I brought our camera along for our walk the other morning. These sunflowers are a few houses down from us. I always show them to Emma since they are the Kansas flower and all.
After we walk by the house with the sunflowers, we pass by one with a living room outside. It's like they took all of their furniture and decorative things and stuck them in the backyard, but in a good way versus a tacky way. Then we walk along Grand Avenue and stop in all our favorite shops. Oh, there's so much I could tell you about our walks.
We've gotten to know some people in our neighborhood being out and about like we are. For example, in all my pregnant glory looking mighty special (37 weeks and beyond), I would pass by a woman's house between 5 and 7 in the morning most days of the week. I just knew Emma was going to come soon and I wanted to walk, walk, walk to get her moving down. When I'd walk by this woman's house, she'd be sitting in her chair on the porch reading the paper. She'd look up from her paper and smile at me just so. Her smile said something like, 'Oh honey, I've done just what you're doing a time or two.' If I had to guess, I'd say that was probably over 50 years ago. Now Emma and I make sure to smile and wave at her whenever we walk by. I think her husband's gone, and there are times I think she sits outside hoping to see us. Maybe not, but maybe.
I love our walks and hanging out in our neighborhood, which is why it makes me a little sad that winter is coming. Sure it'll be great having more family time. And it's kind of nice hunkering down, making soup for dinner, dressing warm, making fires in the fireplace, and watching movies. But there's also something about getting a little sunshine on the face that makes life better. I've told a lot of Minnesota women, including Emma's doc, that I don't know what I'll do when winter comes and we can't walk with her. And every last one of them has said to me something like, 'Well, you bundle up that baby of yours and you take her out anyway.' So true. They and their moms and grandmas did it and so will their children and grandchildren. They're a tough bunch, these Minnesotans.
