A Backsplash and a Milestone

We got home late Saturday night…close to midnight. The fair was a blast…the five and half hours we spent there went by in a flash. Kaelyn was so excited to see the bright flashing lights and get all the attention from random vendors and patrons, that getting her to sleep was nearly impossible. Because she missed two naps (didn’t sleep for more than 15 minutes after the West Point party), I was certain that she would fall asleep on the way home and be completely out of it by the time we arrived.


Wrong.

She was still wide awake. So much so, that I accused Roger of sneaking her some funnel cake and sugar. He denied it. (I don’t believe him). Luckily, she didn’t put up a fuss when we finally got her in bed and I passed out about 30 seconds later (and wouldn’t have heard her if she did).

I didn’t expect to do much of anything on Sunday. Kaelyn gave us an extra, extremely blissful, hour of sleep in the morning and as I was feeding her, I thought…”I’ll do nothing, today. That sounds so good.” So, imagine my surprise, when during breakfast, I turn to Roger and say “After you get back from collecting rent, we should go to Lowe’s and get tile for a backsplash.”

I don’t know what made me say that. I’ve said similar things for years. When we expanded our kitchen I said, “We might as well install a backsplash while we’re working in here.” When we tiled the fireplace in the backyard, “Since you’re tiling, we should just go into the kitchen and put up a backsplash.” As he’s been working on a kitchen remodel at work, “If you need more practice with tiling, you can put up a backsplash in our kitchen first” Any of the million times we’re walking through Home Depot or Lowes, “Hey, let’s go look at the tile…we need a backsplash.”

So maybe Roger just got tired of me asking, maybe he was bored, or maybe he just finally got the hint , but he surprised the heck out of me when he just kind of shrugged his shoulders and said “Sure, why not? But you have to make me orange chicken just like at PF Chang’s for dinner.” Deal! How come I never thought of bribing him with orange chicken before?

Fast forward a little bit, the backsplash is looking great! The chicken was delicious and we should have a completed backsplash, grout and all, by Tuesday night!

……………………………….

While Roger was out collecting rent, I decided to clean out Kaelyn’s closet to make room for her shelves. I wanted to bring the table and chairs inside…the set is way too beautiful to be sitting in our garage and the shelves were just in the way. I had Kaelyn playing in her crib while I was working, but she was so interested in what I was doing, that she didn’t play at all…just watched me intently. I would look over at her every so often to make sure she was ok and noticed several times that she was straining to see over the top railing. Moments later, she had pulled herself up to standing position! She’s been standing for a while now, but this was the first time I noticed her pull herself up. And of course, once again, I didn’t have the camera to record it. I suck at foretelling the future…even though I did manage to get nightmarish glimpses of her trying to climb over the railing and falling on out of her crib. Roger lowered the mattress to make that less possible and I felt a little better.

Funny how the joys of watching your baby learn something new is quickly replaced with the paralyzing fear that this skill will somehow manage to kill her.

Roger thinks I’m crazy.

He’s probably right.