I was going to title this entry the Twelve Days of Christmas, but it wasn't twelve, it was only four. Still, I'm as tired as if it were twelve...
A Packing We Will Do Heigh-ho A Dairy-o, A Packing We Will Do
I'm getting better at this packing-for-baby thing. Not that I'm taking less bags or anything, but that I'm getting faster at packing.
Wednesday, Kevin went off to work and I got up around 7 to start packing and finish getting ready for Christmas and stuff. I had a few presents left to wrap and bags to pack and some clean-up to get done and Jess needed a bath...
I got most of it done. Jess got her bath and I got the bags ready to go and the presents wrapped. I ended up not being able to clean the kitchen before we left since Jess - who has recently taken to trying to jump out of my arms - actually succeeded in doing so as I was laying her down in the bassinet. Fortunately, she didn't fall to the floor, but she did bonk her head a good one on the rail of the bassinet and it was almost forty minutes before I could get her to stop crying when I tried to put her down. (She was easily comforted, she just didn't want to be put down. Which makes it quite difficult to do dishes.)
Kevin actually managed to get out of work at noon as we'd planned and we were on the road by 1ish. We got gas, put air in the tires, and headed over to the Lucks. Liz and Matt were going to be feeding our cats and we needed to drop off the key. We chatted with the Lucks and Liz's grandmother (I don't remember who's side she is mom of) and Liz's brother and sister-in-law (who are Lucks as well... ) and Liz for a while (Matt was at work still. poor Matt) and then made good our escape. Not that I didn't want to see them, because I did, but simply that it would be much too easy to stay there and end up late to Dad & Dee's.
Old Man Stafford Had a Farm. E-I-E-I-oh.
The drive up was good. Jess slept the entire way and while I'd forgotten to get the directions, I actually remembered how to get there. (there's this turn on 208 that I can never remember if we're supposed to turn on or not - 208 ends up going both ways) We made good time and arrived about 15 minutes before I had told Dee to start expecting us.
We got in and Kevin started demonstrating his degree in Baby Product Assembly and put the bassinet/play-yard thingie while I got Jess settled and fed. The Penns (Lori, Arthur, James and Jeff) showed up not much later and we had some nice chats. Lori was enraptured by the baby and spent most of her time telling embarrassing stories about her own two children. James and Jeff spent most of their time looking as though they wished the floor would swallow them up.
We had dinner (prime rib again... yum!) and I zinged Lori a good one. Kevin said it was borderline rude, but I think it was actually all the way rude, and much deserved. Dad said to James that James was being "unusually quiet" this year. James muttered something under his breath and turned red. I commented in a very sweet tone "He just doesn't want to compete with his mother." Which was actually mostly true. Lori talks continuously. And James had stopped to talk to me in the hall before dinner for about twenty minutes or so. It's not that he's incapable of talking, or even that he doesn't want to, but he's very polite and he won't interupt someone when they're talking.
Bring Us Some Figgy Pudding and Bring it Out Here
After dinner we had some nice dessert, including plum pudding from England (with the requisite hard sauce) and cookies and pumpkin pie (I still don't like pumpkin pie) and petite fours (my favorite!) and some coffee that was not complete road tar, but not nearly what I've gotten used to recently. Then into the Florida Room for presents...
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
Jessica got a yellow and orange stuffed lamb which, while being very very soft and squishy, is just about the ugliest stuffie I've ever seen. We're not talking delicate shades of yellow and orange here... we're talking day-glo lambikins. She also got a few more bibs and a fuzzy yellow sleeper. And the toy chest...
Oh lord, what a gorgeous toy-box. It's all hand-done and painted. Dee painted it with Red Fish, Blue Fish on it (and special paints so that if Jess chews on it she won't poison herself). It's just gorgeous. I've got some pictures of it posted on my photo album here if you want to look at it.
