Xiaoniu 小妞

The little one has been really giving us a workout the past couple days. Saturday was a “daddy and daughter” day where I got to spend some good quality time with Emelia. It was a lot of fun, but by the end of it I was wiped out. Sunday was not much different. Emelia is getting very demanding. When she’s awake she has her moments when she’ll be fine playing on her own, but other times she wants 100% attention.

Today I brought her into daycare and unloaded her bottles into the fridge as usual. She started to make some noise so I took her out of her car seat and spent a few minutes before leaving. Once Emelia was passed off to the woman at daycare the crying began. This was the first time she has ever cried when I dropped her off. She kept looking at me and pleading with her eyes. She made me feel like I was abandoning her there.

I spent another minute there and she stopped crying a bit, but I didn’t think it would help the situation if I stayed much longer so I snuck out once she wasn’t looking. I waited outside the room, but she continued to wind up and cry more. It was hard, but I had to leave. Sue called in to check on her later and after a little while this morning she was okay. She stopped crying, ate a bottle and took a nap.

Just before lunch I got word Emelia was not her usual happy self. So, I packed my bags and made my way over. I wanted to see for myself how she was doing. If things really were bad I got the okay to leave work to bring her home. Well, she was fine.

I think there are two problems. Number one, she’s bored. Just like over the weekend she wants a lot of attention. She wasn’t getting as much as she wanted hence the crying. Number two, there is another baby in her room and all that one does is cry…all…day..long.

The entire time I was there during lunch (feeding and playing with Emelia) the other girl cried non-stop. Crying while in the swing. Crying when being held. Crying at any sound. Crying while eating. It was sad to see. Emelia is very sympathetic and tuned into others so a crying baby in the room makes her cry too.

All that on top of daddy leaving her there in the morning didn’t help. The combination of everything made for a bad day. I can’t wait to get out of work to pick her up and bring her home. I think she’ll be fine then. Tomorrow should hopefully be better than today.

One week and counting. This weekend Jason and Lily get married. It should be an interesting reception. Much larger and much more “traditional” than ours. We’re just hoping now that Sue’s dress comes in time. It hasn’t been shipped out yet and I didn’t get a response to my email asking when it will ship. So, we’re a bit on edge. We spent good money on it and were told it would be ready in time, but here we are less than a week out and the thing hasn’t even been shipped.

The wedding day is going to be long for us. Very early to rise, late to bed and lots and lots of driving. First up is a trip to NYC to get the girls’ hair done (5:30 we leave the house). We’re going to a new part of NYC than we’ve been to before so it should be interesting to try and find the place. After that we make our way back.

Attend the ceremony at noon and then back to home for a rest. Meet up with my parents and caravan down back to NYC (Queens this time) for the reception around 6 or 7. Back upstate after all the activities (probably will be very late like 11 or so). You’ll probably be able to pour me into a bed by the time we get back. Even without a baby it is a long day. 1.5 hours down and back will be tough on Emelia, but we’ll do what we can to keep her happy.

I took last Friday off so that I could “get stuff done around the house”. I was hoping to do some painting and some electrical, but the weather wasn’t cooperating. Painting wasn’t possible (outside it was raining) and electrical just didn’t get done. I ended up spending the morning finishing a job I started almost three years ago when I last moved; going through all my CDs and software.

I started up this project last week when I cleaned off one of the two computers we have. It’s getting close to time to retire or redo them. I think one is going to the graveyard and the other may get a fresh shot of ubuntu. First task was getting all the files and stuff I’ve collected over years off that machine and onto the MyBook we got a few months ago.

With the computer cleaned up I moved onto CDs and DVDs. I’ve been battling these for a while now. I searched for and collected all my audio CDs and made sure to put them all away. I still am missing a bunch, but they’ll show up eventually. Next up with a copier paper box and huge binder of software CDs and DVDs. I weeded out all the crap I no longer need and destoryed them. Then I went through my numerous backups and consolidated them. Needless to say our garbage can is full of CD and DVD discs, all made unreadable.

After all that it was already lunch. I made good time considering how much crap there was and all the discs without labels that had to be identified. Next up was lunch. I picked up Sue and we had a great meal at Ming’s Restaurant. It’s a small take out Chinese place that happens to make pretty good food. Both of us had spicy food; I had Hunan Beef and she had Caschew Shrimp, both with white rice. It was like a date. Out for a meal without the baby.

After lunch I made my way back to the house to clean, fold and pack everything we need for a trip downstate. It was a productive day, but not in a tangible way. It almost looks like I made more of a mess than I cleaned up. I do feel better about it though.

I’m seriously thinking about doing a yard sale this year. I have a few small things around the house that I can’t seem to throw out, but don’t want to keep either. I think if I can get a few bucks for some of it I’ll feel better. We’ll have to see though. I don’t think I have quite enough for a real yard sale, but if the neighbors do another neighbord yard sale I’ll probably join in. Should be interesting to be on the selling side instead of buying.