Just one week until the unofficial first day of summer. It always makes us feel like a kid again. We remember picking and tasting the season’s first blueberries on our grandparents’ farm, running & laughing through the sprinkler (or hydrant), the sound of crickets at night and of course, the ice cream truck.

To win our 8th $100 birthday certificate…when you were a kid, what did you love about the beginning of summer? Sights, sounds, smells, tastes?  Post on our Facebook page by the end of today for the opportunity to win.  The randomly selected winner will be announced tomorrow.

I’ve always liked the idea of a “babymoon.” One last trip before the exhaustion of third trimester hits and before life gets a lot more hectic when a new baby arrives. A few months before my daughter was born my husband Jeff and I had a great time traveling to Belgium and London. During my second pregnancy my husband, our 21-month-old daughter Zoe and I took a trip to New England. We had a lot of fun on this trip despite it being the rainiest June in a couple of decades. Of course, the trip was not as relaxing as our first babymoon had been but we did get a little R&R in between running after a toddler.

Jeff has wanted to go to Maine for years so I had promised that the first summer that we were living on the East coast we would go. But last summer we ended up making so many trips for weddings and family visits that there was no time left for the Maine trip. This summer we figured that because of the pregnancy we are exempt from such family visits which involve long plane trips and we’re missing the two weddings we are invited to because they are too close to my due date. So we decided to take advantage of a summer off from travel obligations and take a 2-week road trip to New England.

The biggest challenge of the trip was that we did a lot of driving and Zoe (a real city kid) has spent very little time in the car and absolutely hates even a short drive. We tried to plan our drives around her nap time so she’d sleep for most of the trip though a few of our drives were just too long for her to nap the whole time. Long drives aren’t much fun to begin with but with a screaming toddler in the back seat being stuck in the car is even less fun!

In Maine our protein-shunning daughter was introduced to (and couldn’t get enough of) lobster, clams, muscles and scallops. Zoe also learned about another culinary love on this trip –ice cream. We introduced her to hiking in Arcadia National Park which she also loved though she only walked a short bit of the way on her own. For most of the hike Jeff carried her in a backpack which we figured put us on about even ground. Other highlights were the beaches in Maine and Martha’s Vinyard (when we had nice weather) and the Andrew Wyatt museum and Olsen house near Camden, Maine.

All in all the trip wasn’t as relaxing as our first “babymoon” when we had no kids but it was a wonderful family trip and it was well worth doing before we become a family of four.

That little beauty is my niece who currently lives approximately 471 miles away from me. I hate that we live so far away, and am upset that we are about to move even farther.

I can’t control where our family has placed themselves, across the nation, and even overseas already as my mother lives in Kenya. I can however, control the frequency of my attempts to make connections and form bonds.

The internet is a wonderful thing – you can send photos, videos and even e-cards to your loved ones with a click of a button.

I plan on using EVERY resource available to me as we leave soon for our relocation to Delhi, but I also plan to try and remain loyal to “real” communication.

When we recently made our dandelion paintings, we stuck one in the mail to the little darling in the photo above. How sweet it was to receive the photo via email of her looking at and touching the painting.

She’s too young to understand that Mia MADE that painting for her, and too young to appreciate that they may very well form a close relationship as they grow up – no matter how far they are separated.

These two girls – my Mia and my niece who we affectionately call “Babybug Ladybug” can indeed form a bond, even across the miles. That is, if we choose to make the effort to keep them in touch.

Whether it be sending each other post cards of their travels, or finding fun things to collect and exchange via the mail … or maybe even keeping an online blog together of their experiences (how fun would that be?) … there are all sorts of creative ways to help keep a friendship and relationship intact even when you are separated physically.

I plan to help instill a relationship between the two youngest girls in our family … and hope to see it blossom and grow as they grow up!

Thanksgiving is such an American holiday. And in my travels I have yet to find another celebration that’s really analogous. Interestingly enough, some of my favorite Thanksgivings were the ones spent in other countries with new friends and non Americans. I think Thanksgiving has such a wonderful history to it, and I love to introduce it to people from other places.

Our first Thanksgiving away from home was spent with a Russian family while living in the Middle East. We loved introducing them to the concept and the food. At the time, I was newly pregnant and barely able to stay awake for the feast. Good thing since they left as soon as their six-month old started to melt down. Finding turkeys in the Arabian Gulf can be tricky. They ship them in for the Americans who celebrate the holiday and if you don’t get them in time, they’re gone. I learned then one of the great things about traditional Thanksgiving food is that it can really be found almost anywhere. Stovetop Stuffing may be a bit hard to come by, but I always found the ingredients to make it from scratch. That’s one of the wonderful things about Thanksgiving food, it really is simple food.

