I came back to bed and told Mike that we had no daycare and he asked me what we were going to do.

Don't you love that?

I'm thinking,"What's this we business?" But I knew better and said, "I'm the only one with vacation pay, so I guess you are working and I'm staying home with the munchkin." Then as the morning evolved, I realized if I'm staying home all day, I want the car because I've got stuff to do. I drove us up to Sacramento and realized I could probably work for a couple hours until Genny got bored out of her mind.

She got bored, we went home.

Lather, rinse and repeat for yesterday, though I tried working at home. That didn't last long because princess baby had other plans. In the afternoon, I simply gave up and went shopping. You know...when all else fails, there's shopping.

I bought some patterns.

Then, of course, I bought fabric.

Yeah, with five boxes of fabric, I really didn't need more, but there you have it, I bought some anyhow. But then last night, I got the pattern cut out and tonight after the kids are in bed, I'm cutting out the little girl dress. Some day, I might even sew myself a dress. Who knows?

The fabric for the dress is Lily-of-the-valley on a dark hunter green and I've got tiny white tulip buttons with a green stem for the shoulders.

I admit that I bought it for nostalgia's sake. I miss the flora of the Northeast, especially in spring. I miss crocuses, stink flowers, fiddlehead ferns, cowslips, ladyslippers and I really really miss Lily-of-the-Valley -- with flowers like delicate bells. In California, it's acres of mustard, but in New England, it's acres of dandelions spotting a hillside in spring.

My dad gave me pictures of dandelions in a field and it's my favorite picture because it's home and love and spring in New England and all these things I can't quite put a finger on. Mostly, it's something that my dad and I used to do...go sit somewhere in grass and watch dandelions bloom in spring.