first mothers' day

We kind of celebrated last year, on the DL. We had known for one week that I was pregnant, but we had not told anyone yet. But anyway, this is my first real Mothers' Day, with a child recognized by the IRS.

 When I picked Nate up from daycare Friday, they gave me this mug! I love that they were able to get such a good happy picture of him. It makes me feel good knowing that he smiles for them.

The weekend was tiring, but great. Our very good friend Francis, from Kenya, has been in the US since January. He finally made it to central Texas. He was staying with another friend this weekend, and it just so happens that we live 30 miles from that friend. I don't have a good picture of Francis, but you may remember my story of sitting under a mango tree with a friend in Kenya. That was Francis. The picture below is our lunch from that day. Francis was wearing his favorite shirt: Manchester United.

Yesterday, Rodgers drove up to get Francis from his other friends' house. We hung out with him here for a while, then took him to Camp Tejas. He and Rodgers went to high school together, and David Jones taught them physics. Turns out David wasn't at Camp. But, we gave Francis a little tour, talked with some other friends, then visited Claire and James before coming home.

On the trip home, Nate became a different baby. He had been chomping my fingers a lot more this week. I thought perhaps teething is coming soon. I sat in the backseat with Nate for the trip, which was good. He chomped on my fingers a lot, then suddenly, wouldn't stop screaming. He isn't a screamer. He's such a content baby, especially in the car, especially if I'm sitting right there with him and he has a full tummy. I'm mostly positive that his mouth was hurting him. I had some Oragel swabs in his diaper bag, so I rubbed some on his gum, and he fell asleep very soon after.

We were to have dinner with the friends Francis is staying with, but Nate and I stayed home so that we could keep his bedtime, and just in case he got fussy again. He went to bed with no problem and slept from 7 pm to 6:15 am. Straight! He fussed at 4ish, but was already asleep again before Rodgers got to his room.

We went up to Francis' friends' church this morning because Francis was preaching. I put Nate in the nursery, as usual, but they had to come get me in the middle of the service, not as usual. I'd given him some [generic] Tylenol before we went up there, and it helped a lot. But it was wearing off, and it was too soon to have more. My charming-loves everyone-isn't clingy baby was a mess. I fed him and rocked him to sleep. He slept a long, long time.

We were invited to lunch with Francis & Co. but declined. I didn't know what (if anything) Rodgers had planned for my Mothers' Day lunch. His plan was to ask me what I wanted. We thought about trying a buffet, so that we wouldn't have to wait for food to be cooked, but there were no tables, people waiting outside. So I suggested we go to HEB and Rodgers buy something to cook me for lunch.

He did a great job!

And Nate kept sleeping.

 They gave me this beautiful, super soft, comfy robe for Mothers' Day. It's so much softer than my old one, and much newer, and not as gross.

When Nate woke up, he was fussy all afternoon. Rodgers had bought one of those audio greeting cards that let you record a message before the song (for my Happy Mothers' Day card). But he had not been able to get a good recording of Nate for me. He gave it to me anyway, and we spent the afternoon trying to get something good on there. Mostly, we got screams and shrieks. But finally, when I was getting him ready for bed, Nate gave me some good giggles, and I recorded them. And I will save them FOREVER.

We've pulled out several different things for him to chew on. This frozen teether was a big hit. I'd also frozen one of his pacifiers, but it warmed up too quickly. I think that his lamb and my fingers are still his favorite chew toys, though.

He was due for some more meds for his mouth about an hour after bedtime. But, he went to bed with no problems, and is sleeping peacefully. 

It was a good weekend. Seeing Francis was wonderful. As was seeing Claire and James. Nate teething on my first Mothers' Day was kind of stressful. I mean, stressful any time. But on Mothers' Day? Come on. Shouldn't I be laying out on the balcony sipping a cocktail while someone fans me with a palm frond?