What a Weekend!

Thursday: Easter Egg Hunt with MOPS

Friday: Good Friday Service with Dad and Karen, colored Easter eggs with Paul, Mia's Easter pictures, scrapbooking at Lisa's

Saturday: Yard Saling, Rob's wedding

Sunday: Easter service at The Bridge, made apple slices, Mom's house for dinner

I was excited for each of these events, but it wasn't easy to make sure that Mia got all of her naps and meals in between.

I was nervous to go to the egg hunt because I wasn't sure if there would be any other babies, but Maari brought Claire, and Marcy had Corban, so we weren't alone. The babies didn't really hunt for eggs, but it was nice just to be out at the park. The weather was beautiful, perfect really. We sat the babies down on the grass and got some cute pictures. Mia got stranger anxiety and started to cry, but, like the good momma that I am, I continued to take a few pictures of her crying before rescuing her . . .

On Friday, Mia and I got dressed up and went to Fugazi's restaurant (not your typical Italian restaurant) where Mia was showered with gifts. (I have not bought her ANY toys up to this point, and she still has some she hasn't played with yet!) Afterwards, we went to a very unusual church that was really a tent, but permanent somehow. I, as usual, did not hear much of the service because I was paying attention to Mia. For some reason they decided not to offer childcare. I think they probably regretted that decision after 3 or 4 Mommies walked out with noisy babies.

Later that day, Mia and I went to pick up Troy at work (because he didn't have his car). Troy loves showing Mia off to his employees and clients. We raced home to take Mia's Easter pictures. This was actually the second time taking Easter/7 month pictures because the first time I tried to do it by myself. It's not easy to make Mia smile and then quickly get the camera into position. Troy was a big help. All he had to do was be his goofy self. He jumped around, sang nursery rhymes, and made weird noises. Mia loved it. She loves her daddy!

I took off to go scrapbooking and Troy and Mia had daddy/daughter time. At this point, the weekend was just beginning and I was already feeling like I needed a nap!

Saturday morning we got all bundled up and went out early to hit the big Tower yard sale. The problem is, every year when we go, I can't remember if it's off of Shields or McKinley, so we get lost every year. We drove for a while and decided maybe I had the wrong date, so we went home and went back to bed! It turns out I had the right date, but we didn't drive far enough. That's okay. The Tower yard sales go all through the month of April, so we'll have plenty of opportunities for fresh tamales and all those people!

Troy started getting ready for the wedding at about lunch time, so Mia and I were on our own to get ready. I told myself the wedding started at 4pm, just so I would be on time. What's amazing is that I believed myself and made it there by 4:10pm! The wedding was a really fun time. I enjoyed seeing everyone. It was like Rob and Eri had thrown a party for our family. Camlen was there, which neither Troy or I expected. I walked over to him to say hello and said, "Hey, Terry, I bet you thought you were rid of us!" He laughed. Later I joked with him about competing for photos and we talked about cameras and stuff. He really is a neat guy and he takes great pictures. You just have to wait a really long time to get them (Um, 4 years . . . ).

Mia was well taken care of. Aunt Joanne showed her off, Paul and Kelsey took turns showing her how to play video games, Melissa and Jaime entertained, Aunt Kathy DIDN'T make her cry this time, and even Camlen's assistant offered to hold her while I took some pictures. I was amazed at how well Mia did without a nap. She was soooooo tired when we left at 8pm. She cried when we got home because she was so tired she didn't know what to do with herself!

Heather's cake turned out amazing! I can't believe she even attempted to make an ice cream cake! It was so fabulous! Aunt Mary described the two day process (she said she took pictures because it was so crazy) and we now call Heather a cake engineer. She definitely outsmarted the cake on this one.

Troy and I got to dance. That's always my favorite part. Troy dancing with Mia was just precious. Then my mom danced with her. That was super cute. What a fun night!

