Sunday Excursion

Today being Sunday, and today also being Becoming-A-Mom’s day shift, Juliette and I once again spent the whole day together.

This must have seemed a little weird to her – after all, I’d been gone all week and when she went to bed it was Becoming-A-Mom who put her down. Then suddenly in the morning Becoming-A-Dad is here doing everything that Becoming-A-Mom normally does and Becoming-A-Mom is no-where to be found.

To that regard I believe I scored rather poorly. Juliette did not seem to appreciate the breakfast I gave her until I switched to her favorite – yoghurt. Then she seemed extremely annoyed at me (I could tell by the 10 minutes of screaming and crying) that I put her down for her nap, even though she was getting cranky and rubbing her eyes. When she got up, I played with her a bit until I noticed she was getting cranky again, so using my well-honed Becoming-A-Dad perception I put her in the high-chair and tried feeding her lunch.

I suspect she was so hungry she didn’t know what was wrong or how to fix it. Whatever the reason, she batted the spoon out of my hand *twice* in a row. Both times a good dollop of the yummy pureed green-and-orange stuff flew through the air and made a pleasing “splat” sound on the floor. Eventually some food made it into her mouth (I had to wait until she was screaming and not paying attention to get the spoon past her extremely fast and well-aimed hands – I swear she’s going to be a hockey goalie when she grows up). After two mouthfuls she realized that food was good and settled down.

After lunch she again started rubbing her eyes and looking tired, so I put her in her swing for a nap. The screaming only lasted 15 minutes, so I tip-toed back to see what she was doing. She was staring blankly out the window with a resigned expression. I snuck away and had a bit of peace and quiet for the next hour or so.

When she awoke I decided it was time to take her out somewhere. The weather had turned to rain so we bundled up and went to Oakridge Mall where she loves the children’s play area. We did a little walk around the mall in her stroller before I got to the play area and joined her in it. For about 15 minutes she dragged me around the play area first by 2 fingers then by only one. Then she decided it was high-time she practiced her stair-climbing and escape tactics which went on for another 5 minutes.

About this time my Aunt arrived (I’d phoned her and told her where we were). Suddenly Juliette stopped stock still and looked fearfully at my Aunt. She kept pulling at my pant legs and crawling into my arms so I picked her up. For the next 10 minutes she wouldn’t look at my Aunt and clung tightly to my neck. After that she relaxed a bit – enough so I could put her down in the play area again – but she didn’t move an inch. She watched the other kids in between keeping an eye on my Aunt in case she did something.

By this point I was in dire need of caffeine. I bundled Juliette up into the stroller then my Aunt joined us at the food fair where we had a coffee. Juliette slowly warmed up to my Aunt, especially after I told her to give Juliette one of those Mum-Mum crackers she loves. As my coffee was nearly finished I thought I’d head out to the car quickly and retrieve the OkieDog so Juliette could walk around the mall a bit. I dashed out to the car and returned within 3 minutes — to find Juliette in my Aunt’s arms crying her little heart out.

A bit of calming later Juliette was proudly pushing her OkieDog through the mall. For the next 15 minutes we walked through the mall with Juliette stopping every few feet to look into the different stores and take stock of the situation. She really looked pleased that she could control the pace of our movement through the mall and that she could stop and go as she pleased. She also attracted a lot of attention from the rest of the shoppers – though she did her best to pretend she didn’t notice them. And she stopped and watched and waved at all the other little children running around.

Finally we walked back to the children’s play area again. This time she wanted to see the rides, so I took her in and sat her in a red car. She was very happy about this but was looking very tired. After a few minutes I pulled her out and with a short screaming session we headed back to the car. My Aunt helped push the empty stroller while I sat Juliette down on the OkieDog and pushed her on that.

We got home and I fed her dinner. I heated up some leftovers and got to eat most of it, in between having Juliette demanding her share (it was lasagna, and she apparently loves lasagna). She had her bath, we played a bit, I read her a couple of books, and then I bundled her up and put her in her crib. She seemed quite tired and peaceful. I happily turned away and headed for the door.

About this time she realized that Becoming-A-Mom was not around to nurse her as usual. This resulted in 30 minutes of full-on yelling and screaming. Every 3 or 4 minutes the crying would die down and Juliette would seem like she was going to sleep. Then she’d remember she was angry and the screaming would suddenly ramp up in volume and intensity. Around the 20 minute mark I decided it was a good time to take the garbage and recycling outside.

Finally she fell asleep. And not even 10 minutes later Becoming-A-Mom returned home from work to find Juliette peacefully in her crib. Good thing she didn’t look too closely to see the tear-soaked bedsheet.