Today was perfect.
Today was one of those Mondays. Pretired Baby woke up at the same time as me so I didn’t have any time to check in online and see what was happening in the world, my web site or my life.
After a quick diaper change, we had a leisurely breakfast together (egg frittata, toast, yogurt, banana, milk and cereal). Then I cleaned up the kitchen while he watched from the playpen. Then some playing on the floor before he went down for nap number one.
Once he was down, I rushed to handle the latest two money-sucking nightmares with my fourplex sale. After an hour of calls with my property manager, realtor and a contractor, I took a quick shower and tried to de-stress a little bit. Then I answered a few more emails (mostly blog-related) until I heard Pretired Baby hollering to let me know he was awake.
After a lunch of grilled cheese, leftover pasta and leftover yogurt from breakfast, I cleaned up once again and we played on the floor together for awhile, while I surreptitiously checked email occasionally to see how the fourplex craziness was proceeding. As that was more or less under control, I loaded Pretired Baby into the stroller for a trip down to Seattle’s best park, Lincoln Park, just a couple miles from Pretired.org World Headquarters.
While the park was quite empty compared to the weekend crowds, all the swings were taken so I couldn’t continue my mission of getting him used to swinging (he starts wanting down after about two minutes currently). So we walked the lovely path along the water, nodding at the various MILFs, retirees and dog-walkers. We walked around the Colman Pool building (Seattle’s only saltwater pool and only accessible via a pretty decent hike from the parking lot.)
We paused along the path on the way back and I pulled Pretired Baby out to sit on my lap on a bench. He sat very quietly watching the water, the sky, the passersby and the ferry to Vashon Island. The water splashed gently. Old ladies smiled at us enviously. His tiny toes curled and uncurled around my thumb. A light breeze lifted his thin hair and laid it down gently again.
With some different luck and some different choices I could very well have been sitting in a cubicle right now while he swapped germs with other babies at a daycare center. But here we were in a nearly empty park enjoying some of the best weather in North America.
The stress was gone. Everything that has been keeping me so busy could wait a little while. We climbed the hill for home where I laid him down for a nap. He fell asleep with no protest. Life is good. Today was perfect.
Update
When Pretired Mama got home, we decided to make the day even more perfect by getting some Fish ‘n’ Chips at Spuds on Alki Beach, the oldest fast food restaurant in Seattle and eat dinner on the sand. Then we got frozen yogurt on the way home. Every day should be like this…
Mmm, that sand looks delicious!
Home again. Too tired to clean the frozen yogurt and sand off my face.
