After a Mother’s Day brunch, some mom-and-daughter gardening, and a long, lovely nap, Noah and I were alone in the car heading back to my mom’s for a family dinner.

And that’s when I pulled a U-Turn and stopped at a local farm for some Mommy/Noah alone time. Just me and the perfect little guy who made me a mother.

Him and his new cape T-shirt that my sister made. Isn’t it such a smart idea?

I hope you all had a lovely Mother’s Day. xo

Here are some of my Babble posts to check out!

• 25 of my favorite summer beauty products.
• These might convince you to chop off your hair.
• Petite? You’ll love this.
• 12 unique memory books for babies and mom (love these!).
• The most popular baby names for boys and girls in the mid-century era.
• I wish I had this when I was pregnant.
• A cute idea from an Early Mama readers.
• 5 ways to rent your maternity clothes.
• 25 MORE eco-friendly baby products.
• Prenatal yoga —> Labor.

I’ve never been one to live in the moment. I remember sitting on my bed in high school with a pen and a notebook, planning my life — when I’d graduate college, where I’d work, when I’d meet my husband, when we’d get married, when I’d have my first (a boy), my second (a girl), and where I’d interject my professional achievements.

That profession changed, of course, dozens of times. I even had one of those Which Career Best Fits Your Personality books, where I answered hundreds of questions to get to a strict “personality profile” — dictating who I was before I was capable of knowing that myself. But the thought of just floating through life was unfathomable.

I was flexible in my planning. It was more like daydreaming, except that my daydreams had clear boundaries and focused goals. And when I’d change my major, again, or at least contemplate taking a different path, out came the notebook and pen, and out came another 10-year plan.

Always a plan.

Until this.

 I know better now.

I know that if I had a magic wand 10 years ago, one that allowed my life to follow one of my pen-scrawled 10-year plans, I wouldn’t want that life anymore — not in comparison to this one. I wouldn’t have him. I wouldn’t have this.

Yet.

Yet…

“I want a baby.”

He tells me he wants a boy AND a girl. He wants them in my tummy, and then he wants to play with them and teach them how to walk.

Here I am, already counting the years and months that would separate them, wondering if  I should have already given him a sibling, even more fiercely debating whether I even want a second baby — back and forth and back. And here’s this little innocent face asking so nicely for a playmate.

On the surface, I feel like the universe threw a pretty profound lesson my way — one that can be summed up as thus: chill the hell out. When all of the good things in my life are attributed to taking risks and letting go of preconceived “plans,” why am I having so much trouble trusting that life will work itself out? That a second baby will (or won’t) come at the perfect time? And that the perfect time might not be foreseeable?

Because buried down under experience and life-lessons is a young girl crouching in the corner of my mind with a pen and paper, tapping her foot, ready to write a plan.

She’s getting impatient.

And all the while, Noah is waiting for someone.

Someone to share his knowledge and magic.

Someone.

Justin goes back and forth just as much as I do, and we’ve pretty much stopped talking about it at this point. We’ve landed on a comfortable “Not Now.” But the question is always in my mind, and now it’s coming out of Noah’s mouth.

Maybe I’m not ready. Maybe I’m scared to take control, to plan, when the unplanning has been so wonderful.

Maybe I’ll never be ready.

But then who is he waiting for?

I wish I recorded the look on his face when he heard that everyone in Oz had seen his performance.

Nothing like making a little boy’s day.

Magic, I tell you!

Apparently more 20-somethings are getting accidentally pregnant than any other age group — two times more than any other age group, in fact — according to The Guttmacher Institute.

I’ve read a lot of articles responding to this recent study — ranging from snarky to serious — but as part of this statistical group, I figured I’d lend my voice to the discussion.

Which I did, over at Babble.com.

Click over there for my opinion, and add your story to the comment section.

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If you’ve spent any amount of time with Noah in real life, you have heard him sing. Quite often. And if you’ve been with him in the last two months, you’ve most likely heard him sing “Defying Gravity.”

“Have you seen Wicked?” he’ll ask as you walk in the door. “Oh, you’ve GOT to see it!”

Cue the song.

Now Noah hasn’t seen Wicked on Broadway, and he won’t for quite awhile. But he’s seen fuzzy YouTube clips (which I showed him one day because of his Wizard of Oz obsession — never expecting quite this reaction, and which taught him to call Kristen Chenoweth and Idina Menzel “his girls”). And of course he listens to the songs I downloaded for him — practically on repeat.

Although he’s quite willing to belt out notes at any occasion — walking through the grocery store, for instance — he completely shuts down if there’s a camera on him. He will not perform on demand, thankyouverymuch.

Except for the other day, when he reluctantly agreed to let a video camera in on his private session. Aside from the vertically aligned iPhone video and light-saturated room, here’s a pretty good rendition of Defying Gravity a la Noah:

Aaaand scene.

A future performer?

Perhaps.

In case you missed them, here are some of my favorite recent posts over at Babble.com:

• 20 pretty hairstyles for long hair
• An easy and trendy DIY idea
• These are so cute, but pricey. Luckily you can WIN them!
• The best new strollers for spring 2012 — including Bugaboo, Maclaren, UPPAbaby, and more!
• I learned a lot about green home renovation from putting this fascinating round-up together.
• My favorite eco-friendly beauty picks.
• Baby gear that you probably don’t know is eco-friendly — including cars seats and strollers.
• How to have an eco-friendly baby shower — easily!
• An EARTH DAY giveaway!
• WIN cloth diapers! Yay!
• Look how fast time flies by.
• 20 Web sites that every pregnant woman should know and love.
• 25 baby brands that every parent should know and love.
• Designer cribs and their budget twins.
• Gwyneth Paltrow recommended something I wrote. Eek!

Source: Hello.Jess/Tumblr

I know how many of you look forward to these cloth diaper giveways, so…ta-da!

I’m giving away a stash of Charlie Banana hybrid one-size cloth diapers (plus more goodies!) over at Babble.

Enter to win!