It takes a village…and mine is in zip code 90210!

I’m of course referencing a book written by one of my personal heroes; she was referencing the folk wisdom that it takes more than a mother or father or parents to raise a child. And man, do I ever know that now. And further and luckily, my village is the best, chock full of the best friends and family a mother could ever want to help raise her child.

I’ve just been informed by WordPress that it’s my anniversary! I’ve been blogging for two years now. To celebrate, I’m recapping our summer with pictures of my “Village People.” (With apologies to David…I’ll get some nice shots of you in here soon!)

Here’s most of my wonderful family. I’m about 8 months pregnant here:

The grandparents with proud pappa and son:

And “Bay-Ma” Dorothy, who couldn’t love him more:

Our darling boy turned 2 in June, and he actually had a week-long celebration with a few parties. Uncle S and Grandma P planned a great party for him in Amherst complete with balloons, yummy cake, and Happy Birthday played in the style of Debussy. Then, we had his kids party in my hometown a few days later.

So, here’s what I mean about having the best village ever. See this cake?

Is that just adorable? Baked and decorated by my BFF, Colleen, who found the pans a year in advance because she knows how much he loves Thomas.

And speaking of Colleen, she and her daughter vacationed with us this summer at the beach, and I suspect it wasn’t just about going to the beach. It was about spending time together with my son. Colleen’s daughter is his best friend and my mommy’s helper. I don’t know what I would have done without them and I hope I’ll never know!

Then there’s Auntie Lisa, Uncle Thomas, and two of his cousins Emily and Carley. Emily, at 12, is closest in age to him and is the best cousin a guy could ask for! Auntie Lisa spoils him in all the best ways!

My village also includes so many other friends who come to visit or listen to my incessant “baby talk” without complaining. Case in point, one of my dearest friends, Laura, drove up from NYC last weekend to see us. The poor woman found herself at the beach with myself, my sweet new mom friend Darci, and her adorable son, and was subjected to 3 solid hours of non-stop diaper, poopie, ba-ba, and elmo talk. I did pack a big double bottle of red wine, so I haven’t totally lost touch with my non-mommy self, but I’m pretty sure there isn’t enough red wine in the world to make that sort of conversation interesting. And yet, she didn’t go screaming off into the lake to drown herself. That’s a true friend.

But, here at last, is my point. The friends we are so lucky to have get it. I read so much junk about how people who lose friends when they have children because all they do is talk about their children. As a new mom, I am so totally of guilty of doing nothing but talk about my life as a new mom. But my friends, my real friends, understand and have stuck by us through it all. And I hope that I am as gracious in celebrating their milestones or that I’m there when they need me, good or bad, better or worse, richer or poorer. Because that’s what real friends do! They love you when all you can talk about is poopie and diapers, because hopefully you’ve loved them when all they can talk about is (insert a life-changing event here).

Thank you, each and every one of you, for being our village.

Next time: *** if I know…any suggestions?

© Copyright 2013 grayhairedmom.com