But this weekend it was so worth it!

When we got there, I was surprised to step out of the car and find the temperature in the 80’s!  (I swear, while the rest of the country had one of the longest, worst winters ever, we just had a full year of summer . . . we really need some rain!) Even though the temp was warm, it was SUPER windy!  We decided to eat our picnic lunches on the grassy area near the sand, but not on the sand.  I am very glad we did because once we were done and moved to the sand, our stuff was nearly buried within minutes!

Guinevere was so well behaved the entire time!  She sat with us while we ate and didn’t try to wander off.  Once we moved closer to the water, she found the water both fascinating and terrifying.  I picked her up and took her out to try to get her feet wet, but she clung to me like a monkey and wouldn’t let go.  We did get her feet in the water a little, but immediately after, she went toddling up the sand, grabbed her sand toys and started digging well away from the water, but still within viewing distance.  Aaron and I took turns alternately hanging out with her and dipping our feet in the water.  Guinevere sat and played in the sand for about an hour and seemed perfectly content the entire time!  She kept looking over at the water and saying, “water!” or “ocean!”  She also learned the words “beach,” “shell” and “sand.”

Once we had enough fun in the sun, sand and wind, we packed up and headed home.  G was fast asleep before we even left the parking lot.  I was worried that she would only nap during the drive home and then wake up and be a tired, cranky toddler for the rest of the day.  But we were able to transfer her to her crib and get her to fall back asleep.  Her nap lasted almost 4 hours!!!  Guess all that excitement really tuckered her out!  I used that time to relax, unwind & take a bath.  I love baths and don’t take them often enough.  One weird thing about taking a bath at essentially 9 months pregnant: having the majority of your body submerged in warm water, but this ginormous belly still sticking out in the cold air!

After G’s nap, we had family dinner and together time, playing in the living room until bed time.   That’s all I think I ever want for Mother’s Day: family together time.  The whole day was exactly how I wanted my last Mother’s Day as a the mom of 1 kid to be . . . and probably how I’ll want them to be when we are a completed family unit of 4.

What did you do for Mother’s Day?