Back to Philly...Oh, Baby!

On the train ride to Philadelphia (curses on Amtrak for their outrageous fares!), I counted the number of months since my move to Manhattan. I let out a slight gasp. It had been just over 10 months since I left my hometown for adventures in the Big Apple. I hadn't been back for a visit save for a brief day visit to our childhood home for Christmas. I'm sure there are a variety of reasons why I didn't go back sooner, but let's save the psychoanalysis for some other time; because Julia finally went back. And boy was it a good visit...

I schlepped southbound for a weekend of what I imagined would involve wet diapers, movie rentals, and sleep-whenever-you-can moments between the kid crying and the fatigue-ridden parents walking around like zombies. After braving the crowds of Penn Station on a summer Friday afternoon, imagine my delight when I surfaced at 30th Street Station.  I headed out under the blazing sun to meet up with my newly-ordained-mommy friend and her husband, the newly-ordained-daddy friend.  First of all, mark my words: mommy-friend had stars in her eyes.  Twinkly eyes!  I thought, "Must be that new maternal joy everyone talks about."  Second of all, both mommy and daddy were super duper well-adjusted to their new lifestyle and were totally chillaxing. Daddy was busy purring over his new daughter and mommy was producing enough milk to stock the local WaWa's dairy section. We weren't holed up in the house all weekend at all.  We brought Baby along everywhere we went. Restaurants, especially. I was so surprised when they made plans to go out to dinner on Friday. Out! As in, like, bring the diaper bag, grab the car keys, don't forget the baby, Julia, snap out of it, I said, let's go pronto. 

And intertwined with the sweet nostalgia of returning to my hometown, I spent loads of time selfishly holding and talking to this little one:Tell me those crocheted cap sleeves aren't the cutest things ever.  And, yes, in case you were wondering, poking her tummy was probably the best part of playtime.