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One year old and excited about heart pants!
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My girls made me artwork for Valentine's Day!
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Happy weekend! I have been reminiscing about our lives a year ago, when COVID was only vaguely on our radar, when masks and vaccines were not yet in our everyday vocabulary, when we were still going out to eat and seeing friends in person. A year ago this weekend I was inviting my mother to visit for President's Day weekend and to meet baby Meredith for the first time. We had a Valentine's Day tea party at home and spent quality time together, mask-free and carefree. What a different time it was!
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| Our favorite local coffee shop, Java Joe's, sharing some love in the drive-thru |
We're making the best of it, though, and feeling cautiously optimistic as the number of hospitalizations decreases and more of our close friends and family get vaccinated. I did a Zoom craft night with some mommy friends earlier this month. Ady and Meredith brought Valentines to school and we made cards to mail to our friends and family. We're going to make a fancy dinner at home tomorrow for Valentine's Day. (I'm most excited for homemade coconut ice cream!)
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Valentines crafting
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| Cards from some of our friends |
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Ady's Valentines box, all set for her exchange at school!
And Happy Galentine's Day! I love that this has become a thing, and that we as a culture of women are embracing the important role that other women play in our lives. There's this unspoken acknowledgement that while romantic relationships are an important aspect of humanity, it's not realistic for an individual to meet all of one's needs, and we need friendships and connections and care shown through other love languages to help us feel complete. Ady helped me deliver some (contactless) Galentines gifts and cards to my friends locally, and my daughters even remembered to get a bottle of champagne for me too. (Actually, after planning their Zoom birthday parties AND Christmas AND organizing all their Valentines, I bought it for myself and put their names on it!)
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| Festive Galentine's Day brownies with lemon buttercream frosting |
This weekend in Santa Fe, like much of the country, we're under a winter weather watch as a cold front is moving in and several inches of snow are on the way. We took advantage of the warmer weather earlier this week and had a few trips to the playground (parks are officially open again, woo hoo!) and went to the ABQ Biopark Zoo yesterday morning. The girls LOVED seeing the friendly penguins, and we cracked up at a polar bear playing with a ball. (Sometimes animals show the true nature of humanity more than humans do!)
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| Making new friends at the ABQ Zoo |
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Meredith is mesmerized
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Last night Ady and I had movie night, watching Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella on Disney+, featuring Brandy and Whitney Houston. The acting and special effects were admittedly cheesy and very 1990s (hello blue eye shadow and shoulder pads), but I think about how revolutionary it must have been at the time, and how inspiring for little girls to see women of color in the roles of Queen, future Princess, and Fairy Godmother.
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Movie night: Cinderella
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Black History Month gives rise to a lot of opportunities for reflection and growth, especially as a parent, and this year I find myself thinking more and more about the future that my girls will live in and contribute to, and less about the past mistakes we have made. I guess I'm just feeling hopeful for the first time in a while now that we have new leadership of our country.
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| I love Jill Biden's festive artwork on the White House lawn. |
Happy Valentine's and Galentine's Day! May you experience and show love in whatever way is meaningful to you!
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