Better Late Than Never

Phew!  It's been quite a week and I'm a couple of days behind in getting this post written, but I finally have time on this Saturday afternoon.  I'll pick up with last Thursday.  Thursdays we usually have dinner with April, Jason, and Ivy, usually at their house since Ivy is 5 months old (today, in fact) and it's much easier for them if we go over there than for them to come here.  Evie enjoys seeing Jason and April and particularly has fun playing with Ivy.  She can say all of their names, and comes up to Ivy if she is talking and talks back to her.  She'll also ask about the "bay-bee" if Ivy is crying.  Evie loves playing with their dog, Peanut, who is a dachshund/beagle mix and very good with her.  This past Thursday Evie was found a new perch at April and Jason's house, on the back of their sectional where she could look out the window.  At one point she asked, "ChuuChu?" as though wherever there is a window looking into a yard, our dogs must be there somewhere.

Fridays I usually get up a little earlier and make muffins before we all start our day.  It's so easy to just throw them in the oven and it makes for a nice end of the work week.  Evie loves muffins and will often eat 2 before going to school.  She calls them "muh muh" (/mʌʔmə/).

 

Last Saturday our friends Cristaldawn and Matthew were on their way back from Florida and stopped by our house for a few hours.  We went to lunch at Bellacino's and I was very impressed that Evie was willing to walk with Matt and Cristal from the drink station to a table while Seth and I were still ordering at the cash register.  She even let Cristal put her in a chair and she sat there patiently until we got to the table.  After lunch we went back home and let Evie have a nap while the four of us played Ticket to Ride Netherlands, and when Evie got up we took her to the drop-in daycare while we went to see a movie.  It turns out that may have been a big mistake, but I'll explain later.  Evie was crying pretty hard when we dropped her off, but when we came back, we could see her through the window sliding on their indoor fort/slide equipment and having a blast with a couple of older kids.  She didn't want to leave!

Sunday we had a chill day around the house in the morning.  Evie was feeling particularly mischievous and climbed into a corner cabinet from which it was practically impossible to extricate her.  I was impressed too because I saw her open the cabinet door, climb over the stand mixer by straddling over it like it was a pommel horse or something, and then up onto the shelf.  She thought she had gotten away with it too until I snapped a surprise photo.

During her naptime we installed her new second carseat for Seth's car and which we also wanted to have for a week from now when she goes to stay with Granna and Grannadaddy while Seth and I go to California.  When she woke up, we decided to test it out and took her to the park since it was such a nice day.  (This may also have been a big mistake - more on that later).  She had such a great time, and was willing to do more than just the slide this time, though she spent plenty of time on that too.  The park was more crowded and there were lots of people there with their dogs.  Evie charmed this cute older couple who were there with their little wire-haired terrier.  She started walking over to them, so we followed and asked if we could pet the doggie, and Evie piped up with, "Woof Woof?"  So we spent some time petting the dog before we went back to the slide.  Evie stayed very interested in their dog until they left the bench they had been sitting on and then she got concerned that the woof woof was going away.

Later that night, Evie really enjoyed playing in the bathtub.

 

So, Monday was a typical day for Evie and me, just school and work.  Seth's work instituted mandatory overtime for all their employees for at least the next month, starting that week, without any prior warning.  This was the worst week for them to do that because I had taken a contract to do an event for the NCAA Women's Final Four welcome show/concert at the Ryman Auditorium and I was going to be in rehearsal on Wednesday and Thursday with the show on Friday and wouldn't be able to pick Evie up.  So there was no way Seth was going to be able to work an extra 8 hours this week because he had to leave work at 5:00pm at the very latest to get Evie from daycare before they closed.  But she usually gets picked up at 4:00, so having her there til 6:00 would have been hard.  Fortunately his boss is a basketball fan and when Seth told him what I was working on and why he couldn't stay this week, he was very accommodating.

On Tuesday, I got a text at lunch time from Evie's morning teacher that she had a fever of 100.5 and that if it got to 101 she would have to be picked up.  Of course, after nap time, Evie's temperature was 101.2.  Again, the worst week for her to get sick.  This is where I'm saying maybe we shouldn't have taken her to the drop-in daycare or the park so that she could get exposed to so many germs.  Not that I'm a germ-a-phobe, but this was the one week we were already having to rearrange things to make work and having a sick child was not helping.  So I got her from daycare and let Seth know that we would have to make some other arrangements for Wednesday because Evie can't go back to daycare until she's 24 hours fever free.

Fortunately Seth's boss worked it out so that he could have Wednesday off and Seth had the foresight to request Thursday off too just in case.  Thank goodness he did because Evie still had a fever on Wednesday and Thursday.  Friday, though, the day of my event, Seth had to go back in to work, so Granna, the saint that she is, drove up to Nashville on Thursday night after her event and got in around 11:30pm so that she could watch Evie for us on Friday.  Seth had to go in early, so he was gone by 6:00 am, and I was going to leave at 7:15.  I was really hoping Evie would get up in time for me to see her before I left because the two days prior I had only seen her for a couple of hours in the morning.  She did get up right around 7 so Granna and I went to get her and get her changed and ready for the morning.  She was sitting on Granna's lap when I started getting my things together to leave and then she started crying, "Mama!"  I gave her a hug and she snuggled in close.  I could tell she didn't want me to go, and it was all I could do to keep from crying myself.  But she went back to Granna without fuss when I had to go, and the two of them had a great day.  And this is why I don't do theatre stuff anymore.  It was a fun one-off, but it didn't make me wish I'd stuck with it.  I'd much rather be with sweet Evie any day than be a stage manager without her.