Everyone should have a babymoon, i've decided. Typically, a babymoon is a vacation you take with your significant other a short time before your baby is born, before your lives are changed forever and nothing will ever be just about the two of you again. It sounds wonderful, but we never did it. Instead, we took our babymoon four months after Abby was born - on the anniversary of our first year of marriage.

I'm not really sure why the term "babymoon" is used for a trip taken before birth, since honeymoons are taken after marriage. After marriage, but before you start getting on each other's nerves (ha ha). You're still in love. You might have been dating for a while, but things are still new and exciting and you still genuinely want to be together 100% of the time. Shouldn't babymoons, then, be the same? We took ours now - after birth, but before, say, the terrible twos? - after we'd finally established somewhat of a routine, while things are a little easier but still new and exciting and we still want to be with our baby 100% of the time (yes, she still sleeps in our bed!). Our babymoon wasn't a final rushed attempt to savor our independence as a childless couple, but a weekend away with our child that would allow us to fully focus on, and appreciate, the three of us as a family.

No work, no phone calls, no worries. Just Mommy, Daddy, and Baby.

On Saturday morning, we threw everything into the car and drove to Maine. It was overcast, cool, and sometimes rainy, but it was just what we needed. We went there to get away from here, and we savored every minute of it.

Before we even checked into our hotel, we had lunch at the Maine Diner. This was the first time we had brought Abby into a restaurant, ever! In fact, it was the first time we'd been to a restaurant in ages. Jeremy and i always feel that we eat so well at home, and we do, and we love cooking together. But this weekend was a treat. We had lobster pie, and although Abby is too young to eat solid food, she did hold a spoon for the first time. It went straight to her mouth, as everything does these days, and she was an absolute doll during the meal. Waitresses stopped to smile at her and comment on her cuteness. As an elderly couple was leaving, the husband stopped to make faces at her and attempted to make her laugh. That's what we love about people in Maine - they are so friendly! And they are always so genuinely happy for you and your family.

After lunch, we checked into our hotel and put on another layer of clothing so we could go to Ogunquit Beach. It was foggy and nearly deserted, but those who were there were holding hands as they strolled the sand, or flying kites with their kids. It was a dream come true. Although Abby slept in her stroller, it was her first time on a beach at all, and it felt so special. Jeremy even wet his head in the water and took off his sandals! He is a true beach boy.

(the rest to come soon...sorry!)

I still remember one of the first things i said quietly to Abby when she was born: "Hi, Baby...i'm your mommy!"

In the weeks after, i said it numerous times gazing down at the most beautiful, amazing little human being i'd ever seen, realizing she was mine. And, perhaps even more stunning, that i was hers.

Even now, three months later, it still amazes me that i'm a mother. It feels so natural, and yet i'm still the same Audrey that i was before Abby was even conceived. Maybe better - no, for sure better - but deep down at the core, the same. And i would jump to the conclusion that i was never a mother before, but even that isn't entirely true. Because i've been dreaming of it all my life. I've worked side by side with the most troubled young people, and that gave me an outlet to care. I yearned for my true love and found him, and i finally got to be the wife that i always wanted to be. And now, i'm a mother in its purest form.

Joy.

I woke up this morning with my husband and our baby lying in bed between us, warm, cozy, secure. A room filled with love. Fat baby legs on soft sheets. We have to kiss her. It was probably the happiest morning i've had since the morning after Abby was born. She's mine, and i'm hers. This is our family.

Our Sweet Pea is starting to sprout!:



We visited Jeremy's parents, who were going out for lobsters (thank God we only have 6 days left until Maine), and then headed to my parents' house to meet up with my brother Tim and Grammy. Tim, Jeremy and i were having a clam boil for my mom. Tim brought the wine and bread and chorico, and we brought the corn, onions, potatoes and 18 pounds of clams. Yes, that's right - 18lbs! The employees at Kyler's Catch tried convincing us the day before that 12 lbs would do, but we didn't listen. And good thing we didn't, for there was nary a clam left at the end of the day!

All in all, it was a perfect little celebration of family and food, and giving one another what mothers most often need...Help!

I would like to begin this post by admitting that i never knew what a May Day was until i watched the BBC miniseries Cranford this winter with Jeremy. Still waiting for Abby to be born, my mind was a blank canvas for gathering ideas about how i would raise her and what sort of special traditions we'd start together.

When i saw all the members of Cranford, England dressed in their Sunday best sharing handmade goods and homemade delectables in a beautiful garden, i thought: that is adorable. And i immediately told Jeremy that i wanted to implement the tradition of a May Day in our family, starting with our little girl.

The origins of May Day go way back to pre-Christian times, and has over the years come to mean many different things to many different countries. In the United States, May Day was a day to deliver "May Baskets," small baskets filled with flowers and treats that one would leave on the doorstep of another and run away before they were seen, or else risk being caught and kissed by that person. Now, depending on where you live in the world, there are May Day parades, dances, bonfires and feasts. There is simply no end to the possible ways you can partake in this wonderful holiday.

As Abby is still too young to really understand the changing of seasons and how to celebrate them, there wasn't much i could do to make the day much different than any other. But it was a nice day - slightly cool, but sunny - and i was determined to begin this tradition right away. So i put on her sun hat and took her out onto the porch with me, where we used an empty organic milk carton to design a little bird house, and an empty organic egg carton to plant Sweet Pea (for my Sweet Pea, whose head still has plenty of growing to fit into that adorable sun hat).

In the future, i'd like to incorporate the May Baskets somehow. And maybe some jelly-canning. And maybe an all-out springtime festival. Though in order to accomplish all these things, we may have to have several May Days - and that's okay, right?

I have no idea if the Sweet Pea will grow (we are starting them indoors), and the bird house will take me some time (hard to focus on gluing a hundred little twigs to a milk carton with a baby), but it's a start. Our first little May Day together.