The 4th of July has always been a favorite holiday of mine because it, like many good birthday parties, tends to include friends and family and good food—and it’s in the summer!
But I especially enjoy our Davis celebrations: the day begins with a very Americana kiddie parade and some bike races that leave you with that “I love this little town”-feeling; and then we cool off in the pool with friends before walking over to community park to catch the fireworks.
This year, however, we will also be watching the skies and hoping for cool, wind-free conditions for all of our neighbors who are braving nearby wildfires.
What are your plans? Here are some links if you’re looking for some last-minute inspiration…
As those who follow along on Instagram may have gathered, we’re in Italy right now!
Thanks again to everyone who shared suggestions and advice for this trip—I so appreciate it. In case you’re curious, here’s the routing we ended up taking: Three nights in Rome, after which we rented a car and drove south and east to Matera. From there, we drive around Puglia, basing ourselves in Ostuni, Lecce, Polignano a Mare, Santa Cesarea de Terme, and near a little town called Spongano where we get to stay in an olive grove before driving back to Rome and heading home. I’ve been posting photos on Instagram (under the hashtag #bruhnbuonviaggio) along the way.
I’m going to step away for a little while as we soak it all in.
In the meantime, if you happen to be in search of your next travel adventure, or are just feeling wanderlust-y, and enjoy those best-of-lists like I do, here have been some of my favorite destinations over the years…
In the new Netflix series, the Letdown, there’s a moment when, during sleep training, Audrey tells her husband he can go in to try and soothe the baby, but “don’t make eye contact!” Aron and I burst out laughing—a laughter tinged with PTSD and relief.
Those newborn struggles can be buried so deep that when someone recently asked me about something we found particularly useful during that time, my mind went blank. But when I saw that episode, it all came right back, and ideas for advice starting popping up like whack-a-mole!
(Oh man… so glad my kids both sleep now.)
Anyway, one of my most essential items is actually a free app called Baby Connect. I’m sure there are other apps that have since cropped up, but we were completely hooked on this one—and I still occasionally use it!
Soon after Hudson was born, I started using it to track feedings—how long he nursed, which side, etcetera. (You wake up in a fog when they start crying and it’s hard to tell whether it’s been 3 minutes or 3 hours since they last ate.) It syncs immediately with any users you add, and Aron and I would log everything from how many mLs of Tylenol we gave him to milestones like “found toes!” Later on, our babysitters would do so, too. It came in very handy when the pediatrician asked for details like “how many hours a night does he sleep?” and I needed to be more specific than “too few.”
In fact, I became a little obsessed with the sleep tracking aspect. It would graph it out and, at first, it looked like the perforated reel of a player piano—just an assortment of dashes. But eventually, patterns emerged: we watched the dashes grow longer and start forming columns. I turned to it many times when we traveled and changed time zones and needed to figure out what his “body clock” would be doing. There was something especially satisfying about seeing it all mapped out like that. I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve pulled it out at a few cocktail parties.
Six years later, it’s all still there, along with when he lost his first tooth!
What would be your (inexpensive, perhaps surprising) essential?
