Week 6: San Diego with a 2-Year Old, a New Book, and Licking Sand

Week 6 was basically all brand new, in a sense. The last time Henry was here, he was between 3-11 months old, so through his 2-year old eyes, everything we have done this past week may as well be new. This and seeing the look on his face when he saw his Daddy for the first time in over a month made the 3-day road trip here totally worth it. Henry is such a great traveler. I am more and more impressed by him the older he gets. My favorite moment though, beside reuniting with Daddy, meeting my newborn Nephew #5, and getting in good, quality girl talk with my best girlfriends, was taking Henry to the beach in the early morning and watching him chase sandpipers, and then, when I told him that they were eating bugs out of the sand, seeing him get down on all fours and lick the sand. He's such a character and a good pretender! On the flip side, he has also been much whinier than usual and has not been wanting to go down for naps or to bed. I think he is officially over traveling and ready to get back home to our routine and to his bed. I predict that he is going to fall madly in love with the beach, and the two of us are just going to become beach bums and live in a surfer van in the south Mission Beach parking lot and write poetry and play with dump trucks and live off of carnitas burritos and homemade tomatillo salsa.   

Other new things we tried in Week 6:

• East of Eden (John Steinbeck). I just have to say: Thank Goodness for this great work of fiction. My soul has been restored, and so has my love of reading. I just got done telling Ted that my new rule is that I am never going to read new fiction again unless a) the author comes highly recommended by someone I trust, or b) it is from an author I already know. I just don't have time for crappy reads anymore, people! I have a 2 year old! Time is-a-wastin'! My BFF and sister-in-law recommended East of Eden to me when she was pregnant with Nephew #3, and it is with great sadness that I am just now getting to it (because I stole her copy). I adore Steinbeck's writing. I want to bathe in it and drink it and imprint it on my brain to replace all of the complete shit that I have read over the last year and years past.

• Hemp milk

• watching cartoons in bed in the morning

• oatmeal raisin cookies for breakfast

• first playdate with a girl