sunny picnic on the grass

The first couple of years we lived in San Diego we were apartment dwellers. The apartment was nice but it was awful to not have any outdoor "natural" space. We lived across the street from a fantastic mall so if I wanted to take a walk without driving, it had to be there. Other than that, we had a small patio where William liked to spend a lot of time, but there's only so much you can do in a 14'x14' space in the shade. So when we started looking for a house to rent I was super excited about the prospect of having a yard. Then when I saw our yard with two orange trees, a lemon tree, a peach tree, a rose bush, a huge covered patio and lots of grassy space I was in love. This Saturday reminded me of why I fell in love in the first place.

It was a beautiful day so we decided to have a picnic in our backyard. I made a huge sandwich on a loaf of French bread with salami (I'm obsessed lately), turkey, provolone, lettuce, tomato, pickle, avocado, two kinds of mustard and lots of black pepper. It was delicious and ridiculously thick but pulling out some of the bread innards helped. Then we also devoured our first watermelon of the year. It tasted like a summer's day. I also made delicious snickerdoodles (recipe coming!) and we watched William do funny things on the grass. As I observed my son running circles on our beautifully green just-cut grass, I noticed his face getting redder and redder until he was a delightful, little tomato. So I declared it naptime and took him inside, washed his face with a cool cloth, gave him some ice water in a sippy cup, turned on his ceiling fan and, after the appropriate amount of crying, he fell fast asleep. Doesn't that sound amazing? Maybe it's because I'm sleep deprived but spending the day outside in the hot sun and then laying on some cool sheets in a dark bedroom to take a nap sounds like my version of I-have-a-newborn-baby-heaven.

Life's good but I still need a nap.