The next morning, we were all dead tired, but we went to church, came home and made apple slices to take to Mom's and had Easter dinner. Mia was again showered with gifts. She has so much stuff!

Grandpa couldn't take his eyes off of Mia. He's so cute with her. He just loves to make her smile!

The conversation at dinner was lagging and I guess my mom wanted to jumpstart it or something. I really don't know what kind of reaction she thought she would get from Grandma, but she decided to tell her that we were going to get a foster child. I don't mind her telling, but it seemed kind of random. This comment got relatively the same response from Grandma that we got when we were talking about baby names. Sometimes, I just don't want Grandma's opinion. When she has a strong opinion about something, she definitely lets you know. Abrupt and brutal honesty: not my favorite family trait. She, of course, cautioned us that Mia would not get as much attention (we know) and let us know she thought it was generally a bad idea.

Honestly, I wasn't going to mention foster kids until we had finished the training and knew for sure this was something we want to pursue, but I did tell my mom. Did I think she wouldn't say anything? Well, naively, yes. Anyway, I don't remember how I responded, but we changed the subject (or tried to).

I'm sure it will come up again at cards the same way Grandma brought up the baby name she didn't like every week at cards. At least by Friday, Troy and I can come up with some responses that don't sound defensive and might make some sense to Grandma. Personally, when she said Mia would get less attention, I almost pointed out that she had FOUR children. I'm sure that because they were her natural children that somehow makes it different?

Winners!

You would think, judging by the pictures, that we were the winners of The Ark of the Covenant. We, in fact, were not. Darrell is the keeper of the covenant tonight. We did, however, score an amazing meal cooked by our good friends Cori and Darrell. Who knew rice was dessert food? Not I!

Venturing Out

So far, most of my outings with Mia have been shopping trips or lunch with The Chicks. We both enjoy getting out of the house. It's nice to have a reason to take a shower and do my hair. We've made great use of the Bjorn baby carrier. I think all new moms should own one! Mia loves to look at everything while we shop and she especially likes when we go to Hancock Fabrics because EVERYONE smiles and plays with her!

On Fridays Mommy Matters opens up their back room for a playgroup. I hate going to things like that for the first time because there's always a little bit of uncomfortableness, but we went, even without Alicia and Mia Faith since they couldn't make it. It really wasn't anything too special, but we had fun.

There were just two other little girls there and I was glad. Too many little ones sometimes is just not fun. Uma is the owner's daughter and has Down's Syndrome. She's 3, but is about Mia's size. She knows quite a bit of sign language and was signing along with the video on the tv. I asked her what the babies were doing on the tv, and instead of telling me they were sleeping, she did the sign for "daddy". I thought that was odd. When Gena came in to check on all of us, I told her about Uma signing "daddy" and she told me that Uma's daddy was coming to pick her up so she could go home and take her nap. How smart is she! She associated sleeping with daddy. It made perfect sense to her!

Mia also met Mila who is 9 months old and crawling. She was fun to watch, but I am so glad Mia is taking her time learning to get around, because that girl was FAST! What I enjoyed most was watching Mia watch Mila. Mia was sitting up and kept putting her hands down on the ground as if she were going to just take off and crawl right after her, but she couldn't quite figure it out. Then Mila took the toy right out of Mia's hands and Mia started to babble at the little girl. It was probably something like, "You can't have that. I was playing with it. See, my slobber is all over the top and my mommy is sitting right there, so you'd better not mess with me." Of course she said it very calmly and diplomatically, just like I taught her. I think we'll go back. It's good to get out.

In an Nutshell

Crying baby for 6+ hours=tired Momma. 'Nough said.

Right Now

I was just lying here on my stomach trying to remember the last time I was able to lie on my stomach without hurting. For nine months, I was pregnant. Then I was healing from being pregnant. Then I spent months healing from breastfeeding, and just recently gall bladder surgery. So, right now, I am enjoying the feeling of my stomach gently stretching as my back arches upward into a semi-updog pose. I can't wait for yoga tonight!