Baby Adventures

Last Saturday morning I had a woman's group meeting, and planned on leaving Eva with Dave like I always do. But Dave had already promised to give Chappy a hand helping a friend move, so he decided to take Eva with them. They strapped her car seat into Chappy's Infinity while I stocked up her diaper bag and nursed her. A few minutes later they were passing me on the freeway, Dave waving out the window as they passed. Out of habit I glanced at my baby auto mirror, but there was no little face smiling back at me, and suddenly I missed her. When I looked up the road at Chappy’s car, I could imagine her playing in her car seat only a few yards away, and was briefly swept by an urge to tailgate them all the way to their destination. Especially when it started to rain and the driving conditions got more challenging. When another car cut between us, cutting off my view, my momma bear feelings kicked in. Never have I been so tempted to run someone off the road. How dare they commit the ignorant crime of coming in between my baby and me? I made myself get off at my exit like a good, non-paranoid mother, and watched Chappy's car with its precious cargo speed away.

Surprisingly, I was able to enjoy my little time of independence before they came back around 2pm. I had thought that maybe I would get sore from not nursing her, but she only missed her mid-morning feeding. Lunch and dinner have been solid food for her for quite awhile now (though she's beginning to want something besides breast milk for breakfast now). Dave said she had been a perfect angel, napping in the car and crawling around the house under a watchful neighbor's eye while they loaded up furniture. She had eaten her baby food and Gerber veggie puffs, and drank from her sippy cup like a big girl. When she got back, she got her mid-afternoon feeding before I took her to a friend's baby shower. There she played on the floor with her little friends. They all like to steal each other's toys because whatever anyone else has is always more interesting.