As Kevin and I have been what you might call "excessively broke" and that's only if you're being kind, we didn't have much for Lori and her family, just some cookies. That was okay, though, since I understand Lori had "overextended" herself this year and we didn't get much from them either. A bottle of scuppernog is all. Which is fine. Honestly, my stuff desires have fallen off a lot recently.
Pop Goes the Weasel
Jessica has not had to deal with crowds much previously. At the Return of the King thing, she saw a few people, but we were all tired and quiet after we got back from the movie. In any case, about midway through the evening she decided enough was more than enough and made her displeasure known at the top of her lungs. Kevin, who'd been up since 5am and then driven two hours, took her back into our bedroom to try and get her calmed down. I stayed out for a while longer before heading back to help him out (and to get some rest myself).
My dad's spare beds are pretty small - plain full-sized in one and a "double" in the other room. A full-sized bed is the size of two "twin" beds (a twin will sleep two people who are very thin and extremely fond of each other), but a double is the size of two "singles". As far as I know, they don't even sell "single" beds anymore. In any case, neither of the two guest beds are anywhere close to large enough to sleep me, Kevin and the baby, so I took one bed (with Jessica) and Kevin took the other.
Dee's house has one of those "smart" thermostats that you can set for all sorts of energy efficiencies. And the house is so long that they actually have it split - one thermostat for the north end of the house and one for the south. They sleep on the south end of the house. Naturally, we were on the north end. The smart-thermo is set for 70 during the day and 64 during the night on the "occupied" side of the house, which is to say the south end. The unoccupied side of the house (where we are) is set for 70 during the day after 5pm but before 10pm and after 10pm it's set to go down to 50.
You read that right. 50.
I woke up in the wee hours of the morning absolutely freezing, which was bad. Jessica was not only shivering, she was whimpering as well. Which was worse. I stripped her out of her sleeper and pulled her up to my stomach, drawing the blankets around us both. It was like curling up with an ice-cube, but eventually I got her warmed up.
We Wish You a Merry Christmas (and please buy our beer)
Christmas morning was the main time of present exchange (after some breakfast, of course). Kevin and I didn't have many gifts for each other - some Lord of the Rings t-shirts that we'd bought the week before (and I got mixed up in the wrong boxes). He also went out and got me Wolves of Calla (after I'd specifically told him not to get anything else since we were running short on cash). We had a few gifts for Jessica as well - a Baby Beethoven video and a few outfits that are 3-6 month sized (that, I might add, I've had for quite some time, but Jessica doesn't know that. Nor does she care.)
Jessica slept through almost all of Christmas morning. She wasn't interested in wrapping paper or bows. She was sacked out in her bouncy seat in front of the woodstove and completely warm and comfortable for the first time all day. She was sleeping!! Very seriously, too. Next year I suspect she'll be more interested.
Kevin and I both got GCs for new clothes - me for Target, him for JC Penneys. We got a few other odds and ends and the box of King Vitamen cereal exchanged hands again. I expect to see it back next year. At least I don't have to pack it. (We're moving in February provided things go well).
Over the Hill and Through the Woods
As usual, we went up to Lori's for Christmas dinner and the pool table party. Having been warned by Jess's behavior (her tolerance for people and new things) we were more alert to her warning signs and rotated turns socializing and keeping the baby entertained.
Unfortunately, it meant I missed the entire pool-table exchange this year, as Jessica wanted to nurse. Which is too bad, it was a lot of fun last year. But there's no way to rush a baby and I hadn't prepped a bottle. However, Kevin came upstairs to consult with me a few times and we ended up with a 6-pack of filet mignons from Omaha Steak Company (and 6 burgers from the same and a pack of carving knives that I might give to my mother as her knives are so dull they barely cut butter).
People fussed over the baby when she was in the room and talked to us about being parents and pregnancy when she wasn't. Lori's husband, Arthur, has a daughter from a first marriage who's like 34 or so, Patti. Patti has a daughter from a relationship previous to her marriage who's 17. Said daughter is currently six months pregnant and missed the pool table party because her NST showed some serious drops in the baby's heartrate and she had to spend some time in the hospital. So I got cornered into a long discussion about high-risk pregnancies.
