Still Overwhelming But Never Boring

In my pre-surgery life Wednesday was always coffee at Panera's with the women in Mike's family. So, Mike asked if I wanted to ride with him to drop Isaac off at camp and then go next door to Panera's for breakfast. I'd been there once before and it wasn't a great experience. The walker I'm using right now is super noisy and I'm slow so I really get to soak in all the open mouth stares. Elderly people are the worst like they have the market cornered on walkers and such so manners don't apply to them. Anyway, by the time I got to the table that day I was pissed off and tired. So, today went better, but I still wanted to get home and lay down right away.

I laid down for an hour and a half or so and then the baby was getting hungry. Mike brought Riley's brand new high chair into the bedroom so I could feed her from bed. She had pasta stars with sause and tiny meatballs. She was thrilled with the menu and very quickly figured out that if she leaned back all the way quickly I couldn't reach her, the stinker. So, she sharpened her already impressive ninja skills by dunking her hands in the bowl and then finger painting her tray before I could catch her and wipe her off. She followed that up by over turning all of the contents onto the highchair and herself.

At this point I'm tired and in pain and wondering how in the heck to clean this mess up wihout bending, lifting or twisting. It was just at that moment that backup arrived. The baby juggler arrived and while my little one and hers took turns fussing she swiflty bathed and dressed Riley and washed Riley's modern art from the tray.

Clean Riley her buddy played while Mommy rested on the couch. There's nothing like a couple of happy babies to speed your recovery and quiet the irrational need to "have a few more." I mean that in the best way possible. Brief periods of happy choas are good for the soul. Thank goodness for good frieds and cool babies.

Longer Arms

I went to the grocery store to get Riley some stage 1 veggies. Michael had requested sweet potatoes. So I marched over to the section I had the coupon for of course and found them. There was one left but it was all the way back against the farthest wall of the shelf and I have short arms and I'm wearing a baby on my chest.

So, I marched up to the end of the aisle to find help, but there were no employees. I went back and waited by the shelf thinking someone would happen by and take pity on me. No luck.

Finally I slid out the cardboard dividers they kept between flavors and started batting the sweet potatoes forward. It took about a solid minute of batting it with this piece of cardboard to get it to where I could reach it that's how far back and tightly packed between the containers on either side it was.

In the end I won, but I would like a word with person who designs grocery shelves! At least the baby aisle if not all of them should accommodate shopping with a baby on your hip.

This is not the first time I've been inconvenienced thus, one day in December I went grocery shopping and the spice packet I wanted was on the top shelf in a row of tightly packed envelopes so I was pathetically imitating someone hopping, trying to stretch with one foot on the bottom shelf. All I could think as my fingertips grazed it was that it would rip and pour chili seasoning into my eyes and all over Riley. People walked by ignoring my polite "excuse me"s the whole time.

Same store same day I was after Mike's favorite coffee which the store by us no longer carries. Wouldn't ya know it was on the highest shelf! As I'm cursing inwardly at my luck an elderly woman slightly taller than myself comes over and with clearly arthritic hands tries to get it down for me. Between the two of us we managed after quite the comedy of errors (we're lucky the whole shelf didn't come down on us). It makes you wonder why the grocery shelves are as high and deep as they are.

Am I the only one who has skipped an item that was inconveniently located? Or the only one who can barely reach things on the very top shelf? I doubt it. Really what's the deal...

Riley Eats Her First Solids

Bananas!!!

Riley started solids today. Daddy gave her the Beachnut Banana baby food (that I bought with a coupon) at about 6pm. She was very excited about it. Although the first bite surprised her quite a bit, I guess bananas are pretty sour when compared to breast milk. She ate quite a bit. I instantly regretted bathing Riley and putting her in clean jammies before hand. Oh, well... She was totally a rock star and the moment I'll never forget was when she took the spoon from Mike and fed herself a bite. It was adorable and as a bonus she took it out of her mouth and smeared some on her eyelid. (: This growing up nonsense really must stop!