I met Audra through one of my oldest friends, Jessica. They went to college together and then crossed the U.S. right after college to move to L.A. I had met her a few times before their trek, and I also hung out with her on the few trips I made out to CA. We always got along famously well and noticed many parallels in our lives whenever we'd meet again.
Both of us got married within the same 12 month period (I think), and we both ended up having our first child in 2006, she in the beginning of the year, and me near the end. We both now live on the East Coast again, and up until recently, we both lived in basement apartments with family members living above (oh the stories we trade!).
This visit was very similar to the others with us finding how much we still have in common even though both our lives have drastically changed. We parent much the same way, and as she pointed out, as much as we self-criticize, we both have pretty well-behaved kids. Woo hoo.
Ellie and her oldest, Noah, had a blast this weekend. They chased each other continuously, fought over toys (not too much really), got to swim in the pool, just pretty much just be kids. Oh, how I envy. Her youngest, little Jake, is such a cutie. I must admit he stole my heart. And her husband, Jon, is really quite nice. This is the first time I met him, and I thought he was pretty cool. Audra has a lovely family.
We talked for hours once the kids were in bed, and that was by far my favorite part of the weekend. I love to gab, share horror stories about births and such, and laugh about all the stupid things we did when we were younger. I wished we could have stayed up to chat all night, but that's not really feasible for moms.
****************************************************
Among all the other stuff we did, we made a trip to my local zoo. I just had to put that in here because I got an amazing picture while we were there, and I want to share:
Is this not amazing? They built a new viewing house that overlooks the wolf enclosure so you can see the wolves more close up. It's amazing. During this trip, we experienced something we've never seen or heard at the zoo. The two timber wolves were sleeping as usual, when all of a sudden the both stood up and started howling. Slowly, the red wolves and the maned wolves in the other enclosures joined them. It sounded like a sad lament but it was utterly beautiful in the most basic form of nature, if that makes any sense. I took that shot from my side of the glass wall in mid howl. The zoo worker that was in the observation house told us we had to go outside to listen because it was even more fantastic than listening to it in there. We all ran out, and he was so right. I am so glad I got to witness it. We have no idea what they were howling about, but it was incredible nonetheless.
********************************************************
Ellie's pretty much fully potty-trained now. She does naps, overnights, the works. And last night, she pooped in the potty for the first time. I freakin' threw a party. She got like 20 stickers for that one. I am ecstatic.
********************************************************
Yesterday, I decided to take the day off and hung out with my mom. Neither of us can even remember the last time we spent the day together. It may have been before Harry and I started dating. We had a wonderful day together. I couldn't be happier. And, to top it all off, she babysat last night so Harry and I could go see Harry Potter. Contrary to the book lovers/movie haters, I enjoyed the movie immensely. I could forgive the changes and omissions because I was fully entertained. I want to go see it again. I didn't even remember some of the major omissions until an hour later, so it was no big loss to me. I told Harry about some of them, and he proclaimed, "Man, those would have been cool!" LOL. Yes, they would have. He's hoping they're maybe in an extended DVD version. I don't think that's gonna happen. I know my niece doesn't agree with me, but there are times when I can like both the book and the movie for different reasons. This is one of them.
No comments:
Post a Comment