Xiaoniu 小妞

It’s been a busy, but very productive weekend. I decided last weekend to let Sue travel with the baby so that I could stay home and get some stuff done around the house. I can get some things done during the weekdays, but weekends are the key to finishing projects. Well, by Friday Sue decided not to travel as well. In the end I think it worked out well. We had an excellent, productive weekend.

We started off by getting my truck brakes replaced. On Thursday we dropped my truck off at the dealer and left it there until Saturday. After picking up the truck on Saturday we hit the mall for some shopping. Macy’s was having a sale and we were in the neighborhood. Well, we ended up finding a very nice area rug for a great price.

It is the first of many. Hardwood floors are nice, but the rugs really finish off a room. This one is in the living room. We spend most of our time there and with the baby it is nice. The next room to get a rug is probably going to be the dining room.

After dropping off the rug we ran back to the mall for Emelia’s 2 month pictures. It feels like we’ve just been there, but there was a holiday in between the months. Overall she did well at the studio. Only a little bit of crying, but mostly she was serious. No smiles.

After the pictures were taken I brought her home by myself. Sue stayed to choose pictures, etc. We ended up hitting Walmart to pick up some necessities and made our way home.

Emelia and I then got to spend some one on one time together. I think that was overdue. She’s peculiar and only seems to like mommy right now even though she sees me all the time. With Sue needing a break and Emelia not exactly close to me I made the extra effort the past week to spend time together. It has paid off. She’s more comfortable with me and doesn’t mind at all if it is just me and her. At least for a while. She eventually does want number 1 back holding her.

With all the great weather Amy and Mike invited us over for burgers on their grill. It sounded great to us. We’ve been stuck inside all winter and a burger sounded great. We went over and I played with Emelia and Feifei. Unfortunately, he wasn’t feeling 100% like himself. He had sniffles and his nose was running like crazy. Not to mention he wouldn’t take a nap. He did have fun playing though.

After dinner we took a walk to Stewarts for ice cream. I had the baby in the carrier. She slept most of the trip, but started waking up once we were farthest away from home. So, I high-tailed it home and made it back 12 minutes faster than the girls. It worked out though. The fast, bumpy walk put her back to sleep.

Had some ice cream and made our way home. I had Emelia try out the swing. Amy let us borrow James’ swing since he has out grown it. It was her first time in it and she liked it for a little while. She was in it about 10 minutes before getting bored. I figure she should get used to it since the daycare will put her into a swing once in a while.

Not too long after we went to bed. It was late. Sunday we woke up early and I made my way down to make breakfast. Amy was going to come over to watch Emelia so that Sue and I could get down to business and rake the yard. Well, James didn’t get any better throughout the night. He woke up crying and wouldn’t sleep. Something must have worried him plus feeling sick didn’t help. Amy and James didn’t get to sleep until 3am so she couldn’t come over until later.

So, I made pancakes for Sue. Whole-wheat (not all whole wheat, but white + wheat) with wheat germ and walnuts and real maple syrup. Yummy! Hearty and nutty pancakes with real maple syrup, not the colored sugar water I’m used to eating. We ate our fill. Not too long after Amy came over. She needed a break and Mike was going to watch James.

It worked out great. We were able to get about 3/4 of the yard completely raked and bagged. 10 bags of lawn debris and three piles of bushes. The house is starting to look respectable again. Everybody else took care of their spring cleanup three weeks ago. So, we were a little late, but I have to admit it does look good.

Emelia did okay with Amy, but she really is a mommy’s girl. So, she gave Amy a hard time. My arms and shoulders were sore so I made my way in to take a shower and relieve Amy of her 12 pound burden. She had to get home anyway to take care of James. So, Emelia and I got some more time together and Sue hit the lawn again.

One thing we are trying to do in advance of Emelia going to daycare is to get her to drink formula from a bottle. She’s pretty much been on breast for weeks now and doesn’t like the bottle. Well, she’ll have no choice, but to have it once mommy isn’t around during the day and we both agree that we should break the habit ourselves and as soon as possible.

It took about 1 hour to get it done, but Emelia did drink her fill (almost 4 ounces) and Sue got a chance to pump. Not too long after Emelia was really upset (did I mention she was crying when I was trying to feed her?) so Sue took her and comforted her. We’ll try to give her a bottle again Monday night.

We finished the weekend off together. An hour long walk around the neighborhood with the baby snoozing in the carrier. It was cooling off so I wrapped her up in my wind breaker and she slept soundly for the entire time.

I ironed shirts for the week Sue made some blueberry muffins great-grandma style and I played with the little girl. More time together, but she absolutely had her fill and to be absolutely honest I had my fill too. Friday through Sunday I had her with me as much as possible. We both had enough by Sunday night. And Sue was able to get the break she needed and deserved, but was happy enough to take Emelia again.

A good busy weekend if there ever was one. We always run errands on weekends, but this one was unique in that we got to take care of other things like outdoor chores. It feels good especially as the weather got us up to 82 on Saturday and 83 on Sunday. I hope it is nice when I get out of work today. I have a lot more to do outdoors and really need to prep the mower for the season. Oil change and sharpening the blades. Not to mention bring up all the crap from the basement that has to go to to the dump. Ah, life owning a house. Always something to do.