Our Weekend

This last weekend was full and lovely. To start, Stephen enjoy a conventional weekend off for once. These are rare occurrences, and perfect opportunities to catch up with our loved ones.

Friday night, our nephew L and his girlfriend C were in town from Iowa for a concert. They had dinner with Stephen while I took care of Anna's bedtime. L and C were planning on sleeping over after their concert, but the threat of bad weather convinced them it was best to make a late night drive home. I can imagine it was a very sleepy and long drive, but it is better than a drive in a Midwest winter storm.

Saturday morning, the three of us lounged around the house and enjoyed each other's company. No housework, no bills, no laundry, no commitments-- nothing but us. The snow started falling around 11 AM. Awesomeness. 

 

Shortly after noon, Mom showed up from KC. Her drive was rainy until she she was merely a couple miles from our house. She very literally blinked, and the landscape transformed from brown and soggy to white and wintry. An inch of snow was already on the ground. Big wet snowflakes were dropping from the sky. She texted me at that moment to tell me "WOW!!"... meanwhile, it had been snowing at our place for well over an hour. I guess the cold front decided to plant its butt over our apartment and save moving eastward for later that afternoon. Just unreal :)

The B's join us and my mom for a late Mexican lunch. We are a crazy bunch with our two little movers, as usual!

 Inspired by our first significant snowfall of the year, I picked up snowpants and boots for Anna at a local children's thrift store, hurried home, and started the dressing process.

She was a much better sport about it than Randy

She didn't mind the snow, really, but she spent the five minutes outside very quiet and still. Observing.

We tasted the snow. cold. crisp. crunchy.

We felt the snowflakes fall on our faces and on our hands. icy kisses :)

and warm kisses

mommy can't be the photographer for too long :-)

Anna was exhilarated and happy upon coming inside after her first tactile experience with wintry weather. I was reminded of my own childhood, and how it felt to come inside after playing hard in the snow--- the sweaty clammy chilled skin, rosy cheeks, and welcome comfiness of warm dry clothes that allowed free movement. We made chili that night, put the babe to bed, and tried to enjoy a movie (The Tree of Life). We really tried. Several times. It was a no go. We watched The Lazarus Project instead. It was the perfect mixture of intensity and corniness to satisfy us. 

The next morning, Mom spent time with Anna so Stephen and I could go out on a "date" (the second since she was born). Us wild things, we had breakfast at Hy Vee (oooh, the usually illicit biscuits and gravy!) then shopped for candles, whoo-hoo! We really did enjoy and appreciate the alone time out, though we kept thinking how weird it was that we didn't have Anna with us. 

When Mom headed home to KC at lunchtime, we did too! My grandma turned 78 years old on the first, and our whole family was getting together for supper at a super yummy Chinese buffet. We've never been able to make these special gatherings with living four hours away and Stephen's unpredictable work schedule- but the stars aligned this weekend :)

We arrived in KC a few hours before the dinner started, so we visited our long-time friends L and K. Ah, every time we see them, the desire to move back to KC intensifies. We love L and K (and their furbabies!!). 

The dinner was fabulous. My grandma was floored to see we were there, I loved her reaction. It made the drive so worth it. Anna loved seeing all of her family, and with time accepted the stream of invitations to be held.  She was a trooper, and so was a my family for being patient and respectful of her. It is challenging to strike that steady balance between respecting the boundaries of your child (who cannot speak for herself yet), and acknowledging the very well-intended desires of family members to nurture their relationships with her. Helping Anna successfully manage her emotions, ensuring her autonomy is respected, and encouraging opportunities for her to connect with loved ones are all very important to us. To keep the overstimulation at bay at a gathering like this was extremely difficult, if not impossible. But Anna did great and thoroughly enjoyed the kisses and hugs and tickles and laughter and FOOD, and most everyone got to have some time with her. I really wish we had pictures, it was such an enjoyable evening seeing everyone and watching the love between them and Anna.

Once on the road, she felt compelled to release a series of hollers and whoops and twitches to expend all of that built up excitement. Singing her some Smashing Pumpkins and Dixie Chicks sent her to sleep soundly until we arrived in Nebraska. :-) Bedtime eventually came at 1:30. Even though we slept an extra couple hours this morning, she insisted on going back to bed a couple hours later. And she's STILL asleep. :-)