My Mother's Day post, several days late

So Sunday was my very first Mother's Day. Not to brag or anything, but it was fantastic. A picture perfect day. Literally (see below if you don't believe me). I am sure though, as Cole gets older and more vocal and needy, that Mother's Day won't always be this perfect, so I appreciated every second of it.

When I say perfect, I mean, I really got to do what I wanted to do. Of course, I had my responsibilities still, but I got to decide what we'd do for the day. So what did I decide? I wanted to go hiking. So we did. It was our first real hike of the spring season. First, we did about a mile or so on High Peter's Kill and did something we've never done before: we doubled back. Usually we do a loop, so that we feel like we accomplished something. But we realized that we are pretty out of shape and we had a sleeping baby in a heavy pack (well Keith did - not me), so we hiked what we could and when we started to feel tired, we turned around. We didn't want to totally wear ourselves out. Then we went over to Split Rock and then to the nude beach. Fortunately, there were no nudists around. I essentially was the nudist when I stopped right on the "beach" to nurse Cole and didn't care two licks when a hiker walked past.
After the hike we went to Karma Road in New Paltz and bought a lunch that we ate at Hasbrouck Park. While there we saw another couple with a toddler. They walked past and the woman said to her partner, "What should we do next?" And he replied, "Whatever you want, honey, it's your day," as he wheeled the stroller across the field. And I thought to myself, every day should be like this.

At the park (after lunch and a gazebo nursing session) we played with Cole on the slide and swing. We ate dinner after putting Cole to sleep and then went to sleep ourselves around 8 p.m.  And since it has't happened since, I can safely and without jinxing myself say that Cole slept 8 hours straight that night. Because we went to bed two hours after he did, we got our first six straight hours of sleep since Christmas. Happy Mother's Day to me!

And boy did we need that sleep, because on Monday afternoon Cole came down with an ear infection that brought with it a high fever. Such is life.

Here are the pics from the day...

This is such my favorite shot. I wish I could take credit for some cool technique I used, but Keith says I just got lucky.

These streams are not made for babywearing daddies to cross! Luckily, this is one experienced babywearing daddy! 

Some kind stranger offered to take a family portrait. So we figured, why not take him up on it? It's not like he could get very far with our camera. 

Just in case you didn't notice already - Cole is passed the eff out.

Nursing Cole on the "nude beach"

A little piece of paradise in the mountains.

Our baby tree-hugger  (we start 'em out young!)

Not sure if Cole likes the slide better....

or the swing.

You be the judge.