She's my daughter

She looks just like her dad.

But she is my daughter.

We were driving down the road in our hot Escape a few weeks ago. The weather was perfect. Not too hot, not too cold. Natalie reached with her little toes and pushed the window button until her window was as far down as it goes...half-way.

And then she reached as far as she could with her little fingers to feel the wind with her hands. And the whole time she was just grinning ear to ear as the wind blew through her hair. She was giggling and talking about how "windy" it was. Her head leaning back against the plush car seat, the wind blowing against her semi-closed eyes and catching the strands of her hair, blowing them around, her mouth wide open in a huge grin.

So I put my window down too. And turned up the music. Everybody likes "The Wheels on the Bus" right? And then we were both laughing and loving the wind blowing in, and enjoying the smells of fresh grass (yes, you do catch a whiff every once in a while around here), flowers, and air.

It took me back to high school and driving around in my car with the sunroof open, the windows all down, the music loud...and the heater on...at night, in the middle of winter. Granted, it was a California winter, but nights got pretty chilly. I just loved the feeling of the cold wind and the smells that came with it. I loved looking up through the sunroof and seeing the clear night sky and all the stars. In fact, I really thought I couldn't ever drive a car that didn't have a sunroof. But here I am...

It also reminded me of my friends' white, convertible VW bug that we would pile in during the summer, top down and drive to the beach. The wind was stronger in that car, whipping through our hair, so loud that we could hardly even hear each other speak so we listened to the music and took in the beautiful drive over Highway 17. I loved driving around in that car and every time I think of it, I think of all the beautiful sensations, those wonderful friends, and the smell of the ocean.

Andrew does not like the windows down in the car because he thinks it's too windy.

But Natalie does.

She is definitely my daughter.

IKEA in the Camry

My mom and I headed out Saturday night to run a few errands. Our last stop was IKEA. My mom has been helping me get my game room organized (finally!) and we needed to get a bookshelf from IKEA to finish the project up. First of all, getting out of the store with all the stuff was quite the feat. We had 12 baskets on a big trolley, the stroller with the baby, and another big trolley with 3 very large and very heavy boxes containing the pieces of the bookshelf. The trolleys refused to go in a straight line and so we were weaving all over the place. We originally thought we could buy it and then come pick it up later, given that we were driving John's Camry. But by the time we were buying the stuff it seemed like such a hassle to come back and get it another day and they have pictures all over showing how easy it is to put the stuff on the top of your car...

So we got the stuff outside, I pulled the car up to the pick-up spot and a guy that works there who looked like he was about 12 came over and offered to help us get the stuff into our car. I'm sure he was looking at our 2 full trolleys and the small 4-door sedan and wondering what we were thinking. We managed to get the two thinner boxes in the trunk by pushing them through to the back seat and a few boxes fit into the trunk and a few more into the back seat (poor James was surrounded). Then the IKEA helper suggests that we put the big box on the roof. Doesn't sound too bad, but he puts these cardboard things up there and then says my mom and I have to tie it securely to the car. He can't help because of liability.

We just looked at each other--we don't know how to tie knots! I'm sure the guys working there were taking bets as to whether we would make it home with our purchase intact. So we did our best and tied the cardboard pieces to the car and then put the big box on top of those and tied the box to the car. Once that was done we had to load my mom and the rest of the baskets into the front passenger seat. I couldn't even see her and she was laughing--I could only see one of the baskets shaking every time she laughed.

By this time it was almost 10pm, James was hungry, I was tired and we had to take the back roads home. But that box never moved ;-) The bookshelf is now set up in the game room--it was worth it.

My only regret is not getting a picture of my mom.