WAVING HELLO (& Poor Annie!)

Before our day with Shenandoah and Armelle started, we had to drive there. And this time the drive held an exciting first for Annie: waving hello! I knew this would be coming because of her waving bye-bye with Pat the Bunny, so I was kind of expecting it. Anyway, today in the car I looked through the mirror at Annie and waited until she was watching to frantically wave hello at her. Sure enough, she waved back! It was so exciting!

But in other news . . .
Mamma made such mistakes in regards to Annie's sleep today, . . . and it all came to a head at Shenandoah's pool. *sigh* In an attempt to put the past behind me, let me just spill it, . . .
Annie took a tiny nap in the car driving to VA. Here it is in this picture: the reason for all the problems. (And I thought it was so cute at the time.) Well, I thought that was her first nap and that she probably wouldn't take another one until 3 or so when she has her second one. Hmmm, no. I saw it coming when she just wanted me to hold her. (I should have turned around right then.) We had fun a short time at the pool before lunch, . . . but at lunch Annie lost it. I mean completely lost it with crying/screaming/back-arching, . . . the whole bit. I tried everything from holding her, to feeding her, to nursing her, to putting her in our stroller, to putting her in Shenan's stroller, to laying down with her on a towel. At this point, I lost it and was crying hysterically. I just needed to go back to the house and put Annie down, but all she wanted was to be held and we all walked with both strollers (because I wanted to get some extra exercise)! I felt lost and alone and helpless. I couldn't carry her back to the house and push the stroller at the same time. And during this whole thing, Laura was so wonderful, trying so hard to help me in any way she could, . . . but something happens to me when I have a crying baby in public, though (especially one who never cries), and I just can't think straight, . . . and I certainly can't multitask. I ended up strapping a writhing/arching/screaming Annie into the stroller and running back to Laura's house, . . . leaving Leia there with Laura (and not kissing Leia goodbye or telling her or anything). Just that last thing alone would have scarred me as a child. (And of course, Leia was fine and didn't even want to leave the pool a bit later when Laura told them it was time to go back.) Still, when I got back to the house and calmed Annie down, I started crying hysterically again thinking about what a horrible mother I had been. And as I leaned down to rub Annie's quivering back as she was still sobbing, my tears fell on her. (It was like one of those sappy movies where you see the tears hit the good-bye letter, or something.) Horrible, horrible, horrible! But done, done, done. And, ironically, everything else about the day was fabulous, fabulous, fabulous!