You Can Hear the Whistle Blow a Hundred Miles

So, that whole visit with my parents thing… that was… interesting?

I can honestly say that it was a bad idea. My mood improved slightly, especially when I could manage to get onto the neighbor’s wifi at night, but it got to the point that my father and I were barely speaking. And unfortunately, he cancelled his plans to go down to Norwalk at the end of the week to sail because of the weather forecast. I was VERY glad to get out of there and I got the added benefit of helping my mom pick out a new light fixture for the downstairs bathroom. Now the room is bright and pleasant and my dad doesn’t like it. Haha!

I was very glad to get to see my aunt and uncle on the Saturday I was there. Pippa loved them, especially Drew, who is great with kids. He showed me a new game to play with her and she thinks it’s hilarious.

On Sunday I drove down to Waterbury. I beat Zach there by about 30 minutes, excusing him from the responsibility of carrying anything in the house. LOL. Pippa was upset by him for a while during our visit, but she warmed up to him by the time we were getting ready to go. Perfect, right? We concluded that it’s probably his voice. He has a very deep voice and she seemed more relaxed with him when he spoke softly and with a slightly higher pitch. She definitely remembered Kurt and Lisa though and was very happy to see her Opa and Oma again.

It was a very busy week for us. On Monday I drove Zach down to Norwalk since I was going anyway and had lunch with my grandmother and Aunt Kay. After our visit with them, I took Pippa over to Cove Marina to see Erin. Then I picked Zach up about a block from Erin’s old house and we went back to Waterbury. That evening Lisa and I took Pippa to meet her knitting group because they’ve been dying to see her in person apparently. Tuesday was a day of recovery. Pippa needed to normalize a bit. We went to Target for some baby food and various little things, but stuck close to home.

On Wednesday we went down to the aquarium to meet more of her adoring public. Lisa is lucky enough to have a job that doesn’t require her to actually be doing it constantly, provided she’s in the building. So she got to show off the grandbaby and Pippa got to look at the sharks and touch a horseshoe crab. I was going to go see Erin again afterward, but Pippa was all cranked up. She fussed the first half of the ride back to Waterbury, then fell asleep.

Thursday was utter craziness. I took Pippa down to Milford at 8 to meet Stefanie at the dance studio for pictures. She’s editing them now, but from the ones she posted on her Facebook business site, they are absolutely beautiful. She’s sending me a disc once she’s done and we’re planning on doing another session in December so we can do the baby girl in tutu, daddy in uniform thing. After that we went back up to Waterbury, I fed Pip, got her meals and diapers for the rest of the day, and we got back in the car and went to Hamden to see Lisette and Lily. So exciting to meet her for the first time! I must say that although I always knew I would have little blonde babies, I am so jealous of Lily’s eyelashes. My next husband is going to be Italian or Hispanic so our kids have those thick, dark eyelashes. I’m talking Nestor Carbonell lashes. Rob took a really nice picture of the four of us where Pippa and Lily are sort of reaching out to each other. So cute.

Lisette and I took the little ones to IHOP for lunch where Pippa had her own lunch along with her first piece of toast and tried to stuff the whole thing in her mouth at once. I had to take some away, but all in all she really enjoyed it. Then we went to Southern for Rosso-stalking, only that part of it failed a little. I called him while I was in Vermont to ask what his office hours were and he told me that he’d be in Tuesday and Thursday from 1-3. I said I would try to stop by on Tuesday, but that didn’t work out. Unfortunately when we went on Thursday he wasn’t in and the hours posted on his door were different. ::sigh:: I did get Pippa a really cute SCSU onesie and a t-shirt that won’t fit her until probably next year, but I liked it, so there.

