Picnic in our Neighborhood

"When Z wakes up, we can go and have a picnic outside."

That was my proclamation this morning, as soon as I had put Baby Z down for his morning nap. Alhamdulillah, now he's getting back in the swing of things after TDC, sickness upon sickness and unpredicted incidents, and his naptimes are following a pattern, even if the pattern is not set in stone.

After that proclamation, H turned antsy and chanted,

"I hope Z will wake up!"

I put him down at around 9:50 a.m., and as predicted, around 11:30 a.m., he woke up.

"Go heat up the food, heat them extra hot so they'll still be hot when we get there," I summoned my picnic crew.

"Get the stroller ready, don't forget the camcorder and the camera!"

"Picnic mat!"

As usual, it took some time before we could head out the door. I needed to nurse Baby Z first, as he was turning a wee bit carnivorous, climbing on my lap and burying his face in my shoulder, and biting me. Ever since his top teeth have come in, I've been having a hard time with the nursing.

"Do your chores now, while I feed Z," I told them.

S had done a really good job preparing the food. Even Baby Z's porridge had been heated up and packed in the small baby food jar. I had fried rice and pasta yesterday, so taking our lunch with us and packing it was a really easy feat. Usually, we would have white rice, and dish accompaniments. That would have been somewhat of a hassle to pack for a quick last minute picnic.

We finally were able to set out to find a the perfect picnic spot in Buckeye Village. I had my mind set on the entrance area, where there was one lone tree that has pink blossoms. Since they had cut down all the crab apple trees, my spring here has been stripped of its soft pastel look. (Oh why did they cut those trees down?!)

Baby Z seemed very excited and attempted to stand up in his stroller. At one time he managed to stand up, after which we buckled him down. Nevertheless, I think that he was so happy to have a change of scenery that he took in everything around him in silence and deep contemplation. The spring breeze was cool, yet the sun was warm. It was a perfect day, alhamdulillah, allahu akbar!

As H pushed Baby Z's stroller on the grassy field, I spotted a hillock range on which there were pine trees providing shade. We found our picnic spot! Out came our pink waterproof picnic blanket, and the girls laid out the food. H scampered around like a little monkey, shouting wildly at the top of his voice about I don't know what. If he had had monkey tails, I'm sure he would have swung from tree to tree. Baby Z stared up at the pine tree whose branches were swaying gently in the breeze. He never uttered a squeal or gurgle while we ate our lunch. Sitting in his stroller, then parked safely by our picnic spot, he looked at us, the trees, our surroundings, and seem very content, mashaallah. We should do this more often, before it gets really hot and sticky.

The wind was really playful with us though, sending two empty plastic bags that were snuggld safely in Baby Z's stroller basket flying gleefully away. More than twice H had to run after them, actually frolicking along with them, playing along with the wind's teasing. S fed Baby Z his heated up lunch, and then we were off to the playground.


The kids spent some time on the swings, trying to swing themselves as high as they could, and Baby Z and I watched them.

"Let's go to the front. I want to see that tree," I suggested.

So we walked along the pathways to the entrance of Buckeye Village to the lone flowering tree. We took pictures and had our camcorder on. The kids didn't fail to point out to me the spot where they had found the beaver. The kids have really become experts at finding animal clues.


"Ummi! Come look there're feathers under there!" exclaimed H, gesturing for me to come to him to a pine tree.

Sure enough there were feathers under the tree.

"It's goose feathers," said S.

I was pining over the loss of flowering trees in Buckeye Village, and they were quick to point out the remaining flowering trees, which in my opinion are not that showy. S and N even attempted to grab some of the flowers so we can look up what kind of tree it is.

I had wanted to be home by Zuhr time, and as H was also dancing around with a full bladder, we hurried to the recreation center. I didn't want to take the chance of waiting any longer because it might 'ruin' his urethra.

When we got home, it was 1:58 p.m. We prayed Zuhr and took our naps. What a nice day, alhamdulillah. If only we could do this everyday. If only the weather would be like this everyday. Well, inshaallah, in Jannah, we can do this, without having to worry about rushing home to nap, or cook, or do chores...inshaallah.