one more for the week
Alas, this is what three extra days of childcare can let you accomplish. A second newsletter in one week. Honestly, needing a brain drain after that masterpiece I call the Nice guide.
Our week has had its ups and downs and we’re enjoying some slow time at home before we head off to Italy tomorrow. We’ll be staying in an agriturismo in Tuscany near Lucca, where Neilson can train with his coach before his next race. We’re looking forward to a change of scenery and some time together as a family before a long month apart.
Friday, we had a picnic on the beach with pizzas and orange wine. Then over the weekend, we spent time with friends up in the mountains meeting new babies and celebrating summer birthdays. I also snuck in a couple child-free dips in the sea around sunset…when the sun isn’t too strong, but it’s still warm enough to dry the salty seawater off your skin by the time you make it back to your towel.
Temps are rising here and we brought our ac units up from storage. Charlotte is cutting her two bottom teeth and sleeping in the lightest sleep sack possible. Nine months in, we’ve joined the rest of the parenting world with a camera in her room. With such thin walls, we could always hear when she was awake or crying, but after a few rambunctious naps where we came in and lamps had been knocked over and clothes from the top of the laundry bin dragged into her crib, we figured it was time.
We’ve had the weirdest sahara sand wind and rain storms over the past few days, and motivation to be outside in the unclean air is low.
Neilson and I went on a Wednesday afternoon lunch date, which has become a new favorite ritual to try a new restaurant and spend some time together. I was just talking about this with a friend how there’s some kind of guilt you feel in going on dates when you’re married but don’t have kids yet. And then when you have kids it feels so luxurious to pay someone else to watch your kids so that you and your spouse can have a meal together. But like a plant that needs to be watered, our relationships need quality time together to flourish. Of course we still spend the whole time talking about our baby, but she’s not there to grab for our food at the turn of every moment.
podcast du jour
I listened to a podcast this week about mothering and the workforce. One of them mentioned talking to their career coach about how she wishes she could have it all as a mother and career maven. And her coach said “who ever said you could have it all?” This hit home. And why do we think we can? Is it society? Is it internal pressure? Is it what we feel as women? There are only so many hours in the day and we have to prioritize what works for us in that season. Because there isn’t time to have it all. And maybe if we stop striving to have it all, we could lean into embracing our priorities without constantly wondering where we could have more.
A few others: thoroughly entertaining discussion of tradwives, Mally Goldman’s surrogacy journey, and this Olympia Gayot interview is queued up for today’s walk fuel.
tis the season of
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