New Midlife Mommy

A Taste Of A Small Town

Today, we had a "Taste Of" day.  It was awesome.  They shut down Main Street, and there were about thirty different booths with all kinds of food.  I know that this is not something that is very unusual in the country, but I think it is unusual to have such an event in a town as small as ours.  And, all we had to do was walk down our block a few houses, and we were right in the middle of it.

Fortunately, one of the booths had chicken fingers, so DD got something to eat.  They also had a kids center, with a moon walk, games, etc.  DH suggested that we go there first, but I was interested in the food.  As it turned out, DH had the right approach, because DD fell asleep halfway through our food excursion.  So, we had to go home after we were finished, wait for the nap to end, and then go back so she could have some fun.  If we'd done it his way, DD would have had her play time, and then we could have had ours while she slept away the day in the stroller.

Anyway, I think she's too little for the moon walk, at least when there are older kids around.  At first, she was the only kid in there and couldn't quite figure out what to do.  After one other kid got in, she saw what she was supposed to do and started jumping around a little bit.  But then it quickly filled up with kids, and she started to get a little nervous.  I had to go in and pull her out -- but she wasn't crying.  She was a little trooper.

We also ran into our handyman half-way through.  His girlfriend works at a jewelry store in town, and he is affiliated with the music conservatory, also in town.  So, we had a chance to talk for a little while before stuffing our faces.  And, during the short time that we had DD at home sleeping, some friends stopped by after leaving the festivities; they'd parked near our garage (because there just isn't anywhere to park!).

So, I'm pretty tired after all of that.  I ate too much.  And took in too many carbs.  I will never, ever lose this baby weight the way that I'm going.  It seems like I cheat every day, so that the truth is, I'm not really watching my weight at all.  Since I'm still breastfeeding, I know that I have to take things slowly, but who am I kidding?  Sigh. 

Perhaps next week I can get on a roll.  But I'll have to stay out of DD's goldfish (which have been my Achilles heel lately).  And thankfully, this event only comes once a year.

Picnic? Not So Much.

Our little town picnic was scheduled for today.  Today, of all yucky days.  We were supposed to have kind of a halfway decent weekend, or at least a fairly good Sunday, but it really wasn't.  It was actually pretty cold, overcast, and windy.

But, we decided that we would brave the elements anyway.  I bought some fried chicken (what -- you thought I would actually make a picnic lunch?  P'shaw).  We loaded up the chicken, drinks, utensils, a blanket, and DD into a little wagon and made our way over to the park.

Sadly, there weren't very many people there at all.  There were a few kids digging for pennies in a pile of sand, and a handful of people meandering around.  Unfortunately, I think that they were the organizers, not town participants.  DD got a free red balloon, and she promptly lost it when it got away from her.  She was very upset, but we distracted her with lunch.  Afterward, we had free ice cream, which went ideally well with the weather -- not. 

After that, DD got a yellow balloon, which was tied to her wrist with a slip knot.  She lost that one too, but this time, she wasn't that upset about it.  Good thing, because given the lack of people there, the balloon people obviously knew who we were.  And, I forgot the oyster crackers that I'd bought for DD to feed to the ducks with.

All in all, it was a bust.  DH and I got into a little tiff on the way home, so that really topped things off well.  DD was crabby, because she'd refused to take a nap earlier in the day.

When we got back, I decided that I was going to sit outside anyway and pretend that it was nice, even if I had to sit outside by myself.  (It really wasn't all that bad.)  DH and DD joined me, and at least we had a chance to write out all of our thank you notes from DD's birthday party.  And have a couple glasses of wine while DD finally fell asleep on my lap.  And that was good.