Sunrise Sunset

Well, that was quite the unintentional hiatus, wasn’t it? Oops.

It’s been a sad few weeks. In addition to the death of my brother’s childhood buddy, my mom’s best friend lost her husband unexpectedly, and since their family is essentially just an extension of our own family, it was a lot of shock and sorrow to process. So I’ve been sending prayers and love and good vibes their way as best I can and hugging my kids a little more tightly. Frank was quite the charmer, so I know that he’s probably got a long line of angels ready to tip back a glass of wine with him.

But today I need to commemorate a mother daughter milestone, or actually 2 milestones. For the first time, Sabrina and I ventured out to the mall without 1) diapers, and 2) the stroller. And we survived. Or rather, I survived, because Sabrina thought nothing of it. I’ve mentioned before that change is not my friend, so taking on such an endeavor, menial though it may seem to the non parents out there, felt like jumping headlong into a swimming pool that just might be filled with razor blades. I mean, imagine the disasters that could await. And how much money would Sabrina’s bull in a china shop act cost me?

But she was a trooper. I strapped on her monkey pack, at her request, which is basically a monkey-shaped backpack with a long cord and handle that clips to it that I bought to keep a similarly-aged Sammy at bay in the airport back in the day. And I’m sure I got some dirty looks from other patrons for putting a leash on my kid. But I wasn’t yanking at her, and most of the time we just walked holding hands. In fact, it felt like she was keeping track of me with it most of the time. It just kept us together. One lady even giggle that we were the cutest things she’d seen all day. Score 1 for the leash!

Thinking back over this achievement, and make no mistake, I’m definitely celebrating this as 1 big badass achievement today, I can feel the twinges of Oh My Baby Is All Growed Up ticking the back of my brain and all the bittersweetness that goes along with that. But for now, I’ll just savor the thought that one day, in the actually foreseeable future, we will be out of the diaper loop. And that will be a day to celebrate for sure. I’m chilling the champagne in anticipation.