I might just have made it in mommy-land

I have a date today. A (fast food) lunch and shopping date. With another local mom. Sans children. And not to boast or anything, but we're going fabric shopping in the fabric district.

I really hope that it lives up to my expectations since the rest of the day is filled with the usual NST and appointments cluttered around the fusspot's nap and than an evening home alone with toddler.

In other news, I am now last woman standing. My 2 friends/acquaintances who were due the week after me have both delivered already.

And for the cute fusspot story of the day, I was reading a rather leftish parenting book (Montessori/Waldorf blend) the other day which lauded the immense importance of "nature walks" and allowing children to explore the natural world freely, put their feet in the mud, the usual. I realized yesterday on the way home from daycare (3.5 blocks, folks. Only 3.5 blocks but it still occupies at least a good half hour or more when the fusspot walks) that the fusspot would truly excel at nature walks if we lived in the "countryside." On the way home she not only pointed out "cigarette" butts and "icky gum" multiple times, scrapped her coat along 4 different dirty building exteriors to feel the texture, stomped on every scrap of dirty slush she could find, stood under the open drainage pipe to feel the dirty run-off drip down her back, attempted to eat who knows what that was stuck on someone else's stair, twice sat down in the middle of the sidewalk to take a rest ... she's definitely got the right idea, just not quite the perfect setting.