Monday, September 20, 2010

Muah!

A weekend away always seems like a busy one.

Saturday was my father's birthday. Even though he said we didn't have to all get together for it, I wanted to see a friend who is moving to the west coast in two weeks. So, this gave a great excuse to get together anyway without my parents thinking they were inconveniencing us by making the trip down. (Not that making the trip is a inconvenience, but my parents don't like doing it so they try to ask it of us too often).

Friday, I did the laundry and grocery shopping for the week while Mike was at work, which allowed us to stay later on Sunday. Friday was even more out of the ordinary since Mike went to get his weed whacker back from a repair man in Gray. This man has had it the whole summer waiting on parts. Mike finally just said he wanted it back, so the man said he'd leave it on his porch. After having trouble relocating the place, the weed whacker is there, but in far worse shape. Needless to say, Mike is pretty angry about wasting his time to go over there for nothing. He called the repair man on the drive home and the repair man offered fix it and bring it to our house. We arrive home Sunday afternoon: No weed whacker. Mike calls again; the repair man says he's fixing the damage done by his assistant and is working with the manufacturer to try to get Mike a new weed whacker. Mike appreciates that this guy is always nice on the phone, but is having a rough time with how nothing he ever says he is going to do turns out the way it should. This is just another example of Mike horrible luck with anything related to home repair.

Saturday, we left right on time without too much scrambling. After a quick detour at Walmart to pick up Mike's new glasses, we drove down to my parents' without insodent. As usual, we were the first of my siblings to arrive. After some lunch and play time for Natalie, we head over to my friend's apartment. We stayed there for about a half an hour, during which Natalie happily walked between me and their glass door over and over. I haven't talked much to this friend in the past year, so we didn't have too much to talk about now since it was hard to just pick up once we'd covered the obvious. We used to talk when she was heading home on the T from work, but once Natalie arrived, that was one of the worst times for us, and we fell out of habit. I really hope that she doesn't think I blew her off or something. At the same time, she and her husband travel all the time - to see his family in NY, Martha's Vineyard, exoctic little mini-vacations, etc. The two hour trip up here for a weekend was totally doable for them if she had the desire. While seeing her apartment three times over a couple years is not excellent, I would try to see her at parties, but she never came up to Maine to see me in six years. Her leaving now makes me sad because I feel we are finally coming out of the stage where its hard for me to keep in touch with people, but now she'll be on the other side of the country.

The rest of Saturday went well. Natalie got fussy as the day wore on, but she played with my family well, even warming up to my brother after being a little afraid of him at first. There was lots of walking around the circle through the living room, kitchen and dining room. My parents' house isn't that big, and with six adults, it starts to feel crowded. I'm a little worried about Christmas, what with a seventh person (my BIL was missing this weekend) and a Christmas tree and presents. As the evening wore on, both Natalie and I got grumpier. She didn't eat all of her dinner when she usually wolves down everything. Instead, she wanted me to hold her, but not hold her, which is one of the things that drives me crazy. She squirms like crazy when I hold her, but then fusses and pulls on me when I put her down. She also begged for food all weekend, which makes me worry about if she is getting enough to eat or if she is begging just because she likes food. I thought babies were supposed to know to stop when they are full? Add to this, she had two bad slips. First, she fell underneth my parents' kitchen table onto one of the square, metal legs. She is now developing a bruise on the back of her thigh from that. Then a little later, she slipped using the hutch to pull up and banged her face right by her eye. No bruise there, but still upsetting for us both.

What made the second fall particularly sad was that it happened with me right there and mere seconds after she did the sweetest thing she has ever done. After months of anticipation, Natalie gave me a kiss on the cheek when I asked for one! Mike missed it since he was running the bath. We called him out, and she did it again. Oh, it was so cute and sweet. Over the last 72 hours, I've asked her to do it again and again, with mixed results. At first, she wouldn't give Mike a kiss. But then I asked her to kiss me, and then asked her to kiss Daddy pointing to his cheek, and she did it. Since then, we've had no problem. I'm glad for that because he was really upset that she refused to kiss him. She laughs because he has started growing his beard out for the winter and it tickles her lips. Last night's bedtime was perfect. She gave us both a kiss good night and got one from each of us. Ahh, the pure sweetness of a baby kiss...

On Sunday, we decided to stay later into the afternoon, when we would usually go home for Natalie's first nap. We wanted to go to Barnes and Noble to use a gift certificate since there isn't one near us. But, we didn't want to bring Natalie. My parents agreed to watch her, though my father was more enthusiastic. My mom seemed a little worried. I must admit, that Natalie hadn't been in the best mood that morning, and I was anxious, too. But, we were only gone for about a hour, and Natalie didn't miss us. She got a cracker and watched some Play with Me Sesame on demand after running them in circles for 15 minutes. Knowing that this went well makes me feel better about asking them to watch her again in the future. Especially with HP7 movie approaching. We are going to see it at the IMAX theater near my parents' house. We hope to get tickets that would allow us to put Natalie to bed and still get over there to stand in line for good seats. But, it is possible that we will have to go to an afternoon show and we'd need someone to watch her. My mom has given slight pressure that we should just go at night, again worried about how it will go. While us being gone for three or four hours is a long time, I'm sure they can handle it. I mean, I know my grandparents watch my brother and sister when my mom had me, and that's two kids. Maybe I can ask my sister be there too if it has to be during the day? All I know is that I am really looking forward to this movie and I don't want to be sitting there worried the whole time.

Other news about Natalie:
  • She gives sweet kisses. Oh, yeah. I already said that. :) While we're on the subject, she doesn't get how to do kissy lips. She just presses her mouth to you. She sometimes makes a noise a little like "muah."
  • I've noticed Natalie understanding me more. Especially with words about food. She seems to say MMM a lot when we say things like lunch, hungry, and even today I swear she did it for nurse.
  • Natalie has put the circle block into the shape sorter, but only if you help by pointing. She thinks all the shapes go in the hole now.
  • Newest foods Natalie has tried: grilled cheese, scrambled eggs, freeze dried fruit from Gerber

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