What a good day, yesterday. We got up and went to the Y for baby swim class, and we all got in the pool, and Ingrid LOOOOVED it. Dave was the sole dad, and the plan is for him to do swim class while I workout in the gym, but for the next few weeks, we’ll all go as a family, because he’s a little uncomfortable being the only guy. Which is fine, it was a good time, and good family time, so I’m cool with it. Ingrid LOVED it, only part she didn’t really dig was trying to float on her back, she got rigid and stuck her legs in the air, but even then, she sort of relaxed more by the end of the song. When the instructor set a ton of little plastic balls afloat, she got excited and started saying "Bubbles! Bubbles!" She loves her some bubbles.
Swim tapped her right out, and she took a nap while Dave went and shot with Tom, and then we got ready for the second part of our day — Ingrid visits Aunt Julie and Uncle Woody and Mama and Daddy LEAVE TOWN, OMG.
I mean, we didn’t go too far, but it was the first time we’ve left her in 6 months or so, at someone else’s house, and the first time we’ve left her with a pack n play and jammies, for someone else to put her to bed. We don’t have an elaborate bedtime routine, or blackout shades, or white noise requirements, and I think that that probably helps for sleeping flexibility, but still. First time. AND, we were going to be way out in the country, like an hour away, AND not with our own car — Matt and Sara were picking us up. And the last time she was there, she was a potted plant, and now she’s walking, they aren’t childproofed (and I wouldn’t expect them to be) so it was going to be different… Dave was especially nervous, even turned down the wrong street on the way to his sister’s house, but she was happy when we left, so we just assumed everything was fine, unless otherwise stated.
Matt and Sara picked us up, we drove out to their coworker/friend’s house for a barbecue and horseshoes, and when a sudden downpour chased us inside, we packed up and went bowling. Bowling! I was so excited. I haven’t bowled in YEARS, but it used to be part of our gym class in elementary school, we walked across the ballfield to the bottle club/bowling alley and bowled candlepin, and then when I was in junior high/high school, the reservation opened up a tenpin lane, and we’d go oh, maybe once or twice a month in winter, and my mom was even on a league there, but then they paved over the lanes and the pool to make more room for bingo, and that sucked. Other than, I think I might have gone bowling in Phoenix once, but that’s pretty much it. I’ve been telling Dave for all 7 years of our relationship "Let’s go booowwwwlling sometime!" and we never have (I think of it everytime I go to his workplace, as it’s literally right next door to an alley) because Dave’s never bowled before. So, I was REALLY STOKED to go bowling last night, and I think Dave even had a good time, too! I mean, I know he did, since he said he’d go again. Even if his method is a little rough, ie: totally just side-chucking the ball down the lane. Anyway.
When we picked up Ingrid, she was sound asleep in the PnP, and all reports were that she was totally fine, totally charming, so "goood!" and that they played chase and blocks and read lots of stories and ate dinner and had a grand time. And, as compared to the other grandnephews and niece, she was TONS better, and my SIL was saying "maybe because she’s a girl, and they are boys? But then there’s E…" and really, I don’t know why my kid is so chill, but I really feel like that whole strong attachment fosters strong independence thing is part of it, and also that she comes from two very laid back parents, as well. Who knows. I’m just glad she had no problems with any of it.
The other thing that was nice about yesterday, was seeing again what a great husband I have. I mean, yeah, he might make questionable purchases from magazine salesmen, but he is such a great person. At swim class, he didn’t hold back, despite being a little uncomfortable at his only-dudedom, because, when it comes to Ingrid, he gives 100%, nerves be damned. He’s such a quiet, reserved person* that it’s cool to see how Ingrid totally opens him up. When we went to his coworkers house, he walked right in and said hi to his friend and wife, and then got right down on the floor with the 6 month old and started playing peekaboo. Ingrid has made him really love babies, not just his own, but now he ‘gets’ what babies and children mean to everyone else. For growing up without a dad, he really has found his own way, and it’s a great one.
*He’s reserved, but he’s also got a wicked funny, but dry and black, sense of humor. He was in a little town an hour north or so, for work, and driving the station van, and some local yokel stopped him and started going off about the "cute new weathergirl," which makes no sense, because there is no weathergirl at his station. So the guy, who was not the sharpest tool in the shed, asked if she was in the car, and Dave said "Yep, in several different trash bags in the trunk." The guy wasn’t bright enough to, you know, either get the joke or call the cops, but still. DAVE! You can’t say that shit to people on the street. Heh.