How Monday Got Away From Me...QUICKLY!!!

With Parker's big birthday celebration over, things were about to get back to normal...Oh yea, what WAS "normal" again?!  Perhaps I wasn't ready for that just yet.  Well, as I've found over the years..."Ready or not...HERE IT COMES!"

Justin and Sarah were both going to work on Monday and wanted to know if I could bring Parker home with me for the day and night.  "Sure!", I said, happy to get to spend a little extra time with my "Baby Girl".  And THEN I remembered something...I had to have my blood test today (ugh...).  You remember that little "souvenir" that I brought back from Costa Rica (I refer to it as the "RW" these days; I just can't stand the word...).  Anyway, I have only been on my medication for 2 weeks now and every 2 weeks I have to have a blood test; Monday was to be that day.  OK...let me vent just a little bit at this point (it tends to make me feel better...).  EVERY time I have to take one of those pills...and EVERY time I think of that little spot of hair missing in the back of my head, well...it just makes me MAD!  Most of you know how I am.  I am a germ-o-phobe!  And I consider a "RW" to be a GREAT BIG GERM!!!  Not to MENTION that I can no longer wear my hair in a "high ponytail"! OK, now I'm done and I can continue with my story.  So, of course, I would keep Parker Ann; she would just have to come along with me.  Surely that wouldn't be too much of a problem...

My memory has waned since I was a young mother.  However, I quickly remembered as I prepared to take Parker with me to the lab.  The first obstacle I encountered was the car seat.  I have my own and bought one of the safest ones on the market.  The only problem is...one must have an engineering degree to operate it.  Once I got her all hooked in properly, I knew from experience that unhooking her would be even more difficult.  OH WELL...at least she was SAFE while buckled in it.  The second thing that I pondered was how much stuff I needed to take inside with me.  For one short second I thought about not taking the diaper bag in...I ran a quick scenario through my mind of a poop diaper...perhaps running out of the legs...OK, so I just threw my wallet, keys and phone into the diaper bag and dashed in.  I must say that while waiting to have my blood drawn (which ended up to be quite a while...), Parker was SUPER GOOD!  (Whew!!!)

With that out of the way, I just needed to make one more stop.  We ran to Target to get some juice and a few other things and by the time we left, I noticed that it was almost lunch time for Parker.  WHERE did the time go?...I just can't seem to stay on any sort of "baby schedule" (ugh...).  I put her back in that car seat and poured some of the juice into her cup, handed it to her and took off for home.  I kept glancing in the back and she was sucking on that cup and her eyes were getting really heavy.  THAT'S when I started reaching back and shaking her leg and saying (in a sing-song voice...), "Parker, don't go to sleep...you still have to eat..."  And then she was asleep (sigh...).  As soon as we got home, I tried to get her out of that steel trap of a car seat and she woke up.  After eating lunch, she was definitely ready for a nap; I just needed to change her diaper first.  I grabbed a diaper, some wipes and a tube of Butt Paste.  Just as I took the dirty diaper off, I noticed that I had NOT grabbed the butt wipes, but the hand and face ones.  Hmmm...Butt, Booger, Hand and Face; they're all the same, aren't they?! She let me rock her to sleep (which she usually does not do...) and then the phone rang! UGH!!!  I got her BACK to sleep and very carefully laid her down and she immediately woke up!  UGH AGAIN!!!  I did what Sarah always tells me to do but never can bear to do...I let her cry it out.  5 minutes was my limit; luckily she was asleep again by then...

As I sat down to work a little on my computer, an email came through from the illustration consultant on my children's book.  I ended up having to go through all of the illustrations and make notes for edits, followed by several more emails and THEN I was finally ready to get some work done.  The Fed-Ex man came to the door and although I had taped a note on there saying, "Sleeping Baby...shhhh", the dogs heard him and began to bark!  Parker woke up.  She had gotten a good nap though, so I was confident that she would not be fussy the rest of the afternoon.

Before I knew it Robby was home from work (WHERE did the day go?!) and I had nothing made for dinner.  He said not to worry about it;he would fix something for us later.  I fed Parker ravioli and diced peaches, bathed her and got her dressed for bed; which consisted of giving her tummy drops, allergy medicine, gum gel, turning her i-pod on and putting a pacifier in each corner of her bed.  I placed her in Robby's lap with her Lovey and yet another paci and in no time at all...she was out.

My memory may have waned, but some things certainly came back quickly.  Babies take a lot of time and they have a lot of needs that sometimes cause the day to just get away from you.  BUT...in the end, it is SO WORTH IT to get to share an entire day with my precious "Baby Girl"!