The following year, I had a baby and was again newly pregnant. Luckily, I was only responsible for one dish–the turkey! We celebrated with a huge group of friends from the US, Scotland, Egypt and Australia. Everyone brought something from the traditional American Thanksgiving menu—even those unfamiliar with the food. I remember the Egyptian man asking about the origin of this American holiday. Those of us who were American talked about the American Indians and the pilgrims who were celebrating the harvest using our best third-grade Thanksgiving knowledge. Then the conversation transformed into more of the meaning of Thanksgiving for us–to be with those around us and give thanks for the many blessings we do have.

The following year we found ourselves replaying this ritual with a Swedish family. We had just moved to Stockholm and had very few friends around but our neighbors seemed like good people to share this holiday with. I remember my neighbor remarking that Thanksgiving food was one of her favorites–fall comfort food really helped warm up a cold body on a dark Swedish day. In return, we had the chance a month later to experience the Swedish Julbord with them.

This is where I started realizing we should be sharing celebrations with each other–even if they didn’t celebrate it. Holidays and traditions are important to understanding cultures and this, particularly American one, has deep roots in our own history. It’s wonderful to be able to experience a holiday to its fullness when you’re with people who are not familiar with it. We share it with others, and in turn, it reignites the celebration spirit within us.

For Halloween this year, our friends graciously hosted our family for a truly one-of-a-kind event: their annual neighborhood trick-or-treat extravaganza and “competition.” We didn’t believe Lana and Sean when they told us about the tradition last year. “We had over 800 trick-or-treaters come to our house—we counted, and so did our neighbors,” Sean said proudly over dinner last fall. “We have a friendly competition for which house gets the most,” said Lana. “We gave out 10 5-lb bags of candy,” she added. “Eight hundred trick-or-treaters?” my husband and I repeated in amazement, “how is that even possible?”

We were thrilled when we were given the chance to find out. And, since this year Halloween fell on a Friday, we pictured the streets around Lana and Sean’s house would be packed to the gills with giddy revelers, something like we had seen the one time we were in New York City on New Year’s Eve. I imagined a sea of kids walking shoulder to shoulder, a parade of parents toting flashlights, and a never-ending turn-style of door-bell ringing and shouts of “trick-or treat!” In short, I was very excited, and so was my preschooler. Even my husband, who never dresses up, got into the spirit. Because our son went as a football player, my husband donned his old referee uniform, and I dressed up as a cheerleader (for the record, my costume was a rental).

Our friends were just as motivated. Our son’s friend, Sara, went as a pink Supergirl. Her big sister was a witch, and her brother was Darth Vader. Lana had the best 1960’s outfit I’ve ever seen, with 3-inch white plastic go-go boots, big hair—the works. Sean didn’t dress up, but he was busy staffing the door and playing bartender. His gin and tonics are legendary in the neighborhood, and so Halloween “water” gets handed out to all of the parents who need a little something to get them in the spirit too.

When the night kicked off and our children were all dressed up and getting ready to hit the streets, everything started quite calmly, much like every other Halloween I have seen. At first, while the sun was still up, a few young parents with little tiny babies and toddlers rang the doorbell here and there. Gradually, as the sun set, traffic picked up, and we began to see just how it was possible to fill the streets with the number of people Lana and Sean had predicted.

When it was time for us to venture out with our children, the neighbors put on quite a show. The decorations were amazing. Hand-carved pumpkins by children, moms and dads were by far my favorite part. Scary ghosts hanging in trees, spooky sounds floating from outdoor speakers, and creatures and tombstones scattered on lawns were everywhere. One house went a step further. The parents set up an American Idol table with themselves and their adult friends as judges, asking trick-or-treaters to “audition” for their candy. It was great, and music (good and bad) filled the streets.

At one house, we ran into a couple that was all dressed up in Renaissance clothes. They looked amazing, and we soon learned that they were from Italy. The woman told me, “I have never experienced a Halloween before,” and she was as starry-eyed and happy as the 3-year-olds holding Lana’s and my hands. It was such a treat to see grownups as excited as children on a night that did not disappoint.