Flashback

Weird, if this was my pregnancy with Jonah, I would have just given birth an hour ago. I would be sitting there willing my placenta to come out, holding this little tiny boy (who wasn't going to stay tiny for long) and basking in the glow of the most beautiful home waterbirth ever. It would be 2 days before Christmas and Maya would have just collapsed into dreamland, her little 2 3/4 year old self puzzling about what in the heck she just witnessed.
But it is not then...and instead I am sitting here with my tired and grouchy self. Hoping I handled the Big Sex Talk with the kids OK. All of a sudden they are asking all these questions about the impending birth. It just occurred to Jonah to ask how the baby got there in the first place. Sigh. Brett is working late so he can take tomorrow off, so I was on my own...but luckily we have a couple book resources that helped me out a little bit.
Off to bed actually. But first I have to tell you about our day. We had a field trip to The Cloisters, which is an amazing branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the very northern portion of Manhattan. It is surrounded by lush green park with views of the river. The museum is housed in a castle-like building with beautiful stone architecture, twists and turns and 4 cloisters (gardens surrounded by covered walkways--think monks walking around in meditation). It contains the Unicorn Tapestries, and if you haven't read Tracy Chevalier's books (The Lady and the Unicorn and Girl With A Pearl Earring), go do so right now. They are really lovely, wonderful engaging books and I can't believe I got to see the real tapestries just today. So cool. I love that about New York. The kids all really enjoyed the field trip--they learned about plants in the gardens that artists used to make the dyes, assorted mythical creatures that people in the middle ages believed were real, stories about knights and the plague (like did you know that our word for boo boo comes from what showed up as a spot or mark that indicated you had the plague--they called it bubo for bubonic back then?). Anyways, it was fascinating, the items in the museum were varied and interesting and it was great to have the tour split between the outside gardens and the inside pieces. Am going to have to add The Cloisters to my favorite NYC places.
I could have been biased by the continuing incredible weather and our 2 hour picnic in the park afterward with a fabulous group of happy kids and wonderful mom friends. The girls built fairy houses while the boys ran around with sticks...it was just one of those great happy-to-be-here days.