My Perfect Neighbor

So I was driving home from swimming this morning (yes, I am officially too big and uncomfortable to run or ride my bike the whole mile to the pool... give it up already) when I saw my perfect neighbor, Erica, running with her new 13 week old baby in his jogger. She's hard to miss, what with her matching outfit, blonde ponytail swinging and blinding white tooth smile as she pushes the jogger effortlessly up the hill.

She would be easy to hate, except that I admire her so much. She's totally my inspiration.

Later in the morning I was out walking Hoku as she was returning from her run. We stopped to chat... I swear, she's the cutest thing ever. Maybe even cuter than her baby, which is a tall order because he's a doll. Anyway, what an inspiration! Not a thing about her looks frazzled. If she were your only new mommy role model, you'd think early parenting was a total breeze. Her baby rarely cries. She showed me what he does when he's hungry- he just starts sucking on his bottom lip. Time to feed. See how easy that is? He loves his baby jogger. They started back running last week and she feels great, while of course he's a happy as a clam to be outside and able to take in the scenery. He was sleeping through the night after about a month. Now at 3 months he's in the 95% percentile for height and weight (his dad is 6'5"), so the strong kid can already sit up on his own. She doesn't mean to brag, but this is easy!!

Man, I need to stop reading all those books that scare me into thinking the parenting is hard and just copy Erica. The Power of Positive Thinking, right?