All Babies Should Be Born In California

 At this point, taking Innis back to the frigid north in a week's time seems like cruel and unusual punishment.

Reasons 1 through 3 gazillion:

Saturday morning, we walked about six minutes from Sara and Edward's front door to a farmers' market, and just as we got there, a full-on parade with horses and marching bands and floats and tractors and belly dancers and baby goats stomped by in gloriously loud fashion:

 

Innis: OH MY GOD! Is that a DELOREAN?!!

List Of Things That Make Me Blubber Like A Fool

1. The Big Reveal on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

2. Cheering Crowds (see #1)

3. People Who Are Really Excited To Win Stuff (see #1)

4. Watching Innis Watch Horses

5. Marching Bands

Call it new-mummy hormones, call it a love for John Philip Sousa, call it an appreciation for synchronized youth, but marching bands now put a wiggle in my heart, prickles in my nose, and tears in my eyes.

Add something like this, and my olfactory system is pretty much doomed:

But the fun didn't stop with the parade, as we then went to a baby shower for Sara and Edward's friends Ben and Meghan, and while Innis got to play in the park with Dad ...

... Mummy got to paint a onesie for the new baby at the arts and crafts table!

Here are some beautiful designs that other guests painted:

I mean, really. An arts and crafts table for adults. At a baby shower. What a great idea. And, you know, I'm not a baby shower connoisseur or anything, having only ever been to one other shower of the baby variety in my entire life, but I think, according to my limited experience, that this baby shower was pretty much awesome. The hosts even passed out envelopes for us to address to ourselves so they could send out the thank you cards in a timely manner (and not six months after the fact like yours truly). That, people, is organization.

AND THEN, after the baby shower, we went to a roadside fruit stand to buy a whole flat of strawberries, then Edward took us to experience the consumerist phenomenon that is Target, and then we all ate homemade ice cream with locally grown almonds and fruit.

And basically, it was all very wonderful and exhausting and ultimately culminated in lovely naps in late afternoon sunshine:

Clearly, Innis was meant for these warmer climes. He's never been happier, or slept better, or eaten more. Dragging him home sort of breaks my heart, but we only have another couple months left north of sixty and then he'll be wallowing in all the humid summertime mugginess Ontario has to offer.

And I know: Ontario won't be California. But it'll do. For now.

Comments

[Catherine]

Ah! Idyllic! Glad you're having such wonderful times. We can paint onesies in the park in Arnprior this summer if it'll make you feel better. We can take Innis out for his first canoe paddle. :-)

P.S. I just watched Back to the Future yesterday for the first time, so I got excited about the Delorean too!