Weekend Update

This past weekend was right on the line between eventful and peaceful. Friday was a nice night to start with, Erik and I got down on the floor with Laine for an hour or two of tickling and crawling around on each other. I decided that an easy dinner would be nice so that I could play more so we just defrosted the soup I made last week; it tasted even better the second time around. Erik’s old friend came over again, this time he brought beer and he and Erik sat on the couch for upwards of three hours playing Street Fighter and just generally making a ruckus. I snapped at his friend when they woke Laine up and sat the baby monitor in front of their beer bottles, saying if it lights up there will be trouble. It didn’t light up and I was able to go to sleep soon after. Erik just gets a little carried away, but I understand, it’s been a long time since he’s gone out and cut loose so when he gets the chance to unwind at home I try to give him space and understanding but I just wish he’d start a little earlier than 7:00 so that Laine wouldn’t be disturbed by it. Either way you look at it though, Erik had a nice night with his friend doing guy stuff that I just don’t get so I’m glad that Friday night happened for him.
Saturday we got busy. We woke up a little late, close to 8:00, and had our weekend roll around in bed time, the camera was charging so no pictures of the remarkable cuteness of morning Laine faces. Finally we got out of bed around 9 and I went and made eggs and biscuits for me and Erik, Laine got some banana orange medley which gave her three dirty diapers in about an hour so I’m thinking orange may be a bad thing for her. We kept her on rice cereal the rest of the day and she’s back to normal now. My poor little girl and her sensitive tummy of doom, so sad. I’m hoping that all these sensitivities are just for now and the she grows out of them eventually, I’d hate for her to miss out on some delightfully yummy foods later in life because of it.
Ten thirty came quickly and it was time for Josh’s soccer game. He’s such a fantastically active little man, but I think he’s more interested in wearing the uniform than he is playing the game. He does look super cute in that green though so I can’t blame him.
During the game Laine played for a while on a blanket, we gave her a soccer ball to roll around with but once she found that it was entirely too difficult to chew on a ball that size she gave up on it and went for dad’s keys. Jacob was there too riding around on his scooter, he came over and commented on the fact that Laine’s hair just keeps growing and that in his opinion she had far too much hair for a small baby head. We tried to get a good photo of all the kids together but it’s something we’ll have to try for again later, with a 6 year old a 3 year old and an 8 month old, just getting one of them to sit still long enough for a picture is a feat in itself, much less getting all three to do so.
After the game Erik and I headed over to Fry’s to pick up a wall mount for our TV and as we walked through the store I was giving Laine small pieces of ice from my Sonic cup. She LOVES ice, she’s an ice junkie now, and she’s so good about letting it sit in her mouth until it dissolved completely, I never had to freak out over her swallowing a large piece; mostly because I didn’t giver her any large pieces but still, she did good. While we were at Fry’s mom and dad called and invited us to lunch. (La Casita is one of those places that brings memories and just like Bruce Springsteen, they all involve my dad.) While we ate my dad held onto Laine and gave her spoon after spoon, dipped in ice water so they were all so wonderfully cold on her gums, she’d get excited and toss them on the ground, by the end of lunch she had a collection of spoons around her.
At the end of lunch mom and dad had some errands to run so Erik and I headed back to the house for the few hours we had left before FamJam at Life Point Church at 6:30. Laine and I went upstairs for a nap which Laine got to finish but Erik woke me up ten minutes in to help him with his project downstairs. Erik wanted to put the TV above the fireplace so that we wouldn’t have the fear of Laine pulling it off the stand anymore, and I thought it was a wonderful idea; it also got Erik to want to mount the mantle to the fireplace, so now our living room has officially been baby proofed. GO DAD!
We got to the church late, of course, like we always do but Laine had the nursery all to herself and Nana and Aunt Andrea were watching her so it was nice that they got that time together. At one point during the night Jacob came and sat next to me and Erik, he sat half on my seat and half on his and leaned all his body weight on my leg, it was like a little boys way of cuddling without cuddling, it blew me away and I sat frozen with my hand on his back until he started swaying from side to side so I started rubbing my hand back and forth and so he stopped swaying and we sat like that for about eight minutes, until he jumped off the seat onto the floor and crawled under some chairs to go sit with the other kids in the front row. Yeah, I cried, it’s whatever.
