Babysitting

I knew our family would attract attention. I was all prepared for the comments. We in the international adoption community (oooh how I loved writing that) have heard them or have been briefed on what we will hear. Bottom line- people who haven't BTDT, don't know the lingo. They don't know how to delicately phrase a question so as not to come off as an insensitive arse. Or maybe they are insensitive arses and therefore, all is lost on them anyway.

Example- (as they point to the children) "Which ones are yours?"
(Or, as they point to the baby from China) "How much did she cost?"

I wasn't prepared for this one:

"Are you babysitting?"

I took the girls out for a walk in the stroller on Friday and heard the above question twice in ten minutes. And one person knew we were adopting from China. When I reminded her, she smacked her forehead and said, "DOH!" The DOH made up for any annoyance I felt at her forgetting our situation.

We took All My Children out to lunch today. Juna hates the car seat. The entire trip to and fro any destination has the soundtrack of a baby wailing in anger. Sounds familiar. Miss Boo did that her entire first year of life. She stopped when we could finally turn her around to face forward. I predict similar results with June Bug.

Lunch was a success! Av lounged in her car seat, J Bug sat in a high chair and ate piles of food, Boo was a good girl, and Mom and Dad ate too much, too.

Seriously, do all China babes eat THAT much food? She can eat adult sized portions of food. Our Ped said to let her. She's underweight and needs to gain. But seriously- WOW that girl can eat.

Speaking of... I've not been dieting. Eating now is simply for survival purposes. I don't care if it's high fat/low fat/loaded with high fructose corn syrup/10 days past the expiration date. Can I throw it into my mouth while rushing off to calm a screaming baby? Can it be cooked/eaten/cleaned up in five mins or less? I'm eatin it!

Have I gained or lost weight? I don't know and I don't want to know. Seriously, don't tell me. Yesterday I ate half a container of blue crab dip from Costco. There's 32 servings in that little container. Must not think of all the calories and fat I consumed. LA LA LA LA LA happy thoughts, happy thoughts.

My generous friends kept us in food for two weeks. Now we must cook for ourselves again. I predict many frozen meals in our future. Hopefully cooked before eaten.

Speaking of generous friends- my invitation for Juna's shower arrived yesterday. My friend hand made all the invites. She has a three month old baby, people. I don't know how she does it. When Boo was three months old, I was still in my sweats and Tshirts, no makeup, hair everywhere, and curled up fetal style while sobbing, "When will I ever sleep again!"

No one has ever thrown a shower for me. I've been married twice. I've had three children. Not one single shower thrown in my honor. Wow, I must be a raging bitch or something. Tee hee. So you can tell how honored/awkward I feel about this. Especially when I heard that people actually wanted to attend. I'm really touched by this. But also a bit freaked out. What if they have a bad time? What if I say something completely out of place and they go, "WHY did I even bother showing up for you?" Then I'll always be known as, "now I understand why no one ever threw a party for her before" girl.

And now we see why no one throws parties for me. I'm socially awkward. Gee, what gave it away?

I love the weekends. Parenting is so much easier when Daddy's around. How come Saturday and Sunday always fly by?