getting out

let me tell you about my perfect dream day. 

i'd be in a cabin in the mountains, completely snowed in.

the kitchen would be stocked with hot chocolate and all of my favorite snacks from trader joe's. 

there might be someone with me, there might not be.

next to me, i would have a snack of yummy novels and a pile of sex and the city dvds (or an ipad and great wifi). 

to me this is heaven, to my husband this might be...well... not heaven. 

to me happiness usually includes being inside, reading, napping, etc.

i tell you, living in santa barbara is wasted on me.

all this to say-- i am kind of an indoor girl.

i'm an indoor girl, but i also try very hard to be a good santa barbara mom. not saying that only santa barbara moms are like this, but santa barbara moms push bob strollers, wear nothing but lululemon (i'm way good at this one), adore french mothering, and care a lot about outdoor spaces. adoration of french mothering aside, i fit the bill pretty well. i step out of my comfort zone and get cruz outside and in nature as often as possible. 

cruz says, "outdoors, yes. nature, no."

there is a sweet little park in the middle of a residential neighborhood in town. next to the playground is the dried up stream bed and then a hiking trail that leads up into the hills. 

i like to go very early in the morning, when cruz is in a particularly destructive mood. when the books have been thrown off the shelves many times, breakfast has been dropped onto the floor, and have mercy, we just need to get going. 

we play on the playground, bark at the passing dogs, pick up a thousand sticks. 

as soon as i try to pull cruz into the "natural space" he runs back down the trail. 

nature doesn't have any of these.

[and confidential to the french mama playgroup at the park: oh yes i did see your kid pull down his pants and pee on the sidewalk. chambres de charme]