That said, here's my recap of my first accomplishment:
My mother, my daughter (Bunny), and my husband (JP) traveled with me to FL to visit my brother, sister-in-law, nephew, and our new baby niece J. J is sooooo beautiful. My brother and SIL definitely make pretty babies. My nephew was super cute as a baby too, but I think his baby sister is just a tad prettier because her eye lashes (which are like half an inch long almost) are dark and therefore her eyes are very defined.
J is a sweet smiley little girl most of the time. She has some tummy troubles that make her cranky but she was a typical newborn - she smiled and coo'd a lot, slept quite an awful lot, spit up a little, cried a little more, but overall made everything feel right with the world when you held her.
My nephew on the other hand drove Bunny crazy. He is 8; she is 3. It was like watching an out-of-body experience of my brother picking on me when I was little - with a bigger age difference. JJ (my nephew) can be really subtle and his antagonism flies under the radar. Then Bunny will scream at him to stop, or tell him NOOOO!!! at the top of her lungs and she would get in trouble. I guess it was all too much drama because Nana (my mom) stayed at the kitchen table on her laptop about 90% of the trip. Gulp! My brother and I got into it at one point, and later I wondered if we both weren't reliving our childhood where he thought his harmless antagonisms (you know, holding his finger a hair-length away from my arm repeating, "I'm not touching you, I'm not touching you!") were just funny and of course my anger and vehement opposition to his actions was a ridiculous overreaction. Ridiculously funny to him - because I'd be the one getting in trouble for hitting him or yelling at him "for no reason."
But my bro and I hugged and apologized and it was quickly over so that was good.
A lot of that surely came from cabin fever. It was record-breaking cold in the south so there was nothing to do - all the things we'd want to see were outside where no one wanted to be! Who wants to go up to Disney World when it is 30 degrees outside? Or to the beach for that matter? So we had 5 adults and 3 kids in an average sized American home together and I think we all started feeling a little too confined!
Sadly, we, our spouses, our kids, and Nana all tried to go do a family portait the last day of the vacation. Here are some things I learned from THAT experience:
1) When you don't expect them to, newborns will be surprisingly cooperative during a portrait session
2) When you expect them to be cooperative, three year olds will be surprisingly uncooperative during a portrait session. They might cry and whine and cling to their mothers during the nana and grandkids photos. And they might even scream bloody murder until they are coughing and sputtering themselves into hysteria if mom tries to walk away to get their attention off of her, making the three year olds feel abandoned or at a minimum, really ticked off.
3) You shouldn't plan family portraits around optimal hair days when they involve kids. The adults should be able to just get over it if the humidity and/or cold is going to give them a bad hair day and instead should take the picture as early into the visit as possible so the visiting 3 year old will not be exhausted and homesick and therefore overly clingy to mother.
4) Fathers who snore like bears should not sleep with the 3 year olds the 2 consecutive nights before the portrait session because the child will not be rested enough and will therefore be more likely to throw a tantrum.
5) Even super pouty faced pictures can make for cute portraits.
I also learned that I have never given my sister-in-law enough credit. She is an incredibly understanding and loving person in ways I've never taken the time to notice before. No matter how many tantrums or how many fights between our kids we had to interrupt, she was always patient and loving - with both of them. She focused on the most positive aspect of both kids and encouraged the best in them. She saw the situation as it was and reprimanded each accordingly - not more excessive than necessary nor too lenient either. Getting away from the family with her on a run to Target was one of the highlights of my experience on the trip. We had good chats and she reassured me that this is a hard time in Bunny's development but she is completely normal - all mothers of 3 year olds go through this at some point, and by 5 it really will get better if you can just hang in that long.
So cheers for my SIL T. Cheers for my bro and her for having us. Cheers to my nephew JJ for trying to be nice to Bunny and cheers to my niece J for the torturing she will give JJ in the future - Bunny will be sure to give her pointers!
Cheers to my JP for going on the trip and for bonding and enjoying time with my nephew in ways I don't enjoy (shooting nerf guns and playing Wii video games). Cheers to Nana for not having a nervous breakdown.
I look forward to the next visit. But I think on that one I will go with just DH and Bunny, and we'll go when the weather is warmer and our activities can be focused on wearing the kids out so they don't even have time to get on each others' (or any of our) nerves!
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