The Banana is just into everything. ALL OF THE THINGS. She is hilarious, mischievous, curious, sweet, pleasant, good-humored, and so sweet-natured. I just…boy, do I love this kid.

And here are some 14 month old shenanigans from another angle.

(This one above is my favorite).

I mean, I just can’t. Miss Baby.

She’s perfect!

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mamas out there!

I really enjoyed my first Mother’s Day last year, but this year was even better. Maybe it’s just that with all the other insanity going on in my life these days I appreciate the complete awesome that is my family much, much more. Team Reeve is pretty great, and I love our life together more and more each day. Man, that was such a greeting card sentiment, but it’s actually true. I couldn’t stop smiling all day, I was just loving the celebration of this whole motherhood business so much.

I got my Spongebob Squarepants Mother’s Day card and gift certificates for Barnes & Noble and the Fat Quarter Shop first thing this morning. Best gifts, simple and no fuss! The Spanish F1 Grand Prix was this morning, so clearly that is becoming a bit of a Mother’s Day tradition. We got up to watch it live at 7:30am, and Hannah and I hung out on the couch while Adam made waffles. Perfection.

After a very chill morning we stopped in at my brother’s new house for a quick visit with my mom, sister-in-law, and nephew CJ. They just moved in YESTERDAY, and now they’re 20 minutes away instead of an hour. So the babies played with their Nana while we got the tour of their beautiful new house. Then, we headed to the Upper West Side in Manhattan for some fun times.

I can’t really deal with the whole holiday restaurant experience. Valentine’s Day dinners, Mother’s Day brunches, I just…nothing feels less celebratory to me than being herded through a packed restaurant on a prix fixe menu. So my idea of a perfect Mother’s Day lunch was…the Recession Special at Gray’s Papaya.

Adam hates when I put photos of him on here, but he was a huge part of why today was killer. So I’m breaking the rule today. This October will mark a decade since he moved here from the UK, and somehow in nearly 10 years I had never gotten him to a Gray’s Papaya. We don’t even know how that happened, but today I was inspired to fix that. Inspiration was rewarded with a happily napping baby and an empty counter. And hot dogs.

We walked over to Central Park with the rest of the city to take in the gorgeous weather. It was packed, and allergy season was so heightened we felt like we were snorting pollen. But, still gorgeous.

Dancers, stairs. The crowds on the stairs reminded me of the Spanish Steps in Rome.

It was actually Japan Day in the park. There was a very cool concert of traditional drummers and modern dancers and music. Hannah LOVED this, even though this was as close to the stage as we could get. There were origami stations, a HUGE line to have kabuki makeup applied, all kinds of cool stuff.

And then…we stopped to get ice cream. And Hannah had her first taste of summer.

She loved it.

A lot.

Adam drove home, and the baby and I passed out in the living room until bedtime. Hannah woke up, had dinner and a bath, and went straight back to sleep. Lots of fresh air and happy excitement today. I’m still smiling.

Remember this?

Last year we took Hannah to this festival, and she slept the entire time.

This year’s festival was the last weekend in April, and she was pretty different.

And she stayed awake the whole time!

She still wasn’t very interested in the sheep, though. Or the giant pig. One of these years.

The Reeve clan headed up to my mom’s neck of the woods a few weeks ago to take in the annual Cherry Blossom Festival in Newark’s Branch Brook Park. This is down the road from where I grew up, and I hadn’t been since I was a kid. We were there on April 13th, and it was still pretty chilly. Most of the blossoms were still closed since it hadn’t really warmed up for the season yet. But it is a lovely walk. Now that I see all the blossoms in our neighborhood finally opening I want to go back and take more pictures.

Other posts on this project: Dr. Seuss Quilt Pt. 1, Dr. Seuss Quilt Pt. 2, Dr. Seuss Quilt Pt. 3.

I finally finished this quilt! It’s a horribly belated first birthday present, but I love this quilt to pieces. I hope Hannah loves it, too.