Could be worse*...

Well, last week I did pretty well at getting out of the house. We've been struggling with a couple little issues (well, they seem little now that they are resolving, they didn't seem little at the time) so it was great to spend the afternoon at a friend's house. She has a 2-year-old and an 8-month-old so she did her best to remind me that "this too shall pass" and that Lucy was doing fine. It is always easier to believe that when it's a mom just a little in front of you telling you. That was the first time Lucy and I had driven anywhere by ourselves and she did pretty well. She didn't sleep on either trip so I spent the whole time worried that she would start crying but she didn't. If she starts crying in the car, she has a habit of working herself up so fast that before we can pull over she starts gagging and spitting up more milk than I would think could even fit in her stomach so I don't feel like I'm being overly dramatic about worrying although I'm not sure Craig would agree with me.

But since that was a success, I decided to venture into "the city" to go to a nursing mom's group at Kangaroo Kids. She started fussing but I put on her favorite CD (Tom Chapin) and started singing along to Gertie's Bird Seed Diner and she stopped and quickly fell asleep.

I had a great time there and was encouraged to hear all the other moms say that their babies all only took cat naps until about 3-4 months so not to worry about that. And we talked about everything from nursing issues and what to do about vaccines to pacifiers and why, based on the size of their onesies, Gerber thinks 9-month-old babies are still only 12lbs.

I was expecting to only stay about an hour but over two hours later most of us were still there chatting away. That is about when we all started to smell something. The lactation consultant running the group starting looking around and went to check out the back room before she called out "Fire, Fire, everyone out of the building!" I don't think I've ever moved so fast in my life. There were about 20 moms with about 20 babies (funny how it works out that way) plus a couple toddlers and we all managed to get out pretty quickly. No one was ever in real danger, but boy were our hearts beating fast. They got it out pretty quickly and in a few more minutes the fire trucks starting arriving. Apparently it wasn't a very busy day for the local fire departments because I do believe that three different towns sent men. I had been in the middle of feeding Lucy and I knew if I finished she would fall asleep so you can add "standing in the middle of a parking lot surrounded by firetrucks" to the list of places I have now fed Lucy. After a few minutes, things calmed down and we all started heading home. I was pretty lucky, my car was one of the few not blocked in by the trucks so we didn't have to wait like most of the other moms. I'd like to think that I shouldn't worry about taking any more trips because nothing worse could happen, but that seems to be tempting fate so I won't.

But was that the worst thing that happened that day at the group? Not really. The worst thing was that I saw "Sophie" and am now smitten. But do I want to spend $18 on a teether, even if it is "the World's Most Famous Teething Toy?" Last Christmas, when parents were running around trying to find an electronic hamster, I swore I would never do that. But this is even worse because it's not like Lucy even knows what that she is missing out on. But I want her to have one. Is it because I think she would like it (with its chewable nubby feet made out of natural rubber, easy to grasp neck and stimulating contrasting spots) or it is just a status thing? I don't know, but Babies R'Us is out of stock so I can think about it. I am willing to admit that I'm on the email list for when it is restocked but I have a gift card and if I didn't have the gift card I wouldn't be buying it. At least that is my story and I'm sticking to it!

*Do any of you remember that book?