surprising Anna's Grammy Amy for her birthday... Had to maintain
complete radio silence!
Friday night we weren't sure if we would be able to go- the roads were
really bad and the forecast at the time called for snow through 11am
the next morning. We were not optimistic but still prepared anyway,
just in case.
The next morning we woke at 7am to check the road conditions... And
the snow had magically disappeared! It had stopped snowing hours
before. The road conditions were good and the clouds that were
previously dumping snow all over us had vanished.
We started out later than we had hoped but still made it for a late
lunch at a restaurant in Noblesville. Amy was genuinely surprised...
It was a great moment when she walked in to see the three of us
standing there waiting for her! Her sisters Kath and Dede had
surprised her the night before and joined us, as did Blaire and her
boyfriend Chris when they arrived a few minutes later.
We had a booster seat for Anna and she stayed in it for a little while
(as long as we kept the crayons coming) but she much prefers a "big
girl chair." She wound up eating her order of steamed veggies in a
regular chair next to Grammy Amy after giving her some very sweet
Happy Birthday hugs.
As we were finishing the meal, Anna's toddler moxy bubbled to the
surface. She was just radiating happy energy, despite not napping at
all! Grandpa Larry chased her as she sprinted and squealed around the
restaurant for a while. She pinked up his cheeks pretty thoroughly
before he gratefully passed the Baby Chaser baton to Aunt Blaire. :-)
On the way to the house we told her about the three doggies she'd see
and she got SO excited. She maintained her Toddler Comet energy level
all the way through to bedtime, keeping us all very entertained.
At bedtime she was overly tired to the point that she was not super-
cooperative. After wrestling a diaper onto her, she did not want to go
to sleep in this strange place. (we've stayed there before, but still,
not routine.) I ended up propping myself up a little in the guest bed
and letting her fall asleep draped over my chest. I waited for her to
be deeply asleep (I even dozed myself) before finally laying her
limply in her pack n play.
The rest of the night did not go so well, despite her obvious
exhaustion. She woke up screaming at 2:15am. Not sure whether it was
just the unfamiliar surroundings or a lingering problem with dairy
digestion, but in any case she was NOT going back in that pack n play
and we couldn't let her cry it out with a house full of people. About
the only thing we could do was drag her into the bed with us. For the
first time ever in her life, she actually fell asleep in our bed.
It lasted only around 3 hours, though- she started stirring and just
flopping all over us. {Okay, shove feet in Daddy's face, now smoosh
Mama's mouth, aaaaaaand SWITCH!} Eventually I gave up and took her out
in the living room around 6am.
We lazed around a little... She made some noise but not a ton. Soon
Amy and puppy Brewster joined us. We had a nice time hanging out while
the others slept. Fed Anna her breakfast cereal (spiked with probiotic
powder) while Brewster looked on hungrily.
Sesame Street is shown by our local PBS station at 8am on Sunday, but
not in Indy... We opted instead to watch the "Elmo Loves You!" DVD, a
present from Grammy & Grampy.
Dad spoiled us with yummy egg sandwiches on freshly-baked biscuits.
Anna had a great early lunch of scrambled eggs, biscuit bites, banana
chunks, and strawberries.
After loading up on so much good food, Anna's engine wound down to a
lower gear. She had a healthy case of The Stares as we packed up the
car and got ready to go. We weren't to far down the road when she took
a nice deep sniff of her blankie and drifted off to sleep. That was
close to 90 minutes ago - a really great car nap for her!
Glad we could help give you a Happy Birthday, Grammy Amy!
