So, this weekend, Scott and I went to a hotel for one night and left Lily with her Nana and Gump. We took her out to my parents’ place right after lunch so she would sleep in the car and then have some play time with us before we had to leave. She woke up just before we arrived and was pretty groggy for the first little while – she didn’t really want anything to do with her Nana or her Gump. But, we found her some blocks and she found some crayons and she warmed up to them pretty quickly. When Scott and I finally decided it was time to leave, she was not a happy camper. She didn’t cry A LOT, she just had this look on her face like we had broken her heart. I teared up a bit as we left.
When we got to the hotel the first thing I did was go up to the room and call my parents to see how she was doing. They told me that they had taken her for a walk, she was waving at all the cars that went by, she got to pet a puppy, and she even asked to be picked up. She was playing happily, didn’t really care that I was on the phone. So, Scott and I went to the pool. We walked into the pool where there were a couple of families in swimming. One of the families had a little girl who was not much older than Lily. It made me miss her even more! They were playing with her in the same way that we play with Lily when we take her to the pool. But then, Scott and I started throwing a beach ball around and having some fun. Then we went back up to the room to shower before our dinner.
We went to the fancy restaurant in the hotel. It was lovely. I felt SOOOOOO out of place. They kept bringing us small little palette cleansers between the courses. It was really nice, but so not us! The food was DELICIOUS! And it looked nice, too. After dinner, I called again to see how Lily did with bed time. Dad told me that she fussed a bit, but they just read her a couple more books and she went right back to sleep. It made me feel much better knowing that she went to sleep okay without her regular routine – some parts of her routine just can’t go with her. Then we went to a movie, a late movie, because we could! We went to see Pacific Rim. It made me think about Lily because *spoiler alert* one of the main characters flashes back to her childhood and the fear on her face is unbearable. All I could think was, ‘I never want Lily to ever feel like that!’ But, what can I do? I will never be able to protect her from EVERYTHING! That thought was the worst of all, knowing that there are SOOOOOO many things that I can’t protect her from and that one day something beyond my control could make her feel just like that! But, I sucked it up and watched the whole movie, tried to push those thoughts out of my mind.
After the movie, it was after 11pm, I rarely stay up that late, let alone am out that late. But, we had a nice leisurely walk back to the hotel. We got back and watched some tv, which was exciting all in itself because we don’t have cable, so we got to watch commercials, and random shows that we would never otherwise watch. Then we went to sleep, and in the morning, I woke up, to no screaming! It was so peaceful. It WAS 7:30am, but it was peaceful, I was able to just lay in bed and not have to run after Lily or try to keep her out of the room or try to make her breakfast while she throws a tantrum over wanting a bottle and not a cup. We went for lunch and I went back to the pool, also very peaceful, not many people in the pool in the morning. Then we slowly got showered and ready to go while we watched some tv and we left a little early because we both missed our little girl!
When we got to my parents’ house they weren’t home. We waited for them to come back after they ate lunch. Lily was asleep when they got back, we laid her in the bed (not the play pen) and she slept for at least an hour, and would have slept for more, I am sure. She got up, still half asleep and cuddled with me for a bit, which was nice. Then as she woke up she got to playing and eating and all the other things she loves to do. We had some supper with Nana and Gump, Lily had corn on the cob cut off the cob for the first time. After supper we stayed for just a little while longer, then when we told Lily it was time to go she did not want to leave. When we did finally get her out the door, I asked Scott to move the car so I could get her into the car easier, she started freaking out when he got in the car and started driving. It made me sad, but happy that she did, in fact, want to go home.