Grandma Sheila found a play group that I/she/we can take Olivia to on Tuesdays and Thursdays for a couple of hours. It is great because Olivia gets to run around with kids, not necessarily her age, but her size. It is definitely an interesting culture. I know that this is only the second week and the kids are young, but it was interesting to watch how none of the kids played together and very few parents actually had a conversation while they hovered around their child. Including me! Stay at home mom's club? I wish I had grabbed a coffee before hand like most of them :-) here are two pictures that I snapped of Olivia playing today.
It is a great opportunity to test out different toys and see what she is actually entertained by before buying them all. It is also great to watching her watch the other children play. She gets so excited!
We were also able to see daddy this week and went up to see grandpa and grandma Atwater. It was a short but good visit. Olivia got to meet great-aunt Myrna for the first time, and got to see aunt Karmen, uncle Craig, and cousin Sydney.
We stayed the night so that we could have a little more time with grandpa and grandma. We put Olivia to sleep in grandma's sewing room because there was not enough room in the bedroom we slept in. Olivia woke up around 11:30 p.m. and started crying. I got up and went to feed her so that I could put her back down. While I was bouncing her, I got a strange feeling and a flood of thoughts. The thoughts started with something that my brother Jon says. He says at times when a baby cries, it is because whatever he/she is experiencing, it is the worst thing that they have ever experienced. That may or may not be the case, but they are so young that they really have not had very many experiences. It makes sense to me. Then I started thinking about how scary it must be for her to keep waking up in different places and not really knowing where she is. We have been in transition for close to a month now and it has been challenging. I cannot imagine what it would be like to wake up and have no idea where you are. It made me a little sad. Then I started thinking about other children who wake up and have no idea where they are... what about the children who are taken and put in the foster care system? What about the children who are kidnapped? It made me cry. I cried for all of the children who have to go through this experience. I have always had a passion for working with children but after becoming a mom, I see things quite differently. I don't like seeing my baby sad, for any reason.... even when she is in trouble. It made me think about what the love of a parent to a child looks like. It made me think about parents who don't care about their child/children. And on and on the thoughts came. I tried to go back to sleep but couldn't. It didn't help that Mike was snoring! All I wanted to do was pick Olivia up and cuddle. I decided that was a bad idea and instead slept on the floor next to the pack-and-play until she woke up again.
The last couple of nights have been rough for us. I think that she caught whatever I have. Despite waking up multiple times every night, our baby girl always wakes up with a smile on her face :-)
We stayed the night so that we could have a little more time with grandpa and grandma. We put Olivia to sleep in grandma's sewing room because there was not enough room in the bedroom we slept in. Olivia woke up around 11:30 p.m. and started crying. I got up and went to feed her so that I could put her back down. While I was bouncing her, I got a strange feeling and a flood of thoughts. The thoughts started with something that my brother Jon says. He says at times when a baby cries, it is because whatever he/she is experiencing, it is the worst thing that they have ever experienced. That may or may not be the case, but they are so young that they really have not had very many experiences. It makes sense to me. Then I started thinking about how scary it must be for her to keep waking up in different places and not really knowing where she is. We have been in transition for close to a month now and it has been challenging. I cannot imagine what it would be like to wake up and have no idea where you are. It made me a little sad. Then I started thinking about other children who wake up and have no idea where they are... what about the children who are taken and put in the foster care system? What about the children who are kidnapped? It made me cry. I cried for all of the children who have to go through this experience. I have always had a passion for working with children but after becoming a mom, I see things quite differently. I don't like seeing my baby sad, for any reason.... even when she is in trouble. It made me think about what the love of a parent to a child looks like. It made me think about parents who don't care about their child/children. And on and on the thoughts came. I tried to go back to sleep but couldn't. It didn't help that Mike was snoring! All I wanted to do was pick Olivia up and cuddle. I decided that was a bad idea and instead slept on the floor next to the pack-and-play until she woke up again.
The last couple of nights have been rough for us. I think that she caught whatever I have. Despite waking up multiple times every night, our baby girl always wakes up with a smile on her face :-)
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