Grumpy baby??

Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Today Little Princesses’ mommy had more CPE classes so Granddaddy and I went over to keep Little Princess. She was asleep when we got there and mommy left without any problems. Until she woke from her nap. I went in immediately to let her know we were there. Earlier her mommy had called and asked me to speak to her over the phone. I told her we were coming later to see her, after she had a nap. According to her mommy before she called me she had told The Little Princess we were coming to keep her. She said she went over to the door as if she thought we were coming then and she was keeping watch for us. Wasn’t that sweet?


Back to the grumpy baby…I went in and spoke to her just like I always do, walked over to the bed and started to get her out. She has her paci in her hand and steps over to the back side of the bed and starts to drop her paci overboard. Oh yeah, I am onto that girl! I talked her into leaving it in the bed with bunny and teddy and whoever else was occupying real estate at that particular moment. She begged to differ with me. She didn’t like my suggestion at all.

Oh, and I had also mentioned to her right after that, that her mommy would be back later In the afternoon, we would be staying with her until then. Apparently that didn’t set too well with her either. I didn’t know if she was most upset by my suggestion that she leave her paci behind or the nerve I had to tell her that her mommy was missing. Whatever it was, it brought on a downpour of pitiful tears…real, honest to goodness tears, streaming down her little face, along with quite a bit of howling.

I picked her up to hold her and talk to her and love her for a few minutes and she started again. She pointed to the corner to a basket where her mommy had recently relocated a few of her many toys because the Christmas tree was occupying some of her previously claimed space.

I asked her to tell me or show me what was troubling her little soul. I put her on the floor and sent her on her way. She walked over to the basket and screamed again. She was looking for something but I really had no clue what it was. There lay Carly, the Newborn Cabbage Patch Kid doll Aunt Katie and Uncle Ken had given her for her first birthday, she poked around and pulled out a plastic cottage cheese box her mother had used to store some of her little critters and people in, then the empty diaper wipe container came out (also filled this time with more little critters and people). We opened the boxes and played a little while until she got in a better mood.

She has this thing about wanting to play with her box of bathtub toys when I’m around. Those entertain her for a long time, so that was also a toy of choice. Then she decided something else was missing. She headed into mommy and daddy’s room, around the bed and over to the night stand. She thinks there’s something in there for her to play with, but since I didn’t think mommy wanted her in it, I told her she didn’t need to play there. Well, another gush of tears. Don’t tell me “NO, Grandmomma!” But she was finally distracted enough to go back and play a while in her room. (Oh, and Mommy would tell me later that it was just fine for her to play in the nightstand!)

Sometime during all that playing around, her music was still playing in the CD player. She began to dance to the music and do her little back step thing that her mommy has already written about. And she laughed. She thought that was so funny.

Oh, and thank you, Granddaddy for being so helpful while she was screaming so much. Granddaddy decided to stay out of the dispute by remaining in the recliner in the living room, while I’m trying to deal with a spoiled rotten little Princess. No, he doesn’t like being the bad guy, so he just lays low.

We played for a while and then got her hair all prettied up, got her into her Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes and then it was on to eat at Picadilly’s again this week. She’s always a pretty good eater there, like I said earlier. Mommy had left this cute little sweater for me to put on her with directions to put on a onsie under it to make it more comfortable and not so scratchy. Which is what I did. I’m pretty good at following directions most of the time, when I want to.

So, when she was all dressed and primped up we asked her if she wanted to go eat at the cafeteria. Yep, she was at the door immediately, just as though she knew what we had meant. We let her walk to the car holding on to my hand. Granddaddy opened the door and she stood by the car at the door as though she would crawl or climb right into the car by herself and into her car seat if we let her. She was so cute. Our car isn’t as tall as her mommy’s so it would be much easier for her to get into ours. Anyway, we got all fastened in and ready to go eat. Our usual ritual--get her out, struggle with the high chair cover, get her feet to fit into the holes of both the cover and high chair at precisely the right moment, then on to pick out our food. We're getting better at it, I have to tell you. I said better, not perfect!

She enjoyed her meal just as she did last week, only this time she didn’t pig out quite as much. I had ordered a bran muffin or carrot muffin, or whatever muffin, just not the blueberry muffin they rang it up as, and I decided to see if she wanted it. Sometimes now if she doesn’t want a particular food that little head will go defiantly from side to side in a “no” manner. But she did decide to finally try the muffin. She probably ate maybe a fourth of it and she really did enjoy it. I had packed in a Clementine orange and gave that to her to finish her meal.

I forgot to mention this last week, but again this week, when she was all finished, it sounded like she said, “all done” and proceeded to remove her bib and then take up the little plastic diner’s mat I had brought along and roll it up. Granddaddy said she had seen her mommy do this and was just copying her. She was packing it up to get it out of her way. She was all done-finished!

She always requires at least three or four diaper wipes to clean her up after we take her out. And no, Mommy, those were my diaper wipes, thank you, and you don’t get to take them out of her college funds!

We were there probably close to an hour and a half counting going and coming time. By the time we pick up things from the floor, wipe her hands and face, help her put food on her spoon, feed her by hand other times, etc. it takes a long time to eat out. I was really surprised because it didn’t seem like we had been gone that long.
When we got back to her house her Mommy was waiting for us. And she hadn’t even called the first time while she was gone.

Little Princess was very proud to see her mommy once again. The first thing her mother did was criticize the way Grandmomma had dressed her baby. I had put on exactly what she had laid out for me, so if it was mismatched, that certainly wasn’t my fault! No, she dared criticize that the buttons were in the front on her sweater…and the pockets were in the back! Well, how was I supposed to know how her clothes go. Have you seen that kid’s wardrobe lately? I guess she’s just going to have to learn to talk if she wants to be dressed stylishly when I come over! Or learn to dress herself.

She continued about her play, once Mommy had rearranged her clothes. (I really didn’t see all that much of a problem with it myself. I thought she looked just fine the way she was.) Into the kitchen to play in the drawer with the cereal and stuff and then into the office to pull out the markers from the bottom drawer. The thing that was funny to me was she had left a big black marker out on a box and she went right back to it later, opened the bottom drawer she had removed it from and put it up again! Now, how smart is that?

We could tell she was getting very tired and one of us asked her if she wanted to take her nap. She went straight to her room for her paci. Yep, she was ready alright. Granddaddy was talking on the cell phone when we went into the kitchen for The Little Princess to tell him bye-bye. She walked right over, grabbed his legs and gave him the sweetest little hug. He was so proud. Then I pouted because she hadn’t done that to me. She left him and came over and hugged my legs. Have I told you how sweet that Little Princess is?