mother's day

I wasn't really expecting to celebrate today or treat it any differently, so I really appreciated my husband making an effort to mark it as special somehow. During my nap time with the baby this afternoon, I heard the front door screech open and shut, and I thought he had gone to a coffee shop to get some math research done. As it turned out, my husband was scouting out possible places around Wallingford that he thought I would enjoy for dinner and/or just walking around. I really appreciated the thought. This was something that earlier on in our marriage, he would never have done.

We ended up eating at Hawaiian Breeze, which was recommended by a new friend and was a thousand times better than Satay, the Malaysian street food place near it that we'd tried a few weeks earlier. I think H.B. will be my walkable go-to place for sushi from now on. It's not particularly cheap, but the variety and selection are pretty good.

Afterwards, we strollered Declan and walked to Gasworks Park. It was a beautiful summer-ish night, except it was still bright sunshine outside around late 7pm or 8, so it felt like midday. Loads of people there. Declan got really excited as we entered the park and played frisbee and catch with a tennis ball with some friendly people who didn't mind him running up to them and taking their toy. Ah, uninhibited toddlerhood.

Before dinner, Daniel had taken Declan to Wallingford Center, where Declan found an island of toy trains and tracks that he delightedly played with. We bumped into another young family who we had met earlier (like a month ago) at Yogurtland; their son--about Declan's age--also got pulled in by the trains. Declan whimpered a little when the other boy intercepted his train rolling along one particular part of the train track. As much as I love how mobile and increasingly independent Declan's getting, I'm starting to struggle with a greater need to gently discipline and guide him to cooperate with others more and being more considerate in general. It's really funny how he immediately goes "uhm!" firmly and kind of snottily whenever I ask him to do something. Must not encourage. Fortunately, he is open to negotiations, but I definitely don't want to spoil him.  Must pray more faithfully.

Declan also wandered into an art showing at the W. Center, and made barking sounds as he eagerly led me to a picture of a horse. I told him it's not a dog; it's a horse. He frowned at me skeptically, and barked some more. Sigh. Then, later, when we reached home, I tried to distract him with some cartoons of old Garfield episodes while trying to finish a mother's day project. After about half an hour or so, however, he started whining pathetically and made the "book" sign instead, and then ran to the fridge and tried to open the door. So I closed the laptop and we read some books while he ate coconut milk yogurt before he went to bed. These little things that show our positive influence on him make me happy.

All in all, a really lovely day with my little family, even including a rather painful and frustrating talk with the husband as we were walking to church. I was glad for the time that we got to do that anyway. And I hope my mother's day project was a blessing to other moms instead of potentially being really weird.