Day Thirty-Six: Misadventures

It was an early start to the week for the Lovejoy-Fordhams. Tom worked another eleven-hour day, and LB and I were off on our own little adventure early this morning. Tina, one of the administrative assistants in the English department, had offered several times to babysit LB. She adores kids but doesn't have any of her own, and she has babysat for other people in the department. We thought we'd try it out today. The plan was that I would drop LB off at about 8:30 AM, go to write at a nearby coffee shop for a couple of hours, and then come to retrieve her around 11 AM for her midday nap. We were both concerned about how I'd sneak off, but Tina distracted her with the birdbath while I easily tiptoed away.

I was happily moving words around when I got a call from Tina at about 9:45, letting me know that I was being missed too much. I could hear LB screaming at the top of her healthy lungs in the background. I rushed back to Tina's, to find the wee sooky with the biggest frown in the world on her face. Needless to say, once she was back in Mama's arms, she was a perfect little dear and even gave Tina a few of her raised-fist salutes just to let her auntie know that there were no hard feelings. As we were leaving Tina's, we stopped to admire the camillia shrub by her front door, and Tina broke us off a branch of the bright red flowers. We decided we'd try again in a few months.

This was the third time LB was babysat by someone else at somewhere other than our house--all with the same results. She's usually good for the first half hour or so, but once she realizes A) that Mama, Papa, or G is not around and B) that she's not at her own house, there is no end to her misery.

On the plus side, all the crying must have worn her out because she had a 2 1/2 hour nap, and so I was able to get a little more work done.

After she woke up, we went to the grocery store, and I finally took my camera along! I've been wanting to take a picture of her in a shopping cart for a while, so here it is. She's a great little shopping companion. She loves riding in the cart. She likes to watch me put stuff in it (and she usually has a comment about each item), she likes to look up and see the bright lights in the store, and she likes to growl or squeal at people as they walk by. She usually makes at least one friend.