jeeves reporting for duty

I've got to be totally honest - and this is embarrassing to admit: I thought this week was going to be easy. No, really. I made the huge first-timer's mistake of thinking to myself this is going to be pretty easy. I figured - sure, I'd be by myself with Alice, but I'll be surrounded by aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents - all the makings for many hands make light work with a BABY. But really? Uh, it's not EASY. We miss Chip. We miss him down to our very bones. We miss his smile, his laughter, his many movie quotes fitting into any situation (No eye contact!). We miss his big arms and everything they can carry. We miss his broad chest and it's ability to hold a small weeping girl as well as a big weeping girl (on occasion). We miss him from the top of his round head to the tips of his toes. We miss him. And never once did I think we wouldn't miss him, but somehow I didn't think it would be so physically HARD to be away like this. It hurts.

Alice has been cuddled and loved and fussed over by so many people who love her dearly, and that is what makes this bearable. That we can be here, seeing all the cousins - sharing this with my parents. And that part has been just priceless.

Let me just add, by the way, that while we are surrounded by so many people who are willing to help with Alice, what I didn't count on was Alice's desire to maintain her exclusivity contract with yours truly. Here I thought (ha ha - silly mother) that she'd be happy to hang out with a cousin or an aunt or an uncle or two. And she is... to a point. But when it comes down to it, she's a one bodyservant type of girl. And you know who I've signed on with. So, dear Internets. I'm off to do Bean's bidding.

Manservant out.

The cousins. Notice my child in the center there.

With the little bro. Not so little anymore.

With two of her cousins.

Listen. You can unleash the wrath on my mother. But apparently this is what Grammies do-- they initiate their grandchildren into the age old tradition of drinking out of cups. When they are 4 1/2 months old. And when their mother is inside the house making up a bottle. My mom insists that Alice has been imbibing in red cup drinking on the side for weeks now because she's far too adept at it to be a first timer. (Should I really freak you out and tell you she's drinking Diet Coke? AHHH no. They promised me that it was water.)

Hey you. Yes you, behind the camera. Get back into the kitchen and make me a pot pie. And while you're at it, WHERE THE HECK IS MY DAD?!?