Two of my unconventionally favorite things about parenting

1. Going on trips, to get away from The Kid. Which is what I am doing tomorrow through Monday. I'm so incredibly lucky to get away and be with grown ups only for three whole days. And not just grown ups, my best friends in the universe!!!

But seriously, it is not all to get away from him. He's not that hard to parent. And I always love him. In fact, the real highlight of being away from The Kid is getting to call him at his grandma's house, and hearing his tiny voice over the phone. He sounds so little on the phone, and it just makes me love him so much. And after three days of separation, I will be so appreciative of my life with him, and I will miss him so much. But I will have fun in the meantime. It's a total win-win situation.

2. Finding random toys stacked in interesting arrangements about our home:




Being an archaeologist by training, I can't help but try to reconstruct the play that was intended by the stack above. Is he guarding something? Is he riding a doomsday animal of some sort? By the way, the toys that are stacked (from bottom to top):

• Rubber ducky
• Cap to Johnson & Johnson baby wash, in lavender (The Kid's signature fragrance)
• Baby Alligator, head covered by the middle body part of a "stackable" Ronald Mc Donald
• Arctic Excavator Guy from Playmobile, armed with a totally contraban shotgun that the Kid must have conned off of the neighbor kid (it is so not our toy).

Have a nice Memorial Day Weekend! I'm outta here!