Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week has been good. Robert has been growing a lot. I think he is an inch taller now then he was last week. He is also able to "eat" on his own with a spoon. Alice has also done a bunch of firsts. She tied her first knot this week, and also wrote her first capital R.

As for the rest of us we are slowly getting better from the cold/sickness that has kept us incapacitated recently.

Feeling Almost Normal

Thank you for your well wishes and encouragement. I'm doing better. We're all getting better, actually. It occurred to me this morning that my sour mood might be contributing to Alice's recent (and uncharacteristic) crabbiness. When I'm grumpy, she's grumpy/whiny, and that makes me more grumpy. It's been getting worse over the last few days, which proved to me that it has less to do with physical health than I thought. I'm actually getting better physically. So, I decided to "fake it 'till you make it" today and plaster on a grin despite my irritation. I joked around a bit, gave her hugs, made lots of eye contact, and things completely turned around in 30 minutes. Seeing her happy and sweet again suddenly made me feel better as a mom and, strangely, as a person. The day only got better from there. Both of us were happier, more independent, more secure, and WAY less needy. Turns out we're more connected to each other than I thought.

Robert did better today, too. He wanted lots and lots of snuggles. He even snuggled my head while he was sitting on my shoulders. He craves face-to-face contact, too. Such a physical little guy! I'll be sitting on the floor playing and he'll waddle over to me and lunge into my arms. He'll get up chest-to-chest with me, wrap one arm around the back of my neck, and rest his head on my shoulder. It melts my insides every time. If I lie on the floor, he squeals and puts his big, drooly, open mouth on my nose, my chin, my cheek, my eye, my hair, etc. until my head is covered in baby slime. The secretions totally gross me out, but that expression of love is worth the mess. He doesn't express it any other way yet.

By the way, remember that Valentine's Day idea that just popped into Alice's head? We totally did it as soon as she got out of quiet time:

 

Waiting for the treats to cool!

And here's the Babe enjoying the fruits of our labors. The dialogue is unscripted, I swear:

The buttons on the table are from a craft we had started earlier. We had intended to make a necklace, but the buttons were so varied and "beauty" as Alice calls it, that she got distracted from the task at hand. We ended up sorting them and rhyming nonsense words (much more fun in my humble opinion).

Small Miracles

Whether it's the prayers of concerned parents/grandparents, or one of those tender mercies that come when you need them most, Robert slept last night. There was a small disruption about 10pm, but then he slept through to 6am. My throat was also significantly better today. Better than it's been in a long time.

Just in time.

I woke up early this morning to meet my Visiting Teaching companion, Emily, at the house of our Visiting Teachee, Martha, at 7:30am. We loaded ourselves and Robert (10 months), Emily's baby (8 months), and Martha's two children (2 and 10 years old) into my companion's minivan and hit the road towards Chicago. Snow was falling and the wind was bitterly cold. Robert was all smiles in that car full of girls. We made it to the Mexican Consulate in record time, despite the weather, the traffic, and a dysfunctional set of windshield wipers and wiper fluid dispensers that only made the dirty street spray MORE opaque. We had to stop a couple times for Emily to pour windshield washer fluid on the windshield by hand. The kids were unbelievably cooperative, sweet, and easily entertained (that's why I was there...to entertain kids while my companion drove), but it took a lot of energy from me. Good thing I had slept well the night before, eh?

We dropped off Martha at the Consulate and took the kids to a mall to walk around. Well, we tried to anyway. Twenty minutes later, just as we found the mall (which was strangely, and disappointingly NOT an indoor mall), Martha called to tell us she had left some important papers in the car. We drove back to give her the papers. We then headed towards an indoor Playplace at a McDonalds. Um. Chicago construction and traffic made that impossible, too. I've grumbled about Chicago before. We just don't get along.

Anyway, Martha's appointment would be done in 20 minutes or so, so we turned back and found one of those 30-minute-free-parking spots near the Consulate. We changed diapers in the back of the minivan with light snow and an icy breeze racing around the babes' exposed nethers. Poor kids. Then we let the kids "run around" in the car and eat their lunch. Martha called to let us know that everything was done and in order. She was just waiting for someone to hand her the finished document and there was no telling how long that would take. Unfortunately, Emily had to leave right away or she would miss her appointment that afternoon. We had planned for this contingency, but hoped we wouldn't have to use it. Martha and her kids would have to take the shuttle back home. I quickly made the reservation by phone while we unloaded the kids and Martha met us outside. We had to leave quickly, so the shuttle instructions and goodbyes were very brief and hurried. Then Emily and I headed back home.

We got back to Champaign-Urbana and I immediately hopped in the car to go get Alice (Bobby, Marianne, and Kristin all worked together to get Alice where she needed to go and be. She had a splendid day and told me all about it when we got home. Craft class, dance class, and playing at Will's house...best Tuesday EVER, Mom!)

All of those events just kinda fell into place. It was a long day, but I didn't feel tired until I was home again with both Alice and Robert. Then the whiny, needy, noisy parts of the "witching hour" kicked in and I could feel how much the day had already taken out of me.

I don't know why I'm blogging about this except just to spit it out and make it stop spinning around in my head. I don't feel like I learned anything particularly poignant. I think I SHOULD have learned something from this...some sort of Visiting Teaching miracle or experience I could share in Sunday School, but it's not there. I didn't improve my relationship with either my companion or Martha. I hardly talked to either of them the whole time. We got the job done but I didn't improve any situations or lives. I still feel just as awkward with both of them.

Bummer. All that trouble and nothing to show for it :(

Quick Update

I'm still sick (sore throat, mostly, and fatigue). I'm still grumpy, too, though less so today than recently. Bobby has taken on more over the last couple days to try and give me a break. Unfortunately, he seems to be getting sick now.

*sigh*

In other news, Robert is officially walking more than he's crawling. The poor boy still needs something to help him stand (parental legs, furniture, door frames) but then he's off. He turns, avoids obstacles, and just keeps teetering on until something brings him down. Look for movies soon. Today, he tried running. Yikes! He just wants to keep up with Alice...except for quiet time. He's begun to resist the "trap him in Alice's room with Alice for 90 minutes" gig. Bummer for me. Bummer for Alice. She really, really, really, likes playing with him. I think he's bored of dress-up, and she tends to put all the coolest toys way up high so he can't reach them (i.e. chokey things, fragile books, and noisy toys).

*sigh*

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week has been kind of hard. Both Susan and Robert have been sick the last few days. Susan's sickness has manifested itself as grumpiness. The worst part of it is that she didn't even really recognize that she was sick, just kind of been irritable and in a bad mood for much of the last few days. Once she realize that she was sick and that was why she was feeling bad, she has been a lot nicer. Robert has also been sick. I don't know if it is just teething or something else too, but he has been very very grumpy and not sleeping well. He also has had a fever the last few nights. He has a few molar bits poking through now, so I am hoping that it is just teething.

Other then that not too much out o the ordinary has happened.