Very Busy

Its been pretty good the last few days around here. Well, I guess not so much on Thursday, but the last two days have been good.

Thursday, it was a rainy gloomy day. For some reason, it bummed me out. I think part of it was that it was the last day of school for teachers at my old job and I was hoping to here that people were going out or to at least hear from my good friend (who I really haven't seen much of recently). I felt stuck in the house and bored. I tried to put Natalie down for her morning nap, but she crawled to the corner of the crib crying for me to come back and let her out. I gave in after 15 minutes as her cries got progressively worse instead of more tired. But, in the afternoon, Natalie and I went out to the store, which helped. I waited about an hour in the car for her to nap when we got to the store because I had timed her naps poorly, which was also really boring. This nap threw off our return time, so we had to skip the 3 o'clock nursing for the first time. I fed Natalie dinner early and then we waited for Mike to get home from dropping the vacuum cleaner off in Stanford, which is the closet Dyson service center. He got home about an hour later than usual. I had managed to make dinner and ate mine, then he ate his, and we put Natalie down for the night. That night, we didn't do anything special; I finished up my book to return to the library because I hate going to the library and then finishing a book that night so that I have a finished book hanging around all week.

Friday was much better. First of all, the weather was nice, which always helps. At Natalie's first nap, we had a bit of a problem. I was determined not to give again because I don't want to make it a habit. After a while of fussing, she went to sleep and then slept for an hour. This made us miss story time, but that isn't a big deal. We went to the library anyway. Usually after story time the librarian and other kids and parents are still there, but not this week. It was all people we didn't know. I let Natalie play with one of the toys and walk around and crawl a little. (Last week, she drew a crowd of a dozen or so second grade girls who were on a field trip). We got some books and head home.

It was almost noon by the time we nursed, so I decided that we would again skip the 3 o'clock nursing since we usually have four hours between sessions. That would have put her 3rd nursing session at 4 when she needed to eat dinner at 430 so we could be out at 5 (more on that in a minute). So, it appear that we have offical cut a nursing. Natalie seems fine with it except that we have moved dinner up to 430. Also, after noticing that her diaper was dry last night at bed time, I realized that I have to push getting her drink in the afternoon without that session (more on that later, too). Around 3, I decided it was time to go for a walk. Natalie was getting a little tired and it was no longer the peak sunburn hours. Right as we were at the door, Mike's mom arrived. She dropped her stuff off and joined us on the walk. Natalie stared at Nana for almost the whole walk and finally drifted off to sleep a few hundred yard from home. Luckily, she stayed asleep in the drive way up by the deck while we sat on the step and chatted for about a half an hour. We got her inside, changed, and played for a few minutes, then it was time for her dinner. Mike arrived home about that time, too.

Once her dinner was finished, we headed over to the Relay for Life. Natalie cried the whole way there in the car. To make matters worse, there was rush hour traffic. It appears she just didn't want to be in the car, especially with me right next to her not letting her out. When we got to the high school where the walk was being held and took her out, she was happy again. Until we put her in the stroller. So, I had to carry her. We quickly found the other members of our team and sat chatting with them for a while. These are all former students of the high school I taught at. I had the pair of sisters as students, one of which was my first year teaching and the other of which graduated last weekend. The three girls all admired Natalie. I tired to ask them questions about how they were doing, especially the sister who just graduated since I haven't talked to her much recently. We had hoped to do a couple laps before heading home with Natalie for bed time, but the person who did the opening speech seemed to take forever this year. We barely made it for the survivor / caretaker lap, and then had to leave. There was a lot of juggling of Natalie between Mike and I and trying to get her to walk, but she really just wanted me to hold her since she was getting tired. So, we head home. Mike's mom sat in the back this time, which was more effective and she managed to keep Natalie from crying until we were 2/3 of the way home. We started bed time as soon as we got in the house. She nursed for a long time, distracted by Nana and Mike reading. Eventually, we just had to put her in the crib awake, and she went down without a peep.

