Motherhood: Just Like Your Normal Life, Only Ten Times More Complicated

Tonight I had my Book Club from 5:30p to 7:30p. As mentioned earlier, I forgot to get a sitter and was a host so I couldn’t exactly stay home. Besides, Free State Brewery is a favorite of mine…

Now, a year ago this is how things would have gone:

1. I would have probably worked until 5:15p-ish, then headed downtown to find parking and walk over to the brewery.

However, now I have a child to include in my plans. So things went a little like this:

1. Left work a little early to drive over the bridge and through a detour/construction, to pick up baby from daycare.


2. Talk to daycare provider probably much too long about the state of my son’s dirty diapers, then wrestle the car-hating child into his car seat. While he howls in protest.


3. Drive back through detour and construction and over bridge, then waaaaaaaay over to our house on the south side of town. Through “Lawrence rush hour”, A.K.A. this town is too big for its own britches, therefore way too many drivers are forced to share a small side street as if it were a main thoroughfare, resulting in it taking 15 minutes to drive a mile and a half. Insert: the sounds of an angry, spiteful child yelping from the back seat the entire time.


4. Wrestle child back out of the car seat, and attempt to carry the squirming child into the house, while also carrying (1) diaper bag, (2) purse, (3) daycare bag, (4) office lunch bag, and (5) breast pump.


5. Get caught by super nice next-door neighbors, so spend the next 10 minutes anxiously glancing at watch and trying to cajole a pouty baby to FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY JUST SQUEEZE OUT A TEENY SMILE ALREADY for the nice little old people. Instead he buries his face into my chest and moans “ah-buuuuuuuuu” the entire time.


6. With trembling arms from the weight of baby and all the bags, finally make it into the house. Baby is squealing “aaaaaaaah-buuuuuuuuuu!” at a pitch that could break glass, so drop all bags and scramble baby and self out of coat to get him something to drink.
   
   
7. Baby zonks out after approximately 5 minutes of drinking. Great. Because we probably should have left to go back downtown about 5 minutes ago, as parking is hard to find on a KU game night.


8. Wrestle child back into car seat. Baby is now SUPREME HULK ANGRY after being awoken from sleep. Proof that sometimes God does look down upon me happily: I find Rockstar Parking right in front of the brewery. Sweeeeeet. Only: we're about 25 minutes too early for the room reservation...


9. Wrestle baby out of car. Spend 5 minutes fiddling with Bjorn to get it right and get baby in it properly. Bundle blanket over baby (it was FREEZING! Cold. And I forgot my own hat, great). Grab enormous diaper bag and start hitting the stores.
   
   
10. Get so involved in looking at the clearanced scarves in The Gap that I have to sprint to Free State to be there for our reservation time.

Aaaaand: fin. Actually the rest was a piece of cake: Peter was a dream all night, smiling and cooing at the ladies, sitting nicely on my lap the entire time.

I do earn Mommy of the Year points for what happened at the end: we were all getting ready to leave. I plopped Peter in the high chair and was chatting happily while getting our things together and pulling on my coat. After a few minutes I hear the quietest little squawks, and look down to locate where the weird noise is coming from . . . Oh boy.

I thought I had the high chair divider between his legs? But no, I put both legs into one leg opening. So he had somehow squirmed all the way through, with only his head keeping him from sliding to the floor. It was a sight to see actually, and after letting out a few motherly "PETER!!!" shouts, I was able to pull him back through the top. Crisis averted.

Yeah. Dramatic re-creation of the moment can be seen below (I am too lazy to cut out an entire baby body, TOO MANY ANGLES PEOPLE, so I drew the body with the handy paintbrush feature):

Snow Day

We got more snow, more to pile onto the already-several-inches hanging around. The city is still not plowing. Or sanding, which they promised to AT LEAST do that, whatever. To top that off, the windchill hovered around -16F, and winds were a-blowing as they usually do in Kansas, so drifts were everywhere. I called daycare only to find out that they have knee-deep drifts on their street and the city hasn't plowed a thing (shocker, yes?)...

And you know what? That's it, I'm taking a snow day. Just me and a huge pot of coffee, my slippers, and my pint-sized sidekick. Pictures (oh yes, many many pictures) follow. "My Favorite Things" Thursday will just have to be put off for a day, because we're taking a Snow Day around here, thank you very much.

