Blue let me sleep in for an extra hour, which was an absolute luxury. He did a wee bit more childcare than normal throughout the day, which gave me more of a chance to relax and not be so jumpy. (Yes, I�m jumpy. I�m a slave to a 5 month old baby � she wants, she gets. Delayed gratification doesn�t start for another month or two �)

I asked for �no gifts, just let me sleep in,� and I got � gifts! And sleeping in! So there you go. Blue rocks. He gave me a bottle of Tiffany�s signature perfume (which I had never smelled before but is actually quite nice). He also gave me a really hefty Tiffany�s gift certificate so I could pick out some jewelry for myself. Wow! What fun! So we went over to Tiff�s in the afternoon and I picked out a cute necklace and bracelet. And had a chunk of money left over to spend on a rainy day, too!

We took Baby Catnip for her first swim in the pool. Her swim diaper fit perfectly, and she seemed to enjoy the pool. She didn�t quite know what to expect, but she got the hang of things. She even did a ton of splashing around! (She didn�t quite understand cause-and-effect of the splashing, though, and her face clouded over with confusion every time she splashed water on herself. Too funny.)

Right now my child is (thankfully) sleeping in her swing. She did a half hour nap in her crib and then woke up crying. I knew it wasn�t enough, but what�s a mom to do? You can lead a baby to the crib but you can�t make her nap. So I plunked her in her swing and by the grace of God she drifted off and is now in slumberland. Which is good, because she didn�t sleep well last night and she is exhausted. I was worrying about making it to 8pm tonight � bedtime.

** added later **

She didn�t make it to 8pm. She made it to 7pm. She drained my right breast and fell dead asleep. I tried to wake her up but she wouldn�t have anything to do with being awake � so I put her down in the crib and I�m back in the living room.

I�m wondering when the other shoe is going to drop; that is, when she�s going to be awake. Will she be up and partying in the middle of the night because she went to bed an hour early? Or will she be wide freaking awake at 6am tomorrow as a trade-off (we normally make it to at least 7am)?

Gaah.

Blue and I are traveling with Baby Catnip on Thursday to go visit his family. They live in the Middle of Nowhere, in the Middle of the Midwest.

I like his family fine. I�m just none too pleased that our first trip as a family will be to go to the middle of nowhere. I was just hoping that if I had to deal with a cranky baby on airplanes for a day that I could have, you know, a trip to Hawaii or something in exchange.

There will probably be no updates until sometime next week. I can�t imagine I�ll have time in the middle of nowhere with a cranky baby to update my journal. I imagine that the Lucy Dog and Pony Show, Traveling Edition, will be in full swing and I will be doing my darndest to keep my baby from being a crankypuss.