Its weekends like these that remind me how I am a true born n' bred Floridian.
I am done. Finished. Through. Over winter by December 26th.
In Florida, we still had a grey couple of months, but I don't remember many chilly days after January.
This weekend felt utterly amazing. Highs of 73, lows of 55... Jason and I slept with the windows open and stayed outside as long as the still-short daylight hours would permit.
We went to the early morning Mass on Sunday so we could have the entire rest of the day together (we really had only one day of a weekend - Jason had an all-day MBA thingy on Saturday). We ran into one of our favorite little shops and got coffee and bagels. For some reason, I have a temporary aversion to hot coffee, but Iced Coffee is irresistible. I don't want to stop and count how many days in the past two weeks I have broken down and bought myself an overpriced, refreshing, heavenly Hazelnut Iced Coffee with just a little room for a splash of cream. Baby likes.
We took a 2 1/2 hour stroll through the park. The pictures can't do justice to the beauty of the day. Even though the grass is still brown and the trees still bare, it truly felt like an early March morning.
The beginning hints of Spring always bring me waves of nostalgia for that first Spring with my first baby. We brought him home on the 28th of February, and within a week could take him, bundled and cuddled, on walks in the fair Spring weather.
My life has changed so fast since that Spring of 2011. I am so excited for the many changes to come this year.
Like I said, the pictures are unable to convey the feel of the day being anything but wintry. But it was the most beautiful day.
We went home and found ourselves in instinctive Spring Cleaning mode. It was kind of funny. I scrubbed my cabinets and Jason cleaned out the outdoor storage closet. And we worked on cleaning up our jungle of a backyard. I think we made a dent in it.
It's weird... those of you who are either friends with me in real life or who have been following my blog for awhile know that I have long professed to be a Fall girl. I always get so excited for the leaves to fall and the air to turn crisp and woodsy.
However, at some point recently when I was reflecting back on my last year... and the happy excitement in my pregnancy which caused me to revisit 2011, my last experience with a new baby, as well... I made a self-discovery that was a bit shocking.
I am happiest in the Spring and Summer.
My happiest memories are made in these seasons... I feel the most confident and beautiful in my own tanned (non-dried-out and parched) skin... I am naturally more active all day and I unintentionally make the most lovely memories.
Even to the point that I spend much less money in the Summer on my Budget Bane... clothes and shoes. I am so perfectly content running around in a pair of cut-offs and a white tank top. [Just give me a shiny new pair of Jacks and I'm set for months.]
I don't know why I never quite realized this before. I only ever made the connection that I am most happy and fulfilled being near the ocean. But I suppose the fact that most of my early life was lived down by the coast, where there were few changing seasons and summer stretched its merciless heat out for forever... I felt that Autumn was by contrast the most new and exciting thing each year that I finally got to truly experience it upon moving to the Carolinas.
However - and this is not just caused by the unparalleled joy which this particular summer will bring - I have to admit... I'm a Spring and Summer girl, through and through.
I thought about this again last night, as I made a last-minute escape to go on the exciting adventure of baby-free grocery shopping. My sweet huz told me to get out since I hadn't really gotten much of a Saturday while he was gone - it felt just like any old weekday. He took care of Will's bedtime so I could get some alone time and finally do a whole week's worth of grocery shopping with a set meal plan. [I haven't done this in over a month thanks to the first trimester. Yikes. Oh, the money wasted.]
In my wild new freedom, alone, in the car, going to Trader Joe's, overcome by adrenaline, I may have rolled all the windows down and blared my old spring mix cd of music I am too embarrassed to admit I listen to. It was just... freeing. Even though, had it truly been summer, the evening would've been light as day still at only 6 o'clock. Driving in the pink dusk, I found myself imagining all the beautiful memories I want to make this spring... memories of long walks and reading Breakfast at Tiffany's for the 50th time, and a Big Two Birthday, and long nights in the hopefully-somewhat-tamed-backyard, and days at the beach in July with my big belly.
ERRRRRrrrrrr I wish so much that I could fast-forward the next month and a half!
P.S.: Sorry for the lack of pregga pics, people. There are a few reasons: 1) I am trying to learn how to use the Nikon D40. 2) I am not "showing" - more like super-bloated and beer-bellyish. So I will limit the side-view pics until I have more of a pop and less of a pooch. ;)
Labels: breakfast at tiffany's, charlotte, dilworth, first trimester, Florida, freedom park, memories, nostalgia, pregnancy, spring, summer, walk, walks
