Holiday weekend, part deux.

OK, it's the narrative version this time. We had a very busy weekend that's left us completely exhausted. After Maia went to bed at about 8:15 this evening, Brian and I basically collapsed in front of the TV to watch "Iron Chef" on our DVR; it was just the recharging we needed. I just finished writing a couple of work-related e-mails, and Brian is watching the movie 300, I think.

On Saturday, we started the weekend with much of our usual routine: the Farmer's Market, coffee and bagels, and some random errands that needed to get done before our big yard work adventure on Sunday. Nana and Papa Hecker arrived around dinnertime, and Brian and I left for the evening for our belated anniversary dinner out. Before our 8:30 dinner reservation, we just sat outside at a table at our favorite coffee shop (Sweetwater's on Washington St.) and talked for about two hours before it was time to eat. It reminded us both of some parts of our old routine, our pre-Maia years when we could spend three hours at a coffee shop, just reading and talking.

Then, on Sunday morning, after breakfast with Nana and Papa at Zingerman's (they stayed overnight), we bought the works for our backyard project: flowers, mulch, pea gravel, potting soil, edging stones, tomato plants, herbs, etc., etc. (Thanks to the government for the economic stimulus! I hope that President Bush likes our tomatoes.) From 11:00 AM until about 8:00 PM, the four of us worked on fixing-up our backyard and making it a more pleasant space, and I think we succeeded. Also, Brian brought out his backyard BBQ smoker for its inaugural run this year; we had pulled pork sandwiches with a North Carolina style sauce.

Brian and I finished the backyard job this morning during Maia's nap, and then we went to Kensington Metropark for an eight-mile bike ride around the lake and some play time at the playground. Another Kensington Park highlight was the very tall tree in the "nature preserve" area of the park with the top branches occupied by nesting Great Blue Herons. It was amazing! We could only see the silhouettes of the herons against the sky, but we could distinguish the adults from the young ones by the awkward way that the youngsters flapped their wings. There were probably a dozen of them in their huge nests of sticks and branches along one side of the tree.

So now, we are exhausted.

How did Maia fit into all this? She helped plant tomatoes, played with some water, pans, and cups, enjoyed her BBQ sandwich and red cabbage coleslaw, and went for a couple of bike rides with Nana and Papa in her PJs! :) She got five outfits dirty in two days, ate dirt at least twice, and she learned to say the words "push" (as in the cart at Home Depot) and "dirt" (as in her new favorite food). In just about three days, her vocabulary has gone up from about 85 words to about 100.

On the way home from our ice cream outing just before bedtime, Brian summed up our weekend with Maia this way, only half-jokingly: "It's just hard to explain to everyone that she really is the world's most awesome kid, literally. You know, you really can't make someone else understand that!" :) Yeah, we're those parents.