A penny for the spool of thread, another for the needle, that's the way the money goes...
The next day we left the baby with Dad and Dee for a few hours while we went out and did some shopping.
We went to the Target first and I looked around for a while before picking out two pairs of jeans and two shirts to try on. I picked up a size 16 jeans (I was pretty sure those would be too small) and a size 18 jeans (pretty sure those would fit, although I was going to be upset if I was only down to a 20). I also picked up a size M shirt (it was the only green one in that style they had, but I didn't think it would fit) and a size L shirt (same style, but brown).
I went into the dressing room and decided I'd try the M shirt and the 16 jeans first. That way, when they didn't fit, I could have some time while I switched into the L shirt and the 18 jeans to recover my composure and tell myself that I can't expect miracles, even in 9 months. I used to be a size 24 and even a size 18 was a major improvement, right?
Wrong. But wrong in a good way. The size 16 jeans fit. What was more, the M shirt fit. I stepped out of the dressing room and looked at myself in the 3-way mirror. I looked... almost good. The 16's fit and what was more, it didn't look like I'd struggled to get them on (I didn't, actually... but sometimes jeans look like that).
I picked out another 2 shirts (same style, different colors, both size M) and looked around for another pair of jeans. I didn't find another pair that was size 16 that I liked (and I was pretty sure the 14s wouldn't fit. Not quite yet, at any rate.) I was pretty much impressed with myself and amused Kevin for the rest of the afternoon by being over the moon about it.
I also went and picked up a copy of Pirates of the Carribean, which I really wanted.
Dee got a DVD player for Christmas and a new photo-quality printer. However the cable for the DVD player has to pass in front of the TV in order to plug in (the TV is black, the cable was white) and there was no cable to connect the printer to the computer in the printer box (I think that's standard. Stupid, but standard). In any case, Dee had asked if we'd pick up these two cables while we were out (she wanted a black cable so she wouldn't notice the cable as much passing in front of the TV).
Target had neither of these cables. We tried the Best Buy. Best Buy (I am so glad we didn't have to return anything to Best Buy that day... wow, the line was HUGEMOUNGOUS) had one of the cables - the computer one - but not the other. We went to Circuit City. After a LOT of looking around, we found the other one. (by the way, the "complex" we were in up in Fredericksburg was just that... complex. A series of interconnecting - and badly designed - parkinglots and one-way streets and conflicting traffic lights mushed into a pile of stores and lots and... it was the biggest mess I've ever seen. Navigating in there was a nightmare.)
Finally we stopped at Panera's Bagel Bakery and picked up 13 bagels and two kinds of cream cheese. Last stop and we headed back to Dad and Dee's. Just in time, too.
And what will ye have to eat, Henery me son?
We'd left one bottle for Dad and Dee, about four and a half ounces. I figured it would be enough. I figured wrong.
We walked in and Dee was just mixing up some regular store milk with water for the baby who was howling her head off in the other room. Whew! Glad we made it back when we did. I settled her down to nurse while we chatted. I don't think one bottle of cow's milk would have hurt her if she'd tried it (and she might not even have taken it - cow's milk being lots less sweet than breastmilk) more than giving her some upset stomach, but you never know. Pediatricians seriously recommend against cow's milk for the first year of life - breastmilk is best, formula isn't bad - and I assume there's a reason for it, although I haven't been able to find one. Except that cow's milk is harder to digest and might lead to dehydration because the baby's got to break down the milk in order to digest it. One bottle probably wouldn't have hurt her. Probably.
I'm still glad we got back before that.
