Vacation Days 2-3

Thursday, Big D and I kept The Monster home from school and played with her all morning. Her favorite toys are the rock-a-stack and a ferris wheel looking thing. Then we packed her up and drove her up to my old office. We had lunch with Margaret and Leslie at a Greek place that serves some of the best gyros in town. The Monster is very hands-on now, and it was hard to keep her little mits from grabbing everything on the table. It's definitely time to confine her to a high chair at restaurants.

Then we took her up to the office to meet my old co-workers. Everyone huddled around and told us what they were supposed to: "she's so cute/pretty/adorable," "she's so well-behaved," "her blue eyes are beautiful," "her red hair is beautiful/soft/shiny." Then they passed her around. Picture a room full of women, most of whom have grown children, anxiously waiting their turn to hold a cute little baby. I understand that now. There was a time (about 7.5 months ago) when I thought kids that didn't belong to my friends were annoying. I didn't ooh and ahh over babies. It's a baby; big freakin' deal. But now that I've had the pleasure of having one myself, I can say that I appreciate other kiddos a lot more now. I refer to the other kids in The Monster's class as brats with less frequency. I guess I'm learning to appreciate the beauty of youth. Maybe it's because crows are starting to leave their foot prints near my eyes. But in any event, I like kids better now. As long as they don't try to talk to me in their unintelligible babble.

So anyway, the women of my office oohed and ahhed appropriately and passed The Monster around for a good hour or so. Then it came time for my boss to hold her. He's a 65-year-old former Army pilot; a good guy who can always find a way to relate the law to flying a jet. He doesn't have kids of his own, which is really a tragedy, because he would be a great father. Upon an offer to hold The Monster, he replied, "I have one rule when it comes to holding babies: I don't." So he didn't. She kept staring at him, though. He's got white hair and big bushy eyebrows, similar to my dad. I think maybe she thought he looked like Grandpa. I guess he couldn't resist that sweet little face, because my boss ended up holding her and goo goo'ing and ga ga'ing. I think he may have actually enjoyed it. Eventually I said a teary goodbye, and Big D and I went home.

We introduced The Monster to green peas that morning. She was less than thrilled. She would turn her head, and display a look that said, "Is this edible?" It's a look similar to the one Big D gets when he watches Dirty Jobs; "Really?" he often exclaims. Admittedly, the peas didn't look all that great pureed, but it looked better than the store-bought green peas. We'll have to try that one again another time.

Friday, Big D took her to school and had a donut with The Monster as part of their "Donuts with Dads" Father's Day celebration. Then her teachers gave him a handmade father's day frame with her hand print and a poem. He really likes it. I went to Target and then to the grocery store. I had to pick up a double curtain rod for the nursery. (Side note: to anyone considering having kiddos, don't believe the crap in the books about not needing to complete the nursery before the baby is born. "They won't know the difference," the books say. Or, "they'll be in your room at first anyway." Here's my unsolicited advice: get the nursery done before your 9th month. We didn't have the chance to finish the nursery, because we were still trying to unpack the house when The Monster was born. Hell, we're still trying to unpack the house. Now that The Monster has graced us with her presence, it's increasingly difficult to finish a project. So, finish it up before the bambino arrives. Now back to my boring story...) I had to get a double curtain rod for blackout shades and the curtains to match her nursery. The Monster's window gets the extremely bright afternoon sunlight. We want to block some of that out with the blackout shades, and we have lavender gingham panels as well. We hung them up yesterday, and then I rearranged the stuffed animal parade. The nursery looks a lot cuter now. Next steps include putting lavender letters spelling out her name on the wall, hanging up framed prints from her photo session, and installing a set of built-in shelves I'm going to force Big D to construct on either side of the window. We also have a crocheted doily thingy that spells out her name made by a close friend of Big D's grandmother. It matches a doily that Big D's grandmother has of her name. It'll be very special to finally hang up. I also have a white washed collage frame thingy given to me at a baby shower. It looked intimidating, but once my mother-in-law showed me how to do it, I made a collage in five minutes. So awesome. It needs a home as well. With any luck, The Monster's nursery will be completed just as we have kiddo number two and move The Monster into the guest room.

Then I did laundry, Big D studied, and then I picked up The Monster from school. We played and then started the bed time routine. That's been working out pretty well. We feed her a bottle, then cereal. Then it's off to the bath. Then we put her in her pajamas. If she still has some energy, we play a little bit longer. Once she's showing signs of being pretty tired, we take her upstairs and read her Goodnight Moon. Then it was sleepy time while I watched The Nanny Diaries, which makes me feel like a good mom despite putting The Monster in daycare so I can have some days off. I highly suggest watching it.

One last thing I forgot to mention: THE MONSTER CRAWLED A LITTLE BIT LAST NIGHT! She was trying to get to the rock-a-stack, and she actually crawled a few "steps." What does one call them? Steps or lunges? I have no idea, but she did it. She's not going to be competing in the Olympics quite yet, but it's a start!

Here are some pictures of little miss in her high chair. She can't quite reach the toys, but that doesn't deter her from giving it her best shot.