Peter got dragged back into bed with me when he woke up at 4am, and we crawled back out about 7am. Then had some granola and fruit for breakfast...

After breakfast we played a little bit, and checked out the snow from the comfort of our cozy house.


Peter got a little slap-happy playing on the bed with his Ugly Doll, which meant one thing...



Nap time. He slept for 2.5 hours at his first nap, which meant I could check in at the office and get some work done.


Afterwards we played some more. Peter's really getting into his stacking toy; he used to just like to see it flash its lights and play music, but today he was intent on re-stacking the rings and topper. Adda boy.

We had a snack after that, some Puffs and apricots.

OOF, FULL TUMMEH.

It was about 1pm that we finally decided to maybe get out of the PJs. I brought down some clothes, and go figure: too small. Peter was more than happy to play in the nude (well, and socks) until I was able to find something else for him to wear. Especially after he discovered (and dragged out) the stash of Puffs I hide away in the emergency diaper bag...

Finally, some clothes. Then more playtime in on his mat.

He looooooves this corner of the kitchen, he usually hides there and plays while I putter around in the kitchen doing dishes or whatever. He's also usually pretty quiet, which gives me a heart attack when I turn around and can't see him.

After some vigorous playing on the floor, it was time for the afternoon nap.

And then time for my favorite Snow Day activity: baking cookies! Thanks to Joylyn for the cookie mix, they came in handy when it's too gross outside to make a run for supplies. Peter cheerfully snacked on Baby Cheetos and supervised.

Peter practiced his baton-twirling skillz.

Mmm, M&M cookies.

Official Cookie Taste-Tester.

Then we blew some time on Facebook...

Later we went up to his room to goof off. Beah was not kidding about that toy she bought him: he always bee-lines for it when we get upstairs. It's like the thing is sprinkled with baby crack.

We read a book to while away the time until Dad got off of work.

We took our 7-Month picture. This was one of the better ones, believe it or not. The kid, he is getting pretty mobile. More time was spent trying to keep him on the chair than trying to take pictures.

Um, and yeah he really loves those baby Cheetos.

Oh my gawd, DADDY! Finally! And only a short visit, sadly - then Scott was sent away to shovel and run errands. Boo.

We had some dinner. Peter is all about feeding himself. After he ate everything, I gave him his bowl to play with. I'm telling you, he kept himself busy for 15 minutes. Who knew that pretending to feed yourself could be so fascinating.

After dinnertime, it was off to the Bedtime Routine. First Bath...

... Book...

... Then some milk, and Bed.

The end. Goodnight my doots. Thank you for today.

The Eldridge's Gingerbread House Festival

Oh, the city Gingerbread Festival. All ages, from 5 years old to adults, join in on the fun. The Gingerbread houses are displayed for a few days, then auctioned off for charity.

We went to see them for the first time this year, and I must say: I loved it, loved it. More about it here, if you are interested.

I took a bunch of pictures (yeah, shocking I know). Here are some of my favorite little houses, pictures aren't edited but you'll still dig them I promise.

Enjoy :)


The detail was amazing. Check out the view inside this one:

Our real estate agent Tanya (who is awesome, by the way) participates every year. This was her submission for this year, it made the front window display:

I don't know what's Christmas-y about pirates to this little kid, but I like it.

NASA-inspired.

Santa: Land Here!

Rooftop pools, how decadent.

This one? Was my favorite. Tanya's husband Greg submitted it this year. It's the house from Up! Super duper cool, the detail was amazing.

What??

Okay for those who don't know what I meant by the Patrick Swayze comment in the last update (because seriously like whaaaaa...? One of the best roles in history? No but reallllllly??).

Anyway. Hopefully this video jogs your memory.

Peace out.

Oktoberfest 2009

It may not be Munich, but it'll do. Our church puts on an Oktoberfest every year, and we ventured out for it this time around. Enjoy the pictures...



Scott and I split a plate. Cabbage rolls, kraut, and German potato salad. YUM.

I love accordian players. This guy was adorable.

A montage of sorts. I noticed a definite pattern when going through my photos from our time at Oktoberfest. Let's just say that Peter takes after his father in more ways than his looks.