I Knew It All Along

There are gods of Mother's Day, or at least gods of mothers (Leto, Frigg, Aine etc.) who not only cured my cold but gave me the nicest day ever.

I had what I thought was the genius (and I was right) and completely original (I was not so right) idea to spend the day at the New York Botanical Gardens.   I love it there, and we always get suckered in by the beauty into buying a membership, and then we never go except it's not going to happen this year, but even if it does, as Dave said, I'd spend $100 on a massage, and this is massage for the soul.

As I discovered at my birthday last year, the best day for me is a day that my baby really enjoys too, and boy did she ever: 

"Look at this!  It's a flower!  There are flowers everywhere!"

"Yes, child.  Don't pick them." 

Willow's cold is still somewhat with us, in the form of intense snot runoff.  (I can hear Dave now--"you're posting ugly pictures of her!"  I think they're funny.)

But I think she could still smell the lilacs.

 

Anyway, after days and days of Willow refusing to walk but only having me carry her everywhere, it was such a relief to see her running around, clapping with delight at each blade of grass.

She did get a little frustrated at not being allowed to pick the tulips,

but giggling with daddy under a tree cave--and then up a tree, my goodness!--seemed to make it all better.

 

 

And then she conked out and we wandered through groves of pines, peonies, and azaleas, and ended up lying back under a crab apple tree listening to songs like Lida Rose and The Sidewalks of New York playing in the distance.   A lovely, lovely day.