WIML, Tuesday

Today was a long day, but such a wonderful one.

At 7:45 am I was regretting my habit of scheduling doctor's appointments first thing in the morning, but by the time we were in the car at 8:45 I was again glad that I did it (such a morale boost to be fed, dressed, and out and about at that time of day...especially considering that I showered and changed out of my pajamas at 2:30 yesterday afternoon!)

Julia had her 1 month check-up, weighed in a whopping 1 lb, 13 oz more than three weeks ago, and was deemed to be "excellent" by her pediatrician (who refers to herself as "Dr. Anna" to the kids - a big hit with my Dr. Anna!)  I was thrilled when she told me she thought it was time to start getting out and about.  We're very conservative with germ exposure, but Dr. Anna (the real one) said she thought it was reasonable to start taking Julia to stores or things when she's in her carseat or my carrier.  I had previously been told (by a pediatrician whose opinion I respect less) to wait until 2 months, so I walked out of the doctor's office today going FREEEEEDOOOMMMM!  With Justin's work schedule, it's been stressful for both of us to find times for me to go grocery shopping, let alone any other errands I need or want to do.

I tell (little) Dr. Anna that this is the "helper chair" and that she needs to sit there so that the doctor knows she's the helper.  She takes it very seriously.  I swear you can motivate toddlers to do almost anything in the name of helping.

After a morning of getting things in shape around the house (mercifully, Julia slept in her bouncy chair, so I was able to do some of the difficult-to-do-with-a-carrier tasks like emptying the dishwasher, things that went undone with her fussiness yesterday), we had an early lunch and early nap time, and as soon as Anna was awake we headed for the park.

I stood there in the sunshine thinking: there is truly no where else I'd rather be.

After the park, we were off for some groceries.  I'm not a huge Wal-mart fan, but beggars can't be choosers when the closest Target is 20 miles away, and I wanted to browse a few things beyond the standard grocery fare. 

Julia slept in the carrier the entire trip (except for the check-out line, when she'd had it and was ready for a milk snack in the van before heading home) and Anna sat in the cart the entire time (a marvelous improvement over the constant climbing she was doing right before Julie was born).  I kinda wanted to high-five people as we went like "hey!  I'm out of the house!  We're back in business!  No more isolation!"  but then again high fiving random strangers in Wal-mart = germs.  ;)

It was so nice to be able to take care of things, and as I was putting things away (while simultaneously serving Anna's dinner, reinserting Julia's pacifier 89 times, and making dinner), I was thinking about how good it felt to be able to completely fulfill my roles again.  I'm always amazed by the bounty when I've returned from a grocery store trip, and it was especially evident today.  Although we've been blessed by our community with home-cooked meals for the last month, part of me is excited to get back to cooking and to our familiar and healthy menus.

I promise, I did not arrange the food for a photo shoot!  I was in a hurry trying to find some things for the meal in progress, so I emptied all of the bags before putting anything in cabinets/the refrigerator.

The 6-8 pm hour was its typical craziness, but not enough to totally derail my "it's a wonderful day."  Julia had it with the bouncy chair, so I juggled her fussy self through a variety of will-this-help-your-bellyache? positions while checking the fish and finishing the potatoes.  I quickly ate my dinner, still holding Julia, and using my third free hand (ha!) to help Anna with her various requests...

but when the requests are as adorable as "Mommy, can you please unbow my tie?" you can't really complain.  (She meant tie my bow, and by bow, she meant the legs of the turkey hat.  Love it.)

Julie was content to lay in her crib for almost all of Anna's bath time, and then we weathered a brief dual meltdown during tooth brushing.  (Anna, for whatever reason, was distraught at remembering that I needed to return the shirts I got today at Wal-mart - I bought them without a fitting room visit for obvious reasons, and tried them on before bath time.  I was disappointed that I misjudged the size, but Anna was beyond upset that the blue one needed to go back (through sobs - "pwease not take bwue shirt to grocery store, Mommy!!")  

I settled us back into our big comfy chair and rocked them, and both girls were sleeping (albeit Julia temporarily) when Justin came in at 8:30.  He was just in time to move sleeping Anna to her bed (avoiding the ridiculous contortions I normally do to extricate myself from the bottom of a pile of sleeping babies and get them to their respective sleeping locations without waking anyone!)  Julia had her bath and after a little struggle (likely due to overstimulation from a big day!) she finally settled in the carrier, where she's nestled contently while I type. 

And so ends a wonderful day.  Proof that (like Julia's birth story) I can't write anything brief.  I intended to spend just five minutes giving a quick update today.  Oh well ;)  More tomorrow for the Week in My Life (thanks, Kathryn for the inspiration and link-up!)