All week I've been contemplating taking Grace to the Cabin Fever program at the rec center, where toys and gym equipment is set up in the padded room and you can let your kids run around and get some exercise. It's great during the winter because it's so rainy here that the playground equipment never gets a chance to dry. It's also wonderful for smaller kids because they can't get hurt... or not much, anyhow.
I used to take Grace nearly every week, but I sort of fell out with the other mothers that were going. I wasn't the right type of woman, apparently. Plus with Kurt being home and us going places a lot, I didn't think it was an issue. Now that Kurt's gone, I think Grace could use the time out of the house, and the small amount of interaction there is with the other kids.
Most of the kids aren't really big enough to actually play together. They just sort of play parallel to each other, and that's okay for this stage.
But Grace and I had a great time at Cabin Fever today. She ran around and played her heart out, and she managed not to run over the smaller kids or injure them in any way. And since the folks running the program have removed the few toys of which there was only one, there was no fighting either.
What a relief!
When we used to go, Grace would latch on to this lawnmower toy, and there was only one. She would push it around for a while, and then she would abandon it somewhere. Woe to the child who thought she was finished with it! If she saw some other kid pushing it around, she threw a fit.
But there was no lawnmower there today. YAY!
I also managed to strike up a conversation with another mother there who seems like a really cool lady. Her youngest child had a birth defect which didn't allow him to suck, so he had to have special bottles in order to eat. She too got dirty looks and stares from people in this area because she "chose" to bottle-feed her baby. So it wasn't just my imagination!! People here really do judge you for bottle-feeding your baby. It's funny because my best friend, who lives in Virginia, says people there have stared at her for breast-feeding in public (she's very discreet about it, by the way). So I guess it's just where you live. Here I'm surrounded by breast-feeding Nazis who think it's tantamount to child abuse to feed your baby formula.
I just wish they knew all the problems I was dealing with when I finally made the decision to bottle-feed Grace.
I wish I could have breast-fed Grace. It's better for kids, and it's cheap!! Can't get any cheaper than free! Plus I'm lazy as all get-out, and making bottles up every time your kid needs to eat is a pain. But I can't breast-feed Grace when there is just no milk to be had. It just can't be done.
Then after Cabin Fever it was time to get some lunch, so we headed to historic downtown and went to my favorite bakery. When we used to go to Cabin Fever last year, we'd go to the bakery for lunch and there was this guy there that I jokingly referred to as "my boyfriend." (Don't worry -- it's totally a joke, and Kurt's even met the guy.) But then he started working a different shift, so I didn't see him anymore.
Today my "boyfriend" was there again! He was only there to get some food before he ran some errands before his shift started at 3pm, but I saw him! It took me three looks at him to recognize him, though; he'd buzzed all his hair off! I finally said, "You cut all your hair off!!" He was rather shocked because apparently he'd first cut his hair way back in July. So yeah, it's been a while.
So I've had a good day... I've made a new friend, I got to talk to my "boyfriend," and I got not one, not two, not three, but FIVE emails from my husband so far today! And one was REALLY long!!
YAY!!!!!