November 11, 2001
My mom and dad came up yesterday to visit me and Eric, and then we all went out to dinner for my mom and David's birthdays, both of which were yesterday. Eric was Mr. Charming, and except for one short nap on my dad's shoulder, spent the whole afternoon and evening entertaining his grandparents and being entertained by them (it turns out that both my parents are willing to make funny noises for the amusement of infants--who knew). Eric adored them both. My mom said, "He smiles at you like he remembers you from the last time."
He was wild at the restaurant, fussing in his car seat. So we tried putting him in a high chair, thinking that he might be happy if he were just up high enough to see what was going on, but he's not really ready for restaurant high chairs. He does OK in a high chair with a tray that can be pushed in far enough that he can use it to support himself and also bang on it, but those bare wooden high chairs restaurants have just leave the poor guy slumpin'. So he ended up being passed around while we all took turns eating, and by the end of the evening he was bouncing off the walls--well, literally he was on my mom's lap with his butt on the table bouncing up and down there. David and I were mortified by our troublesome baby, and then my mom said, "Wow, is he always this easy and well-behaved?" We said, "Actually, this is about the most trouble he's ever given us in a restaurant." She was amazed; we were gratified.
Once when my mom had Eric, my Dad said, "Give me that baby" and reached for him. My mother did not respond. After a minute, thinking my mom hadn't heard, I said, "Mom, Dad wants to hold Eric." My mom said, "I know. I'm not holding him back. If he wants to go over there, he can."
When we got him home, he had a bottle and crashed. Actually, he was wired enough that he needed a little help getting to sleep. This much: I took him out of his crib, where he had been fussing, and put him in bed with me. He went instantly to sleep, and I must have dropped off two seconds later, because I have no memory of David moving Eric to his crib. Then Eric slept 10 hours, straight through until 8 this morning, and didn't wake up until he was in bed with me having a bottle.
Now he's been napping for almost two hours. I guess his fussy clingy days are over for now, and then next time he has a run like that, I will cure it by taking him out partying until 9:30 p.m. so that he has a lot of sleep to catch up on.
Posted by Su Penn at December 19, 2003 06:55 PM | TrackBack