a big, big post…and a garden.

i knew it was going to be a good weekend yesterday morning. just had a feeling as my girl awakened in our barely-lit room, smiled and said…good morning, mama. she says it every morning…all sweet and sugary, and i’ve realized it’s her way of getting on our good side so we won’t tell her to go back to sleep. it so works.
the air smelled like an early michigan spring day…with the week’s earlier cold front barely lingering with sweet humidity-free breezes but this week’s sunshine still optimistically trickling in.

we did our whole coffee/linger/long shower saturday morning thing…and it was beautiful.

she sings in the shower now. made up words that come out this sweet toddler morning melody…like maaa-laaaa-ohhhh…beeeee. i have some precious video footage of it still to upload…someday.

and today? oh, today was splendid.
we left the house early to kidnap papa because that’s what we do when he’s down here. he has no choice as we usually ambush him with an early phone call that just says something like, ‘we’re on our way to come get you…’ and we hang up before he tells us of any possible plans. i think he likes it though.

we whizzed through dunkin donuts drive-thru first for a decaf…and powdered munchkins for the girl…and good weekend continues with an overly smiley employee who, at 8:15 on a sunday morning, finds the energy to tell me my headband is pretty. she smiles and playfully assures me i’ll wake up soon when she catches me yawn. her smile is genuine and i think i want to be her friend.

we drive past the back of a house i’ve never noticed before on immokalee. there’s a beautiful wooden deck sprawled over what appears to be a glorified ditch… and on that deck, an older man in a sweater sitting in a chair enjoying a cup of coffee and a paper. i bet he saved up forever for that deck. and i’ll bet he doesn’t know it’s a ditch. i bet, to him…it’s an ocean view.

we pick up papa and head out, listening to christmas music along the way, to the grand opening weekend of naples’ new botanical gardens which ends up being one of the best decisions ever in the history of mankind.

it. was. beautiful.

we walked along lake paths, chased butterflies, laid in rare southern soft grass, and took in the beauty of a sunday morning spent quietly among a trillion colors of our fabulous little florida.

lainey spent over an hour in the amazing children’s garden where she settled into a small cottage just her size…sweeping the porch and filling watering cans to take care of ‘her’ window boxes.

we breathed in the blessed perfume of basil in the herb gardens, made some butterfly antenna and promised our girl that butterflies indeed, do not bite. she didn’t believe us.

if you live in the naples area, i cannot urge you enough to come visit this place (i say ‘come’ as if it’s ours…and thanks to papa, we’re now family members, so we’ll be there lots). there are acres and acres of magnificence. i think my favorite garden was this little fenced in place just swamped with creativity…plants growing out of old tennis shoes and roller skates, tea cups full of bird seed…and these lovely purses blooming some beauty…

hello, little heaven.

yes, our morning was simply fabulous.

and pregnant shadows make me smile.

and happy day continued at home with an afternoon in the sprinkler…

and her release of some faces she never lets us get on camera…although we see them all the time. i felt like i had captured bigfoot and was half-afraid my images would strangely disappear if i didn’t immediately upload them after.

…and my most favorite face ever she makes from time to time. always makes me laugh.

and she works it because she knows it’s my favorite one.

we love happy weekends.

…and know there are many more to come.

lainey is sound asleep and little sister is auditioning for lord of the dance in there…or somethin’ like it. wow.

i. am. …happy.