After Three Days, Guests and Fish Begin to Smell
At some point while we were at Dad and Dee's, Dee threw her back out again. She's been seeing a chiropractor for some months now, but skipped her last few appointments. She's not sure what she did to her back (I suspect baby-lifting... I have a rather severe on-again/off-again pain in my back from carrying the baby around) but it got bad again the last day or so that we were there. And even mostly happy babies can be exhausting when you're not used to them.
By the time Saturday rolled around, I was pretty sure we'd overstayed our welcome again. I don't really know how to fix that. It seems every time we're there, it's just a little bit too long, but we don't ever really stay that long. Kevin and I both miss our own bed and our computers and our privacy, so we rarely stay longer than 3 days, but I guess we'll have to cut our visit a little shorter next time. I hate inconveniencing anyone.
Should Auld Aquaintance be Forgot?
A few days before we headed to my dad's, I got in touch with an old school friend, Jenny. I guess she's Jenny Mitchell now, but in high school she was Jenny Harlow and she lived just up the street from me.
We had almost nothing in common except being reasonably intelligent and not fitting in well with our peers. She's a year younger than I am. I think we were friends from a lack of better options, really. We compromised on movies. Every week, we'd walk down to the video rental place and get a film - one week I would pick (something Sci-fi or Action or Horror) and the next week she would pick (something romantic or comedy or worse, a combination of the two - Can't Buy Me Love comes to mind as one of her particularly unpleasant choices). She didn't read. I didn't play a musical instrument. She didn't act. I didn't take tap-dance lessons. She dated a complete idiot who wanted to be a Marine. I dated a guy who didn't know what he wanted and did it very well. I don't know what we talked about, really.
We fell out of touch after I left for school - I hate Louisa and I don't like being there and I don't much like things that remind me of school. But I did want to see her again, so we started chatting about getting together while she was at her parents (still living where they always had) and I was at my dad's (about 20 miles away). Somewhat after we'd started that discussion, Neil logged online (he's the boyfriend I was talking about a paragraph up) and we included him in our reunion plans. There was some vague discussion about getting some of the others from our old group together, but that ended up not happening.
We drove down to Louisa (with me pointing out the new buildings or making commentary on the old ones) and arrived at the Harlow's. Despite being 10 or 12 years older than they were the last time I saw them, Harry and Linda (Jenny's parents) haven't changed much. For that matter, Jenny hasn't changed much. She wears glasses now and (like me) has cut her hair short - in high school we both had long, straight hair. Other than that, she didn't look any different than the last time I saw her, sometime around 92. A little heavier, maybe... but that's not a bad thing. In high school she was the sort of girl who panicked if she weighed more than 102 pounds (and she's some 2 inches taller than I am). I'd guess she weighs about 140 now or so.
She's got a daughter, Emily, who's 20 months old and has lovely blonde curls. Her husband Mark did what most people do when in a room with two people who are old friends... faded into the background and pretended not to exist. Kevin was pretty chatty until we went over to Neil's house to complete our reunion. I don't think Kevin cares for Neil much - might be that he suspects Neil of still harboring some feelings for me. Sometimes I think he does, sometimes I think he doesn't. In either case, it doesn't matter. If I'd wanted Neil, I'd have stayed with him.
Neil's wife, who doesn't like me for exactly the same reasons, had wandered off. Neil said several times that he expected her back "soon" but we stayed over an hour and she never showed up. Neil showed us some pictures from his wedding and we talked about what various Louisa-folks had been up to in the last 10 years. Not much, really. This person was divorced, that person had three adopted children... but very few things really seem to have changed all that much. I guess that's what some people like about small towns. It's exactly what I hate about them...
We headed out around 3, grabbed a late lunch at the McD's (which is located squarely on top of where people used to "hang out" when I was in high school - sitting in their pick-up trucks and smoking and passing beer back and forth to each other concealed in Dr. Pepper cans. I never was a part of that group, but I did find it amusing to drive past them from time to time.) and went home.
There's No Place Like Home
Once home, we opened our presents from Liz and Matt and then collapsed into our nice comfy bed.