Mother's Day

My first Mother's Day was pretty much perfect, if a little sweaty. We drove down to Aptos to spend the afternoon at my parents' house with a stop in Sunnyvale to visit my Granny. The city was sunny and chilly, but by the time we were down the Peninsula, it was pushing eighty degrees. In all the rushing around to get us all showered, packed and out the door, Lane managed to get me to drink some coffee and sit down with a morning bun and open my present. He (and Elliott) gave me two gorgeous baskets made by women in Senegal.

We surprised Granny with a visit from her favorite baby and we were surprised by a visit from my Uncle Dave. Elliott babbled along with the four of us as we caught up and Granny and Dave told stories about little Sarah.


An hour and a half, one overturned trailer and the Highway 17 beach traffic parking lot later, we made it to Aptos. My dad made a big pot of tortilla soup, which we snarfed down with cornbread and beer. My parents had a blast with Elliott, who in turn had a blast wearing no pants in the warm weather. Lane and I picked a bunch of lemons from the Meyer lemon tree my parents have been actively neglecting for the past ten years. They are destined to become marmalade and maybe a lemon meringue pie. I also picked some lavender I planted in high school and a bunch of calla lilies from the plant growing wild behind the house. We watched the Giants game and we watched Elliott goof around with my dad. Lane's mom popped in for a FaceTime chat from Indiana.

We hit the beach before heading home for Elliott's first glimpse of the ocean. He was indifferent, but Lane and I spotted some dolphins in the breakers. We did have to pull over so I could join Elliott in the backseat while we were stuck in the beach traffic -- he gets lonely back there after a while -- but I managed to get him to sleep in about half an hour.

I was pretty exhausted (I'm still all kinds of weak from surgery) by the time we finally made it home, but I got to snuggle up next to my two dudes and conk out listening to them talk and coo at each other.