I've thought a lot about what traditions I want to start or continue now that E is here. What kind of childhood do I want him to have? What parts of my childhood do I want him share vs what will we start that's special to our little family?
One of the things that I knew for sure, was that I wanted him to experience summers in Maine like I had. It's so important to me, I booked our week in Maine on September 19th. I found out I was pregnant on September 15th.
When we were there last year, E was just a dream in our hearts. We hoped that we'd be back with children of our own. We hoped that it might happen as soon as this summer, but back then we had no idea. (Although looking at that blog post, I'm realizing now that it was published after I found out, I'm pretty sure I wrote it weeks earlier. We had actually visited Maine in August)
So this year, off to Maine we went, as I've been doing since I was not much older than E is now. And this time I went as a parent and got to experience it as I never had before. Was it more tiring than years before? Were there things I wasn't able to do? Yes and yes. But was it more rewarding and magical than ever? Absolutely.
A note about these pictures. Top left is me and my sisters with my cousins. Raina is holding Brooke who was a bridesmaid in my wedding. Top right is E with his cousins, being held by Raina's daughter, who was also a bridesmaid in my wedding.
Bottom left is me holding my nephew (who is also in the picture at the top right). Bottom right is my niece holding E.
Not only did we visit some of my favorite places, but we got to make plans for future years. Years in which we'll bring our children on the trolley, to the amusement park, and the arcade. Days we'll spend on the beach or playing mini golf. So while we spent this year practicing tumy time and looking at E's favorite black and white board book, it was only the start of many more years to come.
When we realized we had a 4 day weekend for Easter, it felt like we should go somewhere. We’re at an age where travel is almost easier than staying home! Gone are the days we were afraid to leave the house. Now if we stay home it’s more likely the house will get destroyed.
We’d been tossing around the idea to try Legoland NY for a while, since we’re big into Lego in this house. And then just days after Tom and I were discussing it, the kids came home and asked if we could go. It seemed like a sign and so off we went.