We got home around 8:00 and put Laine down for bed soon after. Erik and I stayed up for maybe an hour watching a recording of Criminal Minds before I went up to sleep, Erik stayed up until around 1:30 doing whatever it is he does at night, and Laine woke up right at 2:00. From 2 until 3:30 Laine wanted to talk and talk and talk and then eat and then sleep so that’s what she did, and I talked back and fed her and rocked her and when she went down so did I until she got up again around 4:15 and it wasn’t until 5:30 that I finally got Erik up to take his turn, which if you’ve read about our nights with Laine before you’d know, he only has to look at her sideways and she conks out. Those dad powers are something that needs to be bottled and sold, we could make millions. I don’t know why I don’t wake him up sooner, I guess I feel like it’s my job or something, I know it’s stupid, it’s our job as partners together to do this parenting thing but there is something about that mommy gene that won’t allow you to let anyone else do your “job”.
So Sunday morning came late for me too, 9:00 and I find Erik is already up with Laine, he gave her some cereal and was in the middle of her bath when I finally got down stairs. He had himself and her dressed and ready to go and it was probably the first time Erik has been ready to go someplace before me. It was so nice to not have to rush them out the door. And as it turns out, we were not late to church this Sunday. We even got to the nursery check in before they closed the check in table. That was more amazing than you know. But that amazingness was short lived, I forgot Laine’s bottle on the coffee bar, at home, so I got pulled out of church to go and handle her melt down. She wasn’t hungry she just needed the comfort of the bottle since neither me nor Erik were there so after I got her calmed down the nursery lady whose name I can never remember took Laine and did an amazing job of keeping me out of Laine’s eye line until I was down the hall and back in the service where Darren was talking about debt and how to get out of it and ways to live simply and man, of all the sermons he’s done that’s the one I wanted to hear. I’ll never forget her bottle at home again.
After church we went to lunch with mom and dad and some friends and I had to run into Randall's to get some emergency baby supplies and let me tell you right now, for the mom in a hurry on a budget Randall’s is not the place to go. I mean really. It’s not. Their store brands are not any cheaper than the major brands, they have a limited supply of formula choices and there was only two choices for bottles either the glass bottles for $16.99 or the plastic ones for $8.99. Where are my 4 for $3 bottles? I was missing HEB something awful.
Lunch went well, Laine ate her $1.24 jar of organic garden vegetables and brown rice and had a bottle of Similac Soy formula and was a happy happy baby for the course of the entire meal. Mommy was slightly less happy having spent almost $30 on stuff that should have only cost $15. Mommy will never forget a bottle at home again.
After lunch, we went home to do a quick wardrobe change into something more suitable for the rain, Erik and I had tickets to the Dynamo game and we really wanted to get there early because they were handing out free scarves. I’ve wanted a Dynamo scarf for a long time now and getting one for free is amazing, but one thing happened and then another and then another and we didn’t get to the game early we got there ten minutes late; at least our seats hadn’t been stolen by vultures this time. However as we parked the car the rain let up, so that was nice and then the sun cam out when we got to our seats and that was nice, but then the sun started burning away all he rain making a think fog of humidity and on top of getting sunburned I could hardly breath, the game was enjoyable I just wish I’d brought an umbrella. The sun stayed out for the 90 minute game, almost exactly from start to finish and then started raining again right after, I’m crispy fried today. I haven’t shaved my legs in three days and I couldn’t shave this morning because of the burn and I didn’t even think about it this morning but I put on jeans, now every step I take is sunburned leg hair rubbing on rough jeans and I want to scream so bad it’s horrible.
We went and got Laine from my mom’s house after the game, I laid down on the floor for a while trying to stop the hurt from hurting and I failed so Erik and I got packed up and out we went to hunt down a Halloween outfit worthy of the cuteness of the Laine. We only had to go to two places before we found a super cute monkey outfit that looks similar to the Lain anime outfit so Erik was WAY happy. Dinner afterwards was Freebirds so mommy was WAY happy too. I could drink their mild sauce like water and I’m sure life could be sustained on that sauce alone. If there is a zombie apocalypse I know where I’m going anyway.
The only chores to do once we got home were dishes and vacuuming which was way easier than usual since Erik had Laine entertained for me. The vacuum made Laine uncomfortable at first but she was more interested in where the noise was coming from and the fact that mom was making it move than she was scared. Erik got Polly out for her to play with and that made everything better. Polly’s hair tastes amazing apparently. Laine will wrap the yarn of her hair around her thumb and then suck her thumb; it’s like flavor for her self soothing methods, like flavored creamer in mommy’s coffee, I get it.
Finally the weekend was over. We were home and vegging on the couch and just waiting for bedtime. Erik found Titanic on TV and so starts my new challenge of watching 30 Oscar winning best picture movies (review to come). I forgot how wonderful that movie is, I recommend everyone re-watch that movie, you’ll be pleasantly surprised on how much you enjoy it.
After the movie it was on to bed, before midnight. Laine slept all night last night, she didn’t even talk in her sleep. I overslept and got into work later than I’d like but overall our weekend was wonderful and it is a great way to start my week.