Extremes

What a weekend of extremes…

On Thursday, Helen Grace and I met our friends, Karen and Jack, at Swanky’s for lunch. Karen and I hadn’t caught up in so long and I actually hadn’t met Jack yet, so I was really looking forward to it…and then Helen Grace unleashed her inner toddler. She would not sit in her high chair or in my lap, arched her back and slid right out of my lap, kicked and screamed, threw her food…just was a terrible lunch companion in general. I can’t believe that Karen and Jack sat there with us through all of it. As I walked out the door profusely apologizing to them, I swore I would never ever eat out with HG by myself again. OMG!

And then…we met Brandy and her girls for a play date at Chick-fil-A. The girls had a great time playing together, and HG spent most of the time staring and smiling at the big girls. She followed them around like a puppy. As we were getting ready to leave, HG was playing around with Daily and BIT her on the tummy. Luckily, it was very light, didn’t break the skin, and didn’t upset Daily much. BUT I WAS A WRECK. Time for honest confession…it’s taken me weeks to get the courage up to share this with you…HG has bitten me a time or two- sometimes when she’s mad/tired and sometimes when we’re playing and she gets excited. But when we went to try out the Little Gym, she met a sweet little girl, they gave each other a hug, and as HG went to kiss her, she BIT her on the cheek! Again, no blood but lots of tears, but luckily, the child’s mom was not upset at all. She said the child had been a biter and it was fine. WHEW! I feel red-hot shame- like I have a big red B on my chest- even though I keep telling myself that it’s not a reflection of my parenting skills and it’s just her way of expressing her feelings…but still! I don’t want her to really hurt someone, and I don’t want her to be known as ‘the biter.’ Gosh, we HAVE to get this under control. Does anyone know of any biter mom support groups? ;)

So needless to say, I was a nervous wreck after our fits and biting episodes, so we stayed home and ordered pizza Friday night.

Saturday brought a really fun day of celebrations. First, a baby shower for my friend Melissa and soon-to-arrive Lawson…so fun to see Melissa with a prego belly and to visit with some of my favorite Delta Gs! Then, on to celebrate Whitney’s 30th birthday. Since her hubby wanted to surprise her with a party at their house, Rebecca and I were the decoys to get her out of the house, so we all went to Gould’s at the Peabody for manis and pedis- such a fun treat to all be in the same city at the same time and do something for ourselves! We had so much fun laughing and sipping on cocktails. Of course, we missed Emily though who was stuck in CPE in Jackson. :)  It turns out that Whit was already on to our little plan and knew something was up, so we didn’t get the reaction we were going for but still had a great time. John came to the party and brought HG too, so it was a wonderful end to a much-needed good ‘mama mental health day.’

On Sunday morning, HG and I met Melissa for brunch before she headed back to Jackson. I know, didn’t I say I was never eating out with her by myself again? I think all the fumes from the nail polish went to my head, but I figured she could eat breakfast off my plate and be more entertained by the tvs in the restaurant. Plus, I was missing my little sidekick after being busy on Saturday. She actually did really well until the very end, and I hope she didn’t scare Melissa to death about how her life is about to change!  HG and I then spent some QT with Spif and Granddaddy and then went to Oxford for a DG advisors’ meeting. She was really well behaved and kept me laughing the whole trip down and back. She still can’t really talk back to me yet (at least in words I can understand), but she can still communicate a lot and laughs and laughs at me for some reason. She’s been so fun and kissy today and has *almost* erased all of my traumatic memories of Friday- ha!

One more exciting development…I think we are very close to saying BYE BYE to HG’s BA BA! She’s done great all weekend with only a bedtime bottle, and tonight she just had a sippy cup with milk before bed. She must have finally been ready to move on. Whew!

Saying hello to Jack…and his shoes…she is obviously addicted to shoes. And this is obviously before her tantrum. This is what HG looked like the last time we had lunch with Karen and Jack (in utero) in late December 2009. A play date at Chick-fil-a with the Mattices Happy birthday, Whitney! “Surprise!!” (For the record, we made her take this pic- she was not excited to participate. Heehee!) This is SO Whitney… Mama’s girl in Oxford at the DeeGee House She clung to this black bag like her life depended on it.Finally pried it out of her hand but then she wouldn’t look at me. Oh well!Same porch and rocking chair back in January 2010