Justin asked, "Hey...what are YOU doing today?" I told him that I was about to head to the gym and cautiously asked, "Why?..." It seemed that Sarah was not feeling well and Justin needed someone to watch Parker for the day and overnight. "Well, go ahead...bring her on!", I said. I told him to bring her to the office to Robby and I would pick her up from him there...and then I remembered that he had a haircut appointment scheduled and instead told Justin to take her there. I would call and tell him that they were on their way. I called and called and called and the office line remained busy for quite a while. Finally, I sent a text message, explaining that Justin would be meeting him at the hair salon with Parker...he returned my call. "Don't worry", I told him, "I will pick her up from you as soon as I get through at the gym."
I briefly spoke to Robby while I was working out and as I was hanging up the phone, he asked, "When will you be here?" "By noon...gotta go now!" I heard a sigh escape. I KNEW he was capable of keeping this little 8 month old...no problem! As I exited the gym and was opening my car door, I heard a horn honking...Robby was parked right next to me! What was this?! As he jumped out of his car, he explained that she was "all over the place"; crawling everywhere, she had tried to jerk the phone lines out of the wall, beat on his computer keyboard as he held her and picked up microscopic pieces of trash on the floor. He decided that she needed to go for a car ride...and thus take a little nap. As he transferred the car seat (with her strapped in it...) from his vehicle to mine, I asked where her bag was. THAT is when he lifted his trunk to reveal not just "a" bag, but 2 bags, 2 lunch boxes, a bottle bag and a large box filled to the brim with toys...WOW! "Did they send a stroller?" Glancing at me, he said, "They didn't send crap!" Well, I tended to disagree with THAT, however, I needed to get a stroller for my house any way; today would be as good a time as any to do that. As he turned to hop back in his car, I asked where he was heading..."Back to the office...I need a break!", he said.
I started to head home but then realized that the Merry Maids would be cleaning the house today, so I needed to buy a little time before heading there. I had asked Sarah to send Parker's schedule and I noticed that we were running a little behind...it was already past her lunchtime. I knew what we would do; we would stop somewhere for lunch. Popping into one of my favorite lunch spots, I noticed that it was very busy, as usual. Luckily I found a seat and proceeded to unpack Parker's baby food. While feeding her, I phoned Robby and asked him to join us for lunch. As we dined, our little darling could not have been more well behaved. She was quite interested with all of the activity around her and everyone was so taken with her that they couldn't help but stop to talk to her or jiggle her chubby bare legs. Lunch was a success, but we were still running behind her schedule; it was apparently now past nap time.
I would have headed straight home, but I knew that those Merry Maids needed just a little more time, so I decided to stop by a children's clothing store next. Pulling in, I just popped her out (well, not actually "popped" because that car seat is a bit difficult to unbuckle...) of her carseat and we went in to look at all of the pretty new spring and summer outfits. Yep! You guessed it...I couldn't resist and ended up buying a few items while I was there. Parker began to rub her eyes and I figured that it had been long enough...I would head home.
Lucky for me that it takes a while to get home because THAT "cat nap" Parker took was the only one she was to get that afternoon. When Robby arrived home from work, I told him that I had "sorta" gotten off of the schedule. "Oh well...we will just have to go with it now", he said. I fed her dinner, put her pajamas on her and she was asleep and in bed by 7 p.m. Unfortunately, I was once again off that darn schedule. There was nothing I could do about it now. What was I supposed to do anyway?...MAKE her stay awake? Justin and Sarah told me that Parker would most likely wake up twice during the night, so I decided to put myself to bed earlier that usual to prepare myself for the lack of sleep I was in for.
Around 1:00 a.m. it was Robby who woke me up instead of Parker. He said, "I hear her crying". "I don't hear anything", I replied. I got up anyway...she was still asleep. I was right; I hadn't heard anything. Around 3 a.m., I woke up on my own. Having not heard any crying, I snuck into Parker's room to find her still sound asleep. Robby asked me if she was still sleeping..."Yes", I said. "Are you sure she's breathing?"..."Yes". "Did you see her body moving up and down?"..."No; I could HEAR her breathing." We both went back to sleep. At 6:30 a.m., Robby awoke for work. I told him to go see if Parker was awake. He came bringing her in to me, complete with a big smile on her face.
Later that day when we spoke to Justin and Sarah, we told them that Parker had slept for 11 1/2 hours that night. "WHAT?!...Are you KIDDING?!...What did you do? She NEVER sleeps through the night." I was a bit reluctant to tell them since I knew that keeping a schedule is so important to them, but I finally admitted that I "sorta" got her off her schedule. I'm not sure that, that convinced them that it was OK to break the schedule now and then...but hey, it sure worked out pretty good for me!
This sure is a LOT of stuff for an overnight stay!
Sweet Parker Ann...sporting a pair of new pajamas I bought at that children's shop!
Parker Ann and Poppi playing with a new toy.
Ahhh...there's NOTHING like having Parker Ann as an overnight guest at Ya-Ya's and Poppi's!
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