Girls' Weekend

Chou was away this weekend. It's the forth(?) weekend he's been away since E's birth. The first time E was less than two months old. I vacuumed the house before heading to bed and realized a dog we had been watching peed all over the entire first floor of the house. E rocked in her swing, screaming at the top of her lungs for an hour as I scrubbed every square inch of my carpet. As I was finishing up, E finally fell asleep but woke herself up ten minutes later and continued screaming at the top of her lungs. Honestly, it was this experience that caused me to never let E  "cry it out" because we were both way more upset at the end of that hour than was healthy for either one of us.

The third weekend we were flying solo, I drove out to join a bunch of friends at the beach for the weekend. On the way home, I got a flat tire in middle-of-nowhere southern Jersey. After 2 hours of waiting for AAA to come change my tire (I was in a gravel parking lot and not wanting to attempt the feat myself) I had the joy of driving on a spare on I-95 with an infant in the back seat. Not an experience I ever need to relive.

Needless to say, I wasn't too excited for this weekend. However, this one was delightful despite a mild snowstorm on Friday! We got to see friends on Friday and Saturday, and E has slept better than ever! E has been incredibly happy and maybe just a little too busy, as usual :) Yesterday E managed to grab my latte and drink it while standing over the pile of all her hats and gloves she had previously created, spilling it all over herself and all her hats/mittens. After rinsing everything and placing it in a bucket to soak, I decided to go ahead and give her a bath rather than wait until bedtime. I grabbed some bubble bath and we had a blast! She ate countless soap suds and my standard 'drain all the water when I'm ready for her to be done' method of getting her out of the tub failed because too many of the bubbles remained behind. Totally worth it! We came downstairs to play and she shredded and ate a handful of leaves from one of my houseplants. I moved her to the kitchen so I could keep an eye on her while I made pancakes for dinner, but I failed and she baptized her doll in the dogs' water dish while I was flipping away. After dinner I bundled her up, which is challenging with no hats or gloves, and we walked the dog in the 18 degree frigid air. We then watched a terrible movie before putting her to bed. I was able to clean up and get ready for church before joining her beneath the warm covers. This morning we made history and, for the first time ever, I made it to the 9am service at church without Chou's help. Go me! ...it's the little things!

So while E's face is still red from all the inedibles she consumed yesterday and every piece of actual food I've given her has been immediately handed off to the dogs, we've had a great weekend.