Such a Perfect Day

The usual routine is this: Mike takes Donovan to daycare and I go to work. After work, I pick up Donovan from daycare. Daycare is near where Mike works so we usually meet him there and we all go home together. Sometimes Donny and I have an hour or an hour and a half to kill. Sometimes the kid and I take the bus home but usually not.

Today I didn't want to collapse into the routine. Mike had the day off so we met on Craig Street, picked up the boy, picked up some fried chicken and had a picnic on the rim of the Mary Schenley fountain in Oakland. The fountain is right on the edge of Schenley Park, which is where we decided we wanted to take a walk. Donovan was content to sit in his stroller while we ate and, once we where done, we loaded the boy up into the front facing baby carrier and started over the bridge to the Park. I should add that, after about 2 weeks of backbreaking heat and humidity, tonight was balmy and luxuriously comfortable. I was hoping we could walk thru the garden at Phipps Conservatory but, in a move reminiscent of the Giant in the Oscar Wilde story, the gates were locked: Hmmph. We did get to visit the little lily ponds, at which point Donny immediately demanded a bottle. After he was fed, he became his usually happy self and I finally got an almost photo of that sideways smile:

We also got to visit my favorite fountain, which is this almost shoulder-high bronze basin on four bronze legs. It reminds me very much of the Rider Waite Tarot Card the Ace of Cups. This might have been a nice photo of me and the boy if I had remembered to remove the soiled burpcloth from the front of the carrier:

After our photo ops, we walked back to the car, loaded everything up and headed home. The boy got a bath and a bottle, after which he was so sleepy he didn't even need to be swaddled. He's asleep in his crib splayed out like a frog on its back.

I hope you had a great day as well.