the first picnic of spring.

there's this margaret atwood quote that i love -- in the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.

and how! 

it's hard to believe it as i sit here typing from a chilly new york city -- with snow in the forecast, no less -- but last week was divine. sunny and seventies, even! one afternoon when i was working from home, i met angie and her littles for a picnic lunch. the babes practiced their crawling and nora ate a few handfuls of good ol' central park dirt. 

i so adore this little duo and their sweet mama. i love learning from her and daydreaming alongside her. i love witnessing her motherhood. i love watching her let them be little. nora's gumming dirt, grass, a rock? it's fine. it's childhood. i love that; i mean to remember that. 

in the end, we parted ways -- smelling like dirt -- and promised to make it a weekly date, though a cold front swiftly arrived and thwarted our plans. but no matter -- it got me all excited for the sunshine days to come.