Road Trip

Aimee took her first road trip last weekend. It was picture perfect. Grand Dad Wroblewski came with us to Minnesota to see Granny and Uncle Ray and the crew. I'm trying to settle into staying home and I'm realizing that if I have it my way, I'll be moving around too much to actually settle. The dry erase board on the fridge is already full of activities and commitments for the rest of the week and part of next week, and I havn't even joined my church's Mom's Coffee group, or looked into activities at the park district.

Tomorrow it's off it Millenium Park, to visit her Abuela at work, and to visit relatives. Friday is Aimee's first play date and then an afternoon at the pool.

Every now and then I think about those things that are specific to our culture that we inevitably grow out of as we become more americanized. It's my visit with relatives tomorrow that reminded me about how we used to always ask our Puerto Rican older relatives and family friends to bless us. When we'd walk in the house we'd automatically say, "Bendicion" which means, "Blessing" or "please give me your blessing". When I was little I said it because that's what everyone else said. I didn't think about the meaning, just about the fact that it was a show of respect. Now that I'm older, I realize that it was a richly beautiful custom and I'm very sad that Aimee will probably only know about it because I'm going to tell her. People rarely ever ask for it anymore, and being away from family provides less opportunity to impose on their benedictions.