Friday, August 27, 2010

up, down, up

When Natalie and I returned from my parents, we had a great night which continued into the following day. Even though it was rainy, we both were in a snugly mood and passed the day at home without any problem. But, when Mike got home, he somehow startled or scared Natalie when commenting on how awesome her walking was. She started crying - the hard I've-stopped-breathing-for-a-few-seconds cry - and whimpered at him off and on for the next hour. During that time, I asked Mike to look at a messed up file for me, but I couldn't locate it and in the process of the search, he accidentally broke my USB port trying to plug in my jump drive. When he told me my lap top could be away for weeks to be fixed, that didn't help my mood.

Thursday went alright. It was hotter than I expected so we couldn't go for a walk. Natalie and I had to wait almost a half an hour at Best Buy for the Geek Squad employee to go through three other customers and then tell me what I already knew. Natalie was amazingly patient, but the fact that she had two toys, her cup, and snack might have helped. The family with three teen girls in front of us for her to look at probably helped, too. the only good thing was that guy told me my lap top will probably only be gone for a week and a half. Natalie's good mood continued as we made a quick stop at the bank to drop off money for her college savings and pick up cold medicine and picture at Walmart. But, she was a little grumpy at home and cried again at Mike for reasons we couldn't understand. After Natalie went to bed, I spent the evening reading Harry Potter 6 and watching Project Runway. In case that's not clear, this is my idea of an evening well spent.

Today was back up from our low earlier in the week. I didn't miss my computer as much as I thought I would. Even though I have Mike's computer available to me, it isn't the same. I HATE his key board. I'm so used to lap top keys after using them for about six and a half years, that I make constant mistakes on his due to not hitting the keys correctly. Plus, the noise is making me paranoid I'm going to wake Natalie in the next room. However, the real issue is that Mike's computer is in the office, which is not a baby safe room. So, where I used to go on the computer while I eat breakfast with Natalie in the pack and play and then again off and on while she plays on the floor, I can't do that. I can go on while she naps, but as I said, I didn't today because I didn't miss it as much as I thought I would. I read instead, which worked fine for today, but I think if I were not have my computer for a longer period of time, it wouldn't be enough.

My day with Natalie went well. We went to the library since we missed story time on Tuesday when we were driving home. Since there was no story time to get to, we didn't rush leaving, and that killed a lot of time. At the library, I was frustrated that I couldn't find a single YA book I was looking for, but we had a good time in the children's room. Natalie walked some and crawled some. I hid behind a shelf for her to find me, which has always been a hit. We saw Miss Piggy the ginea pig. She got three books and I took out two from the older kids section. (An Anne Rinaldi a former student spoke highly of and The Invention of Hugo Carbret, which is a Caldecott winner). Natalie also had fun looking (and trying to ingage in conversation with) some young kids. I enjoyed seeing the HUGE caterpillars at the checkout desk. Actually, the gross me out a bit how big they are, but I accept them because I know how awesome Monarch butterflies are.

We had to park a meter today, so we went by the car to see how much time we had left. We still had 25 minute because it had 15 left on it when we got there, so we went through the park. IA list of the unacceptable things at the park today:
  • A random middle aged man who talked to us three times and appeared to move to be closer to us after the first time he spoke to us.
  • A random woman who felt she had to ask me if there was an elastic around Natalie's wrist. I immediately knew that she though there was because of her chubby arms, but this woman was confused by my response.
  • A group of four or five people around my age with their kids who were talking and swearing loudly and not really paying attention to their kids. Once kid stole a little girls blanket and ran off with it and it was a couple minutes of her practically crying before the mom noticed.
  • A Somali woman yelling at her kids for what seemed to be a long time.
  • I look down after we've settled on a bench and see I'm stepping in a big pile of peanut shells!
  • Wood chips as cushion under the equipment. How safe can that really be?
Natalie didn't care though. She was happy to eat her snack and look around. She kept missing the pigeons all flying up at once when this little girl chased them.

Natalie fell asleep in the car on the way home since it was about 130. She slept for about forty minutes, then she came in and had lunch. School had let out by then and my friend called because she was supposed to come over. It turns out that instead a big group of teachers were going. I wanted to go, but was a little worried how it would go for Natalie. She said they would be there for a while, so Natalie and I played for a bit, I got freshened up, Natalie got a clean shirt and diaper, we packed a bag, and nursed. I was very glad we went because Natalie was pleasant the whole time, with the small exception of crying for a few seconds at one person. While I got to talk to the mom of the boy Natalie had her first play date with, I didn't really get to talk to anyone else because of the seating arrangements. However, I did set up a second play date for Natalie for the second weekend in October (tentatively) and a quick shopping trip tomorrow with my friend, which I realized after the fact I might have invited myself along on by accident.

When Mike came home, Natalie continued to be happy. The only thing he did differently was not change out of his work clothes. We couldn't think of what to make for dinner, so we each did our own thing. Mike did one of the few parenting, possibly the only one actually, things that annoy me. I will admit that part of this is not his fault. But, when I go off and leave him with Natalie in the house, mostly around dinner time, he often lets her come after me and get in my way. Well, if I wanted her under foot I would have just brought her with me. It bothers me for two reasons: 1) I make sure she stays out of his way when he is doing his stuff. This is a little unfair since she generally doesn't going searching for him and crying if she can't get to him. 2) Usually I am not doing things that it is safe for her to be around, such as having the dishwasher open with knifes exposed or the oven is on.

Tonight, however, Natalie might have been under foot because ... I almost forgot to give her dinner! She has been eating with us at dinner time and when we didn't eat an offical dinner, I kind of forgot. But, it was only ten minute late. Mike took her and fed her, which totally made up him letting her be under foot earlier. He also insisted that she could eat full size goldfish gramham crackers, and was right.

Since Natalie ate a little late include a lot from her cup, we decided tonight was the night to not nurse at bed time. I was a little worried, but no too much since we could feel how full her belly was. Besides, she nurses so little at night that it just didn't seem necessary. So, we did bath same as always. We did her lotion, diaper, and pjs. Then, I snuggled and comforted her some as she played on the bed and her nursing pillow as Mike read Green Eggs and Ham. At the end of the book, Mike gave her a kiss, and I picked he up like usually and put her in her crib. She went down the exact same as any other night. Yea! This means that technically, I no longer need to be present for bed time!

The rest of the evening has been spent reading, showering, and writing this blog which seems to be taking forever with this keyboard!

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