A Day with Zayd

The littlest alien and I went to Chocolate Day at the San Antonio Botanical Gardens today. On the walk over I told him all about the sensory garden - mommy's favorite part of park. I promised to take him to see my favorite plant - the Pineapple Sage - and described its amazing smell.

When we walked in, we headed immediately for the Plant Sale. Shopping = Nesting! I picked out a bleeding heart vine (so pretty and V-Day appropriate) and a lovely succulent basket. I explained to Zayd that it would be up to his dad to keep them alive. That is one of daddy's strengths. It was a great opportunity to talk about diversity and team work!

Then we headed to the chocolate day festivities and enjoyed some Hazelnut Ghiradelli Squares - delish! There were children running in a chocolate maze, budding-engineers crafting buildings out of marshmallows and toothpicks, and a station where kids (or me!) made paper flowers with a lollipop center. Zayd wasn't quite old enough to partake in any of the exercises but I promised him that we would come back next year.

We DID hit up the sensory garden, but I was very sad to see that the herbs didn't survive our freezing Texas winter. Next time...

As we walked up the hill back, I made a distinct observation: I have contractions while walking up an incline. Yay! Since I have already decided to spend my earliest labor at the botanical garden, walking and waiting for the "real stuff" to hit, this was a welcomed discovery.

When I returned home, I was happy to introduce our newest plants to the heartier ones that have been fighting off this winter without much help from mom. I was shocked SHOCKED to see life returning to some of the greenery that I was CONVINCED was dead and gone. Here is the chive plant popping back to life:

And here you can see the flowering plant that my ladies gave me at my unofficial Zayd luncheon last fall. The flowers are all dried up but the stem returned to a bright green and new leaves are taking shape:

By sundown, I had one additional ray of life to add to the house: 15 gorgeous roses sent from my parents to brighten my Valentine's Day!

All of this birth makes me so excited for Zayd's. I can't wait to meet him and I can't wait to see how lively all of these plants will have become by then.