Happy (on) St. Patrick's Day!

Happy (belated) St. Patrick's day!

Wow. That tired me right out!

St. Patrick's Day is a holiday our little family loves to celebrate. What else would you expect when the "man of the house" is named Michael Patrick McCrory? It has become a tradition of ours to make some Irish fare (usually some form of lamb, potatoes, a green vegetable, and scones or Irish soda bread) and have friends over to share the meal with us. But just because that tradition took a day off this year doesn't mean we didn't celebrate in smaller ways. The kids and I donned whatever green clothing fit us that day (which is tricky for all of us right now, as Israel suddenly outgrew all his clothes last week and Eden is still too small for most of the clothes we have for her and I'm...well...in-between sizes) and did our best to be worthy of the name McCrory on the very Irish day.

Eden had quite the social day, beginning with an 8:30 am visit to the pediatrician to be weighed. I have been telling people she eats "like a champ," but the doctor (who is not our normal doctor) seemed to really believe me when they saw that she has gained 5 oz. in the last three days -- enough to already surpass her birth weight. No more questions about her eating habits! Woo hoo! From there, we went to visit Mabrey, our midwife, so she could see the fruits of her (my) labor. We went to visit the law office (my former place of employment) that afternoon. It's always fun to introduce a new baby to friends and we had a good time making some rounds.

That evening, I took advantage of having both Pat and my mom aroung to help with the kids to do something normal, like make dinner. Pat had Israel outside (which is now his favorite place, with the recent good weather...) to work in what will be our garden and mom and I made a scaled-down Irish meal: shepherd's pie and your choice of root beer or ginger ale. We all had fun getting our hands dirty -- some of us had "dirt"ier hands than others -- and we all sat around the table together for dinner. Afterwards, we went on a walk in, you guessed it, our DOUBLE STROLLER. Israel really liked it as long as it was moving and Eden thought it was comfortable enough to sleep in. (Okay, that's not saying much.)


It was a good day: outdoors, visiting friends, making a holiday meal, wearing my favorite color. I doubt every day from here on out will feel quite as relaxed as this one, but I am greatly enjoying having no commitments other than those I make "the day of." Why do I have to give birth to have relaxed time commitments? It seems to me that people should be able to call a family holiday for other occasions or no occasion at all -- something of a mini-sabatical so that they can rest and remember who they are and build family memories together. I'm doing my best to enjoy it now, because, as I know somewhat first-hand and as friends and strangers further down this path constantly tell me, times like these are

going,

going...

...gone.