Various and sundry...
I've been spending this week cleaning the house, trying to catch a few naps, and getting ready for Amelia's birthday party this weekend. I still can't believe she's turning 2 on Friday. I could tell you how schmoopy I am about remembering the first time she smiled, laughed, flipped over, and the like, but I like you all too much to do that right now. :)
We're having a smallish party for her on Saturday. I'm excited because some new friends will be joining our older group of friends to meet and mingle. Pizza, hot dogs, and cupcakes will be there for the consuming, and I hope that I can be a gracious hostess while wielding an 8-month pregnant belly.
Gifts for the girlie have started trickling in. Tom's currently assembling a tricycle that my dad sent her. We've got a few other boxes to open in the next couple of days. I'm thankful that nothing electronic has arrived; we have so many beeping and booping items right now, it's not even funny.
I'm a bit melancholy though. My mom never got around to sending Amelia (or anyone) a Christmas present this year. She's able to have her husband drive her around to go out to eat and putter around, but she's "too sick" to have gotten her only granddaughter a gift. As Tom pointed out, in my mother's world a sandwich is greater than her granddaughter.
As I have explained to her many times, I don't give a damn that she didn't give me a gift. However, it's the fact that she did this to a child that hurts. A toddler shouldn't have to care that Grandma's too sick to do whatever (but only too sick to do things that require her to think about someone else). A toddler should live in a happy world where things like illness and death don't come into play. The real world will come soon enough.
The newest line from my mom is that she's thinking about combining a Christmas and birthday gift for Amelia. I find that very hard to believe considering she'd already have to have bought it and shipped it to get it here on time. It's not that I expect a big gift from her. I just wanted my daughter to have at least a card from her grandmom.
I know she's a very sick woman, and she's not going to be around for very long. However, it galls me that she's choosing to spend her remaining time on Earth counting the miseries she's facing (and creating) versus trying to live while she can. For example, I made her a big winterizing Christmas gift this year, filled with warm slippers, handmade scarf, hat, and gloves. She complained that she thought the scarf looked too handmade. She told me that on Christmas day, when I called her hoping she'd think about the hours I put into the gift.
We're having a smallish party for her on Saturday. I'm excited because some new friends will be joining our older group of friends to meet and mingle. Pizza, hot dogs, and cupcakes will be there for the consuming, and I hope that I can be a gracious hostess while wielding an 8-month pregnant belly.
Gifts for the girlie have started trickling in. Tom's currently assembling a tricycle that my dad sent her. We've got a few other boxes to open in the next couple of days. I'm thankful that nothing electronic has arrived; we have so many beeping and booping items right now, it's not even funny.
I'm a bit melancholy though. My mom never got around to sending Amelia (or anyone) a Christmas present this year. She's able to have her husband drive her around to go out to eat and putter around, but she's "too sick" to have gotten her only granddaughter a gift. As Tom pointed out, in my mother's world a sandwich is greater than her granddaughter.
As I have explained to her many times, I don't give a damn that she didn't give me a gift. However, it's the fact that she did this to a child that hurts. A toddler shouldn't have to care that Grandma's too sick to do whatever (but only too sick to do things that require her to think about someone else). A toddler should live in a happy world where things like illness and death don't come into play. The real world will come soon enough.
The newest line from my mom is that she's thinking about combining a Christmas and birthday gift for Amelia. I find that very hard to believe considering she'd already have to have bought it and shipped it to get it here on time. It's not that I expect a big gift from her. I just wanted my daughter to have at least a card from her grandmom.
I know she's a very sick woman, and she's not going to be around for very long. However, it galls me that she's choosing to spend her remaining time on Earth counting the miseries she's facing (and creating) versus trying to live while she can. For example, I made her a big winterizing Christmas gift this year, filled with warm slippers, handmade scarf, hat, and gloves. She complained that she thought the scarf looked too handmade. She told me that on Christmas day, when I called her hoping she'd think about the hours I put into the gift.