As a follow-up to my post “Happy Mother’s Day, from a Motherless Mother,” I thought I’d share a little recap of what Mother’s Day looked like in our house. I can’t begin to say thank you for reading that post; it was something near and dear to my heart that I’ve thought about a thousand times, but never put down in words. 3000+ reads and dozens of shares later, I know that I am in no way alone in feeling this way. I don’t think the pain of losing and missing a parent ever goes away, no matter how old you are or how long that person has been gone. In any case, it was incredible to hear from so many people who have been there too.

Started the morning drinking HOT coffee (who gets to drink hot coffee with a 17 month old running around?) and wrapping gifts. I finally flipped through my insanely awesome Chatbook, which the Chatbooks folks so kindly gifted me, and I was honestly in awe of the images. I kept thinking, “I can’t believe I took those, and I can’t believe my little girl is practically a grown-up.” I’m prone to hyperbole, so the grown-up part, maybe not so much. But I do give a lot of credit to Instagram for forcing me to become a better photographer and develop an eye for which pictures look good enough to post. Not to mention, you can get your first Chatbook for free with code CUTEH290. It never expires. Use it!

After that, we went to the park for a little pre-lunch playtime. This park is amazing; I discovered it a few weeks ago and I love it because it’s basically the Island of Misfit Toys. Neighbors drop off their old, unwanted toys for other kids to enjoy, and some of them don’t even work, but the kids don’t care. It’s so much more fun to play with new toys than the toys they already have. That’s kind of how I feel about shoes, but I digress…

Lunch was at one of our favorite spots, Pondicheri. I want to tell you I was shocked that my child ate an entire strawberry banana crepe by herself, but that would be a lie. I would have been surprised if she hadn’t eaten it all. Omelets for my husband and me, and the kid even ate a little of those.

We surprised Doug’s grandmother with an afternoon visit, and got to spend some quality time with her. It’s normal for kids to get presents on Mother’s Day, right?

In the evening, spent time with family, drinking, eating and swimming. In the words of Ice Cube, today was a good day.