After I dropped Lisette and Lily back home, I went down to Norwalk and the aquarium again. Lisa showed Pippa off a bit more, I got a bottle in her and then we all went off to the Colony in Fairfield. The Colony is a bar in Stamford that serves a really good thin-crust pizza. Alan’s entire family has been going for ages, but the one in Stamford is small, crowded, and has ridiculously slow service and very little parking. Yeah, the pizza is great, but it’s not often worth the headache of getting it. They’ve been doing well enough that they opened a place in Fairfield, one in Avon, and they’re working on putting one in the old Harrison’s hardware store on the green in Milford. It makes for a much nicer experience. And best of all we got to surprise Rich and Kathy. Lisa didn’t tell them we were in Connecticut – just suggested meeting up for pizza, then had me sit with Pippa in the booth with my back to the door (very high-backed booths) so they had to come all the way in before they saw us. It was fun and Kathy reacted with exactly the level of extreme excitement we expected. We didn’t get to linger too long over dinner, since it was a VERY long day for a very small person and she was a bit overwrought. Then back up to Waterbury and to bed.

Pippa has turned out to be a pretty good traveler. She doesn’t like the Pack n’ Play much – I think because it’s smaller and there’s a barrier between us. She took much longer than normal to settle down to sleep, fussed more, and didn’t sleep as well. But who really sleeps well in a strange bed? She did tend to be a bit fussier throughout the day than she normally is and she was much clingier, but it was a change. I must say that she’s a good little flier. Of the four flights we were on, the only one she didn’t do well on was the last. I think it had a lot to do with our seatmates. They weren’t quite as friendly and susceptible to Pippa’s charms as on the other flights. The pressure changes didn’t seem to phase her in the least, so that’s always a good thing. She didn’t like eating on the plane much, but that has more to do with her recent picky-ness about the temperature of her bottles. Room temperature is just not acceptable these days.

We’re both very glad to be home. Pippa was thrilled to see her kitties again. Once she finished her bottle, all residual fussiness from the flight  and car ride just vanished. She didn’t utter an unhappy peep again for almost 24 hours. Seriously. Nothing but giggles and babbling. And today she decided that she had enough of me holding her on our trip and has spent most of the day playing on the floor or in her jumper, perfectly content. I wish everyone who saw any hint of unhappy baby while we were visiting could come spy on her while we’re at home, especially Zach, who I think was hurt that she cried when he talked to her. Pour Zach.

So after we got home, I felt kind of bad that I’d told Rosso that I would come on Tuesday and then never showed up. So I sent him an email to his school address just saying that I was sorry to have missed him and did he even remember me after 6 years? Well, much to my surprise and delight, he emailed me back saying that of course he remembered me and he was sorry he wasn’t there. He also gave me his real email address and asked me to let him know what I was up to. Is it sad that I’m stupid-happy about that? Gah! I’m so pathetic to have a crush on a guy 30 years my senior when I haven’t even seen him in 6 years. Still, I am glad that I was able to sort of reconnect with him. Maybe this way is better anyway. I just have to keep reminding myself not to fantasize about a flurry of increasingly flirtatious emails developing into phone calls followed by an invitation to dinner sans spouses when I come back in December. I have too active an imagination. Sometimes a rich fantasy life only leads to disappointment. LOL

It’s been quite the weekend for reconnecting all around, actually. I was on Yelp, writing a review of a restaurant I went to with my parents when I noticed that one reviewer was from Rowayton and looked really familiar. So I sent her a message and it turns out that she’s exactly who I thought she was – a girl I met at Vassar during a summer program when I was in middle school. So now I’m catching up with her a bit. Very odd.

Anyway, we’ve got a somewhat relaxed, yet enjoyable week ahead of us. Tomorrow I have an appointment with Dr. Huzij, so that’s good. I also have to go to Ikea to get a dresser because mine decided to stop holding my clothes and just let them fall out the bottoms of the drawers. Not all that useful. I didn’t like the ones at Target and they weren’t cheap enough to compensate for that or I wouldn’t be driving up to Denver. If I’m going to spend the money, I might as well get something I like. Tuesday I’m going shopping with Cassie and her friend, Amy, and on Friday we have an appointment with Dr. Rocco. So there is much good in my little world at the moment.

~Liz