palm sunday

Happy Palm Sunday people. :)

I had a hard time falling asleep last night for no good reason, so I woke up groggy. Kyle was scheduled to get back from Baltimore around noon, so I was faced with the decision of whether or not I was brave enough to try to take Abby to church on my own.

I decided to go for it. I packed our bag with extra snacks, milk, books and toys. We even made it to church a bit early (that may be a first). Church started outside, which was good. We listened to the palm blessing part of the service and then the congregation makes a loop down the street and back up to the church. That kept Abby occupied and interested in things.

Then it was time for the service, and so the baby-wranglin' began. On the whole, Abby did fine. The thing is, if she gets upset that you're not letting her climb under a pew or telling her she *really* shouldn't be chewing on that lady's jacket - she just goes ballistic. I think she only disrupted the service..4...5 times? Like I was counting. I actually had several people comment on how well she did, because, you see friends, I had had forgotten when I decided to brave this service alone that the Palm Sunday Service is Really long. Well, ok, only about 20-25 mins longer than usual - but when you're pacifiying a toddler on your own, that is a loooong time.

Two funny things happened. During the readings, the priest said the phrase "and they cut off his ear" to which, Abby looked up and said " ear! ...uh-oh..." It was only loud enough for those directly around us to hear, but we all had a chuckle. Later in the service, the only thing that was keeping her happy was to let her wave a diaper in each hand. I dunno. She likes playing with the diapers. Whatever works, right? So as the offering basket was being passed by, I took it and before I could pass it, Abby quickly donated a diaper to the church. Really, she's just at that age where she loves putting things in things. So, here comes a big basket - let's put a diaper in it. Obviously, I took it out, but again, we got some laughter on the pew.

After the service - I was exhausted. I let Abby run around outside for a bit. I tried to get her to hold her palm branch, but she wouldn't play along...so this is the best I could do.

Abby (and I) got a nap after church while we waited for Kyle's plane, that had been delayed. He landed around 2:30 and we picked him up and decided to go have lunch together. In Conway, going to IHOP after church was a familiar routine, but we've never been up here. For whatever reason, it had been sounding good to me, so off we went. I hadn't fed Abby lunch yet (just her medicine), so we were all pretty hungry.

When we got out of the car, Kyle gave Abs a big hug and tossed her around in the air a few times, Abby was smiling, but seemed off. We went inside and were waiting for the waitress to bring us a high chair, and Abby, out of nowhere, projectile vomits all over Kyle and the floor. Welcome home, right?

We were completely taken by surprise. Luckily, Kyle had a suitcase in the car and went to change his shirt while the staff helped us clean up. Abby seemed to be feeling fine. I was a bit worried at first since Reese (our nanny's daughter) had a stomach bug last week. But, the more we thought about it, we figured it was probably having the medicine on an empty stomach and being tossed around. She's been fine since, but man, that was an unexpected experience for us all.

We actually enjoyed lunch after that.

Let's see, the rest of the day has been low key. A little tv, lots of playing with the child, dinner, cleaning, and now a little more tv before hitting the grind tomorrow. One thing's for sure, I'm happy to have my husband back home!