Scenes from Mother's Day Weekend in Atlanta

Oh my, traveling solo with an almost-9-month-old is exhausting. I had no idea.

Everything went as smoothly as possible and Charlie Mae was an angel on our return trip yesterday (she didn't cry once during all of our travels from 11am-7pm!!!), but still, I have never been so relieved to cross over the bridge onto Cape Cod...

Of course, that doesn't mean that our trip wasn't wonderful and totally worth it, because it was! It meant everything to me to see Charlie Mae with my side of the family for only the second time ever, and watching her interact with both of my grandmothers and my great aunt was more touching than I even imagined it would be--especially on Mother's Day weekend.  

Also, I got to see my dad do a poetry reading for the first time! He's an incredible poet and there was something so special about seeing him read his poems aloud, despite having read so many of them over the years. When he read the following poem about feeling Charlie Mae in my belly when I was pregnant, I lost it...

---

Feeling Her Move
for my daughter

She’s moving now, you say, feel here.
I put my hand on your round belly:
your baby is upside down and in the right place,
and her hip or knee makes an angle
against the soft wall between us.
She slides several inches under my palm.
 
I remember doing the exact same thing,
my invited hand feeling
you moving in your mother,
the first time for me, a new father to be,
thirty-two years ago,
and in this instant
these two moments fit side by side.
 
I stand between the two soft mounds,                                   
my hand on each one,
life kicking in each.
 
One hand is in the past
before I knew about                                    
the blossoming of a father’s heart,                       
the welcome and slow-motion detonation
turning me inside out,                                                           
 
and my other hand
is here in the present
feeling already joined
with the new girl coming through you
to you and her father
to alter you in ways we can’t yet know.

---

Ugh. How sweet is that? Makes me cry every time. Thanks for such a wonderful weekend, fam!

Hope all of you had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend, too ;) ​​