Sanne and I spent the last week “in Chicago” with one of my best friends, a mama to two boys, who actually lives in a very sweet suburb of Chicago that is basically a dreamland of boys biking to each others’ houses, mamas texting, and driveway drinks. The parents are all lovely and amazing, the kids are as sweet as eight-year-old boys can be, and the homes are gorgeous with yards bursting with beautifully planted and perfectly kept flowers. It’s ridiculous. We loved it.
It was a wonderful reset: (early) mornings that were somehow both slow and crazy, coffees and conversations, parenting together but in very different phases of life. We bopped into the city for a day on the train, ate a Michelin-recommended lunch in Chinatown, and had a shituation in the loveliest park. We road-tripped to the first beach town on Lake Michigan, New Buffalo, which was stunning with perfect weather and delicious food.
I took very few pics that weren’t of Sanne being the cutest baby ever, learning the stairs and gaining more teeth and toddling everywhere.
My gratitude for my friend, her family, and the peace her week’s respite gave me is boundless. I am so lucky.
I am so grateful for my friendships, particularly ones like this one that have grown and changed as we have, with no judgment or resentment, just space and love.
I am so grateful for my family, my nephew who missed me and asked when we’d hang out again, my cousin brother who failed to tell me he was coming to town but I got to see for an hour anyway, my mama who rushes over to see the baby before we left and when we got back.
I am so grateful this is a BUSY week and changes are coming and we have a babysitter and life is a very flexible adventure.