Looks Like We Made It

Well, after 4 days and 3 nights without the dad of the house, Ella and I are very excited to have him back. It’s amazing how quickly I got pushed aside once Joe returned.

I had a great weekend with my girl. Friday night was cold and rainy, so we just stayed inside and watched a movie. Saturday morning we woke up bright and early to go to Target. I have learned that if you wait until the afternoon to go then you hit all the crowds, but if you can make it in the morning then you’re usually pretty good. So we made it before noon. However, I got so wrapped up in my shopping that my poor sweet baby actually fell asleep in the shopping cart! A woman walked by and said “Oh, she’s so tired.” When I turned to look, Ella’s head was bobbing off to the side. Soon she was asleep. I didn’t even have one of those nice padded fabric things that makes the cart softer (we have one but I always forget it), so she was just leaning against the metal sides. I felt guilty, so I tried to pick her up and carry her, but as soon as I did she woke up and was ready to look at everything. Of course as soon as we got in the car she fell asleep again.

Now with all my new Christmas decorations I am so excited to decorate the house. Joe has promised me that we can get a tree the first weekend in December. Every year I want a real tree, but every year Joe has finals the first 2 weeks of December, so by the time he’s done with finals and we actually make it out to the tree store, all the good ones are taken. One year we went and there were about 3 dead trees left and that was it. So we’ve had to use a fake one. This year he only has one final so he promised me that we’d go out early enough to actually get a nice tree. We even donated the fake one to the Salvation Army, so we don’t have a back-up plan.

Saturday night I actually changed Ella’s bandages all by myself! This was a major accomplishment for me! I have done them one other time without any help, but Saturday I gave her a bath and everything, which I have never done without Joe or Metti, then I changed her bandages completely on my own. I was so nervous and prayed all day about it. Originally I wasn’t going to give her a bath, but the poor girl has been so itchy with the weather change, and all day Saturday she would scratch and start crying because it itched so much, and she has only slept in 2-3 hour increments all week. So I thought a warm oatmeal bath would do her some good and hopefully ease her itchy skin. Like I said, I prayed about it all day and while I was setting everything up for the bandage change, I just felt like a bath was the right thing to do. Then I started praying that she would stay calm and that I would have the wisdom to handle anything that came my way. Needless to say, Ella did great in the bathtub and played with her toys while I washed her hair and cleaned her up. After the bath the bandage change was good and an hour and 15 minutes later she was all clean. She actually slept for 6 hours straight, which is more than she’s done in a week, so the bath definitely helped. The funny thing is that I did the entire bandage change in my swimsuit just in case I had to jump in the bathtub with her. Luckily that didn’t happen.

Joe came home this afternoon and boy are we glad to have him back. It was fun for Ella and me to have mommy / daughter bonding, but I told him he’s not allowed to go out of town for that long anymore! Now I think it’s my turn for a girls weekend getaway and Joe can stay home with Ella.