We've been at my parents house for the last week. Kiddo took almost no time feeling settled, which is nice. When we take her into her room here, she looks around with more interest than her room at home, but then puts her head on my shoulder and gets ready to settle in for her nap. She and I (and now my husband) have been just a little sick the whole time - runny noses and sore throats. We are fans of baby tylenol - it really improves her mood and behavior (used sparingly of course).
We have gone swimming twice, but four or five days of rain really cooled the pool down, so it's not as fun for the adults. And, I figured out that she fits perfectly in the side of the sink, so we're using that for baths and some play time too. All Kiddo wants to do is splash any way.
On Monday we got her picture taken by a friend of the family who is an incredibly talented photographer. It was nap time, but my little trooper laughed and smiled through the whole event. My friend told me she was the happiest child she had ever worked with.
Now that my husband is back home, I'm really trying to use my mom as care giver for my baby while I really work on my dissertation. This plan is not working out as well in practice because she seems to be aware that we are not hanging out as much as usual, and gets whiny and clingy in the afternoon. But, I'm still getting an hour or two more of work done each day, so that's something. Eventually this will be done.
Today we shopped at IKEA, and I learned that no matter how old we get, we still need moms. I figured out that if I shuffled, my shoes made clicking noises on the floor that made Kiddo laugh. So I did it over and over again to keep her laughing. Then I noticed that I was looking at my mom, for her approval on my ability to make my child laugh. Apparently we always need our moms. I'm grateful both to have a great mom, and to be a mom too.
