We are all alive. Peach has some lovely gastrointestinal thing that has turned me off of chocolate frosting forever. My only free time comes after the screaming fit that is putting her down for a nap. (Thankfully, the naps have been long. The nights, however, involve lots of screaming at 1-4 AM. I am 36, Matthew is 47, and WE ARE TOO OLD FOR THIS.) Also thankfully, I haven't gotten whatever it is that got Peach - although I have enough of a hard time staying home when I'm sick that staying home when someone else is sick is a bit maddening!
After spending almost a week in Nevada with family, we came home to normalcy - which is to say, work chaos and feeling infinitely behind. Two forced days "off" were not on my radar, and I have come to the conclusion that it is infinitely more difficult to stay home with a kid than go to work. Seriously. Does it make me a bad mom that I would rather review discovery than do "ring around the rosey" until I'm sick to my stomach?
It distresses me that this blog is becoming an apology piece, interspersed with pictures. Sorry I haven't posted, sorry I have nothing interesting to say, sorry I can't talk about work, sorry for all the apologies.
The apologies out of the way, here are some pictures:
Our trip to Reno was Peach's first airplane trip. I was a wreck about this, because she hates loud noises - the vacuum, the garage door opener, and the time we watched a helicopter take off? A NIGHTMARE. So I'd prepped her with books and even though I am a member of the "pop a xanex before takeoff" club, I managed to feign excitement for her. And it worked! She loved it. We had a hell of a time keeping her in the seat we had to pay for (because she'd turned 2 the previous week), but heck, she had fun and there was very minimal screaming, mostly to do with trying to keep her in her seat.
Most of our pictures of her on the plane are like this one - the back of her head while she watches out the window.
While in Reno, we had the third of Peach's three birthday parties. Yeah. I went from not wanting any to having three - one at daycare, a casual one with neighbors (Matthew was the orchestrator of this - he bought a cake all on his own), and one with my family in Reno. All of them were a lot of fun, but it was so neat to see her interacting with my family. For example, she'd never met either of my brothers, but had chatted with Phil via Skype. When she first got out of the car in front of my sister's house, Phil came around the side of the car - and as soon as her feet were on the ground, she ran up to him and hugged him, with no prompting on my part. Auntie Sarah was incredibly patient and wonderful with her and thought of a million ways to entertain her that never would have occurred to me, Uncle John fed her pizza, and she loved all the attention. I loved the break.
She had an epic tantrum the day of her party, but hey, what toddler doesn't? It meants she took a nap and I got to open her presents...which was actually pretty fun for me. Most unusual gift: toilet seat with a toddler-sized seat that fits up into the lid with a magnetic catch - no idea what the TSA folks thought about it, but it has already made the potty training much more pleasant. Loudest gifts: from my brothers, naturally. Everyone was so kind and thoughtful to Peach, which was a delight for me, since my family is so far away. My brothers had never met her and my father hadn't seen her since she was about a week old. My sister hadn't seen her in over a year. It was fun.
The point of the trip, getting my brother John married off, was accomplished with very few snags. Peach fell asleep in the car about 20 minutes from the Squaw Valley Chapel - naturally. She made it through the ceremony with only some squirming, but we couldn't stay too long. For those who might remember my sister's wedding, or the stories therefrom, almost three years ago? Let's just say that my parents GOT ALONG NICELY. I have pictures of that, too, in case no one believes me, but would rather not risk a jinx by posting them. Instead, I leave you with this:
Which is pretty much how I feel after having not gotten a full night's sleep in...um...I can't remember when. Here's hoping her nap lasts long enough for me to get a few Zs in myself.
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