From Here to There and Back Again, a Tale by Mike Mulhern p2

[mightymulhern]

From Here to There and Back Again, a Tale by Mike Mulhern Part 2

The Surprise
When we pulled up at my parent's house, I expected Dad to see us pretty quickly. He was out pruning a tree in the yard and looked right at the car. Somehow he didn't notice Mom had a passenger. He actually didn't see us until we got out of the car. Amusingly Sydney slept through the surprise. She sacked out halfway home from the airport and didn't stir when we parked and all got out. So we had all of us standing there chatting and the baby in the back seat zonked with the door hanging open.


The Pack & Play
Setting up the pack & play was a lot more difficult than expected. The sides folded up and snapped into position but didn't want to ALL snap in. This resulted in a few attempts. It was also missing a couple of rods which would have helped support the shelf that hangs at roughly 1/3rd the depth and was where we had planned on having Sydney sleep. In the end we just did away with the shelf and put her in the bottom of it.


Playing with Nana, New Tricks
My mom was tireless when playing with Sydney. She laid out the afghan on the living room rug, set the toys out and played with Sydney much of the time we were there. Sydney has never had so much attention for so long and clearly enjoyed it. She was extremely smiley.

Sydney loved playing with the rings my mom got her. She would always take them of the stick and play with the blue one. That seemed to be her favorite. At one point, mom put one over each foot so Sydney was laying on her back and kicking with one around each ankle. Syd didn't care for that too much because she couldn't get them off. Very cute. Ahhh... get em off!

Mom also kept putting rings on Sydney's head. Sydney would just sit there very straight and still until the ring fell off. It was a new game.

Sydney's favorite toys on this trip were probably Nana's shoe (she liked to play with the laces and if we would have let her, chew on the rubber sole) and the semi-hard plastic carrying case that a cloth baby book came in. ...the book was the gift which Sydney liked but she enjoyed chewing on the hard plastic even more. ...and while we're citing the things that Sydney put in her mouth, she also chewed on my shoe and leaned forward and started chewing on the steel band on the side of the picnic table. Crazy baby!

Mom also taught Sydney how to do a high 5. This is exciting because there really hasn't been a lot of “learning” in the Mulhern household. Sure, Sydney has picked up a few things, but nothing that we really actively taught her. After the visit, she was high 5ing on the way home and even the next day.

While playing on the floor, Sydney learned another new trick. For the first time in her life, she rolled from her back to her tummy. She also tolerated being on her tummy for more than 2 minutes which is a BIG deal in itself. That was probably Sunday June 21st.


The Hot Tub
Sydney loves bath time so it's no surprise that she loved the hot tub. We put her in this boat/raft we got at K-Mart and let her float around. She splashed the water and leaned back and forth with a huge grin on her face. We also took her out and let her “swim” a little with our help. She seemed to love that too. In all irony she had somewhat of a fit when Meghan tried to give her a bath to wash the chlorine off afterwards.

It was mid-day while we were in the hot tub and the sun was shining brightly. It wouldn't have been hot but felt that way when sitting in 100 degree water. Dad pulled out a picnic table umbrella which shaded perhaps a quarter of the tub. ...we stuck to that side mostly.

During our dip, a bunch of wasps also decided to make an appearance. So you've got Meghan, Sydney, and I in the pool, mom doing her best cowboy draw with a can of raid, and my dad leaping off the picnic table and stepping on the wiggling beasts mom sprayed. I think they actually killed 4 in a span of 6 or 7 minutes.


The High Chair
Sydney got to use our old family high chair and sat with us one evening at the kitchen table. She seemed very happy to sit with us. Her only problem was that she had a tendency to slip down into the chair because it was slick wood. As a result, if she wasn't paying attention she got shorter and shorter and we had to push her back up. Eventually she actually turned sideways and put her feet against one side of it. Problem solved.

Aside from the sweet potatoes and bananas, we also tried to give her a cracker. Mom & Dad got to witness the facial expressions and lack of swallowing Sydney does when confronted with solid food.


Bed Time
Bed time is when the Wee Beastie becomes beastly. A couple of times she was just too excited and wouldn't go to sleep. In the battle of wills, Sydney often wins. Eventually though, she's just play pooped and passes out.

In an attempt to extend one of Sydney's awake times, we all ran to Kmart to get swim diapers. I think Mom & Dad got a kick out of Sydney sitting in the cart and holding onto the handle.