Back home again, in Indiana...

Hey-o!

I am back, y'all...back to the world of internet connections, cable, and cell phone service. I'm back to work, back to laundry, and away from the pool. I am no longer on 24-hour baby duty.

And, truth be told, it all kind of sucks.

Brigid and I had a fantastic time at the parental compound back in Indiana. Many, many, many thanks and my undying love and devotion to my parents for driving to Atlanta and back (and most especially to my mother, who did it twice within a week!) to pick us up so that I didn't have to make the 10+ hour trip with Brigid by myself. Because that? Most definitely would not have worked. Unless I am sitting right next to that kid, shoveling food into her mouth and cycling through every. single. toy. that I brought for her at 30 second intervals (that 30 seconds being the amount of time each toy would keep her occupied before she became bored and dropped it down into the crack between her seat and the car door, right out of my reach), there is an ungodly amount of screaming involved in traveling with her. Even with all of my amazing skills at distraction, there's still some shrieking going on, so I don't plan on taking too many Brigid/mommy roadtrips on my own any time soon.

Anyway, the trip was exactly what you'd expect from a few days in the country. I never used a blow dryer. I think I put on make-up once. I spent most of the days in my swimsuit. Brigid spent almost the entire time in nothing but a diaper. We were outside nonstop. There were popsicles involved. Ice cream! Watermelon! Wine!*

We lost power twice, and because of that, I actually went to bed at 8:30 one night. It was amazing.

We lost Brigid's white noise machine during one of these outages, and I downloaded an app on my iPhone to replace it. With my phone pulling double duty during sleep time, I wasn't checking Twitter or email or Facebook every five minutes like I normally do. It was refreshing.

Brigid would wake-up, eat breakfast, play for a little bit. She'd take her morning nap, wake up, eat again. We'd get in the pool for at least an hour. She'd go down for another nap, and most days I'd have to go wake her up after a couple of hours for fear she wouldn't go back to sleep that night. She'd eat again and jump back in the pool for another hour.** A little more playing, a little dinner, a bath, and off to bed for the night. Then we'd wake up and do it all over again the next day. The last night we were there? It took everything we had to get Brigid out of the pool after she'd been in for something close to two hours. Her grandpa would hand her out to her grandma, and that kid would reach right back out for grandpa, begging to get back in. I'm not sure if you understand how the whole grandparent thing works, but when the grandchild reaches out to the grandparent, asking for something? The grandchild will get it 9.9 times out of 10. We finally put a stop to it when I realized it was after 7pm, and we were getting dangerously close to the point where Brigid is so overtired she refuses to sleep. I hate that point.

The first day back in Atlanta, with my mother-in-law watching her, Brigid took a three hour nap in the morning followed by a two hour nap in the afternoon. Nonstop fun is exhausting.

We had a barbecue with the extended family. Brigid spent time with her various great-grandparents. There were new people everywhere. There was a minute where it seemed to be too much for the poor kid, where the number of people talking to her seemed to overwhelm her. She's good with meeting new people a few at a time. That many, descending on her all at once? We had our first 'cling to mommy' moment. But grandma took her off to play for a few minutes, and she came back as good as new. I remain shocked at how quickly she warms up to people.

I loved spending so much time with her. I loved spending so much time with my family. I loved that Brigid seemed to love spending so much time with my family.

She would wave good morning to everyone when she woke up. She'd wave good night when she went to bed. She talked nonstop. She gave out more kisses than I'd ever seen her give out. I personally received more kisses last week than I'd received in her first ten months combined.

I like to think that was her way of thanking me for taking her up there.

And Miss B? Believe me, you are welcome.

I hope we can do it again next year!

*The wine was for me, not for Brigid. In case I needed to clarify...
**Brigid, she loves the water. She is a swimmer, that girl. Seriously, she kicks and paddles like a pro, and she absolutely doesn't mind getting water in her face. I'm ready to find someone to teach her how to hold her breath and float, because I'm pretty sure I couldn't keep her out of the pool if I tried, and the sooner she learns how to swim, the better I'll feel!