An Ordinary Day

Here's an entry about being grateful. With each day passing by of me being home with Alex, I am more and more grateful to God for providing for us in such a way that I am able to be a stay at home mom for now. I am very much grateful to my husband, Michael who agreed for me to quit my job and who works so hard that at the end of the day we have food, shelter and basic needs covered.

I am so grateful for my life. I have a special family, I live in a wonderful city, I go to an amazing church... Simply put it, I live a good life and today, just an ordinary day made me realize that once again. We all got up a little bit after 7 am and I decided to go for a little morning jog while Michael watched Alex. It was an unusually foggy fall day I thought, giving the day an already feel of mystery and unknown. It was a short run as I am not quite back into my pre-baby capacities, but enough to put me in a good mood. By the time I got home, Alex was fed and totally involved in playing with his toys. He's very good at playing by himself, shows a bit of a self-sufficiency quality which can come in handy for me when I need to get things done. After his morning nap, him and I got ready to get out of door and meet a dear friend for lunch. The weather changed completely since morning- wind was blowing and temperatures dropped quite a bit. I bundled up the little one, grabbed the rain cover just in case,  put on my new pair of rain boots (yes, I gave in and bought a pair for myself) and got out of the door. We walked all the way to Chinatown where we met Melanie for a delicious sushi lunch. Alex got to try tofu and had some rice. He liked the food, sitting in his high chair, enjoyed playing with whatever I let him have and managed to broke the little soy sauce plate. Ops! I somehow thought he wouldn't drop it and let him fly it over his head but it did land on the floor.

After lunch, little one and I did a bit of shopping at Bed, Bath and Beyond than crossed the street over to our favorite museum, National Portrait of Gallery. Alex had a blast (his shrieks of happiness could be heard all over the indoor court) crawling around and playing with me. He didn't care too much about the people taking apart the impressive stage which was set up there for some Global Forum according to the sign. We didn't spend too much time at the museum because I knew little one was sleepy. We headed back home in the cold rain, but Alex fell asleep almost right away, all cozy in the stroller and covered up. I walked back and then close to home, I decided to swing by this Mexican produce store I discovered not long ago by us. It's in the warehouse district area, north of Florida avenue, kind of weird area to walk around with a stroller but the store is amazing- it has very cheap produce:)) Got some stuff than headed home. Little one was awake and eager to get out of the stroller. Now that he can crawl everywhere, he doesn't have the patience anymore to stay still in the stroller. He wants to get out and look around. Inside the house, he started playing with his toys as if he was seeing his old friends again after a long separation.

It was now 4 pm and outside was cold and wet so we just stayed inside. Alex played, knocked on the door to the basement knowing his daddy was hiding behind it, crawled all over the main floor, ate some yummy stuff (carrot cake cupcake anyone?) and tired himself overall from being way too excited about everything he was doing. By 5.30 pm I had to rush out the door to a chiropractor appointment I had by Eastern Market so Alex stayed behind with daddy. I decided to jog over, the rain stopped by now although it was already dark outside. Had a pleasant appointment, it's only my second time going in for the treatment but it felt really good. I felt so relaxed leaving that place. Anyways, on the way home I stopped by a consignment kid's store by Eastern Market and found Alex a new vest and a pair of boots for winter. They both costed me $10 as I already had some credit from some clothes I took in earlier and got sold. I love that! Notice that once during my description of the day did I say I had to drive somewhere or even get in the bus/metro. I absolutely love living in a city where I can walk/run/bike to places. 

Ran home the rest of the way, just in time to give Alex a bath in the sink (see the photo below). He's growing so fast that we are not going to be able to do this much longer. He absolutely loves playing in the water and just splashing around. All clean and fresh, we put him down to sleep and it didn't take long, he was tired after yet another fun, interesting day.

Here I am, sitting down and sipping a glass of wine as I type this. I am coming back to my point and say that I am very grateful for being able to enjoy every moment (pretty much) of the day with my son and see him grow and develop into such a beautiful, healthy, happy baby who wakes up with a smile each morning and is eager to experience another wonderful day.