I feel a bit disoriented today. I always write my weekly post on Sunday afternoons during my daughter's nap. But we'll be away this afternoon and I won't get a chance to write then. So here I am, Sunday morning, trying to get in the writing "groove" while Sweetie traipses around the house trying to entertain herself a little with her T.V. shows, Magna Doodle and new toy make-up kit.
She and I are going to my parents' house this afternoon so she can take a peaceful afternoon nap. My husband needs to spend his day back at home working on Sweetie's "pretty room" - her new bedroom that he's remodeling for her to move into soon. He'll be making way too much noise for her to be able to nap here today - especially considering that her new room is right next to her current bedroom. He's been working on this since last August and it's quite possible that putting in two full day's this long weekend will complete the project. Yay! We've even started the decorating process; we bought her new big-girl comforter just yesterday! It's beautiful and I can't wait to see the room finished, decorated and in use.
Anyway, the fact that we have to go to my parents' house today just so Sweetie can get a decent nap reminds me of the somewhat crazy extents I had to go to when she was an infant. My husband and I work at the same place, so most of the time we drive in together and leave together for home at the same time. But sometimes he has to work a little later than I do. For the times this happened when our daughter was smaller, we had to establish a special routine. We'd take two cars - he'd go right to work and I'd drive her to her sitter's house (not my mom, at that time). Our sitter would help us into the house, unclicking the carseat from its base and carrying the baby in for me. Then she'd help me again after work, placing her back in the carseat and into the car. But then - I couldn't just go home because there would be no one there to help me get her in the house. So she and I would head on over to my parents' house just for a little visit. My husband would call when he was on his way home so that he'd be there before me, ready and able to carry in the baby.
We eventually discovered that a co-worker of my mom's lives very near to us and she generously made herself available to me, coming over to our house just to help me get the baby from the car to the house, or vise-versa. On the days that we had to go somewhere, this worked out so much better than having my mom drive 20 minutes out of her way to help us for 2 minutes - otherwise leaving us stuck at home all day simply because we couldn't get to the car. Now, this woman's teenaged daughters sometimes come over to play with Sweetie for awhile so that I get some work done around the house.
I'm very proud of all the things I am able to do by myself for and with my daughter, from bath time to the trips we now take together, just the two of us, to meet up with friends. But I definitely have to thank the many people who have been extremely valuable to us in the care and raising our our daughter. All our family and friends do what they can to help me with her, from running after her at family functions, to helping me now walk her to the car and get the stroller set up and/or broken down, and so much more.
It all goes back to teaching Sweetie about helpfulness - she's fortunate enough to see so many people helping us out almost every day. I think she'll quickly learn that helpfulness is a very important and wonderful trait to have.
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