After Natalie was in bed, we waited a little bit, then watched Shutter Island. This was one of those movies Mike and I were very excited to see in the theater but didn't get the change to go see. We got the movie from Netflix in Thursday's mail, but held off on seeing it for Mike's mom. We had orginally hoped to go out Friday night, but movie times were just not working with our schedule with the Relay, and then Mike was really tired anyway. So, we watched the movie. I really enjoyed it up until the last fifteen minutes or so when the "twist" was revealed. I had predicted 75% of the twist, and Mike's mom the other 25% half way through the movie or earlier. We weren't impressed by the marketing of a huge surprise ending. But, I had really enjoyed the look of the movie. The music reminded me a bit of The Shinning, really ominous. After the movie was over, Mike pointed out the Leo's character's last line and that last scene could be read two ways: Spoiler! 1) Teddy could have been delusional the whole time and the role play had failed again, but he acknowledges this on some level and would rather die than continue on knowing what he had done; OR 2) Teddy rejects the brainwashing and decides that he would rather die than accept the evil that they are trying to get him to believe. We are wondering if we are just grasping at straws here though in hopes of making the ending more complex.

Today has been a good day as well. I got up with Natalie around 7, and by 8 everyone was up. Mike was going to mow the lawn, but the wetness prevented that. This let me have a little break for a while, which was nice. I would have liked to take a nap, but didn't get to. Natalie had another failed nap at 915. She wound up sitting up in her crib crying, so after 15 minutes we got her and she was very happy to play until after 11. I got a shower in and started some laundry before nursing her. She napped then for about half an hour. If we'd been alone without any distractions, it probably would have been a bit longer. After a little more time playing and some lunch, Natalie head out with Mike and his mom to go drop off the weed whacker a few towns over. This left me with no responsiblities! So, I went out shopping. I had to do the regular weekly shopping, but I also needed to get some clothes. Its hard enough to do regular shopping with Natalie, but trying on clothes? So, it was nice to do that. I needed another pair of jeans since I wear the same ones almost every day (my other ones just don't fit quite right). I also wanted another bathing suit. I don't really want to wear a bikini down in TX, so I got another tank top and bikini bottom that are black toned, so I can mix and match with what I already have. (I think I have three black bottoms now and two black tank tops along with a bikini top that makes black). I also got some undies and new nursing bras. I didn't try on the bras though because I thought I could just get another one of what I already have, but of course they didn't carry those anymore so I had to pick new ones out, and I wasn't about to make a third trip into the dressing room. Other joys of not having the baby with me shopping were the easy manuvoring of the cart without having to worry about tipping Natalie over, leaving the cart at the end of a busy isle, and not having to park so close to a carriage return for fear I'll be reported to the police for leaving Natalie alone in the car.

When I got home, Natalie had been missing me. Mike and his mom figured out that she was thirsty at one point. This was something we had never had to deal with before. I had though about last night, but hadn't though to make a point of telling it to Mike. They figured it out and Natalie gulped down a bunch of water out of a cup. Offering water in the afternoon is going to have to become a regular thing now. Natalie sat in her high chair while we got the groceries put away, then she had some baby food mac and cheese for dinner. After that, we passed her around for the next two hours as we got dinner ready (including make big batches of mashed potatoes and squash to freeze) and cleaned up after eating. Natalie was pretty happy in her chair while we ate because she got sweet potato puffs and yogurt melts. Once we finished cleaning up, we did her bath. But since Natalie had only slept a little today during naps, an hour and half maximum, but probably a lot less, she lost patience in the bath and started crying and trying to climb out to me. We got through the rest of bed time quickly. Now we are waiting to go to the later showing of Iron Man 2, since the first showing started five minutes after we were done with bed time. We have always hated that our local theaters have 7 and 9 o'clock show times instead of 6 and 8. 7 is always too early and 9 too late for us. I'm very glad that Mike's mom decided to stay another night so that we got the opportunity to go out, which we really need to take advantage of.