September 22, 2008
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They Arrive!!!!
The Beast and the Cousin arrived in Port Charlotte in record time. The Princess had some friends come over and help load up the trailer. The last things loaded were the crib and the mattress and box springs. The baby slept in her port-a-crib, the Princess on her mattress and the Beast and Cousin slept on a blowup mattress. Neither of them slept well. They were totally loaded up and on their way bright and early. Apparently, the Princess went out with her friends one last time and returned home late but they had no pity on her. Luckily, she was in charge of taking care of the baby while the Cousin and the Beast switched between driving the truck and her vehicle. They also ended up driving straight through instead of stopping for the night.
I had an air mattress blown up and ready for the Princess and the Cousin got the guest room for one last night. He had to return earlier than he wanted since his son was flying into Orlando for some business at the Cape and to spend a couple days fishing with his father. So the air mattress had to do for the Princess for one night but she did get to sleep on her own mattress and box springs last night. We found out that (as luck would have it) I had blown up the mattress that had a leak in it so she ended up sleeping on the floor (so to speak) by morning. The baby was comfortable in the Port-a-crib at least.
On Saturday morning, the Beast and the Cousin ended up unloading the trailer and then the Beast left to return it to U-Haul. I wondered why he was taking so long before he returned but was a little too busy trying to let the dog and the baby get to know each other. She loved him but he was just so HUGE in comparison that he scared her at the same time. He, of course, wanted to sniff her all over to *get to know her* and, at one point, had his nose between her legs and ended up lifting her up off her feet with the imaginable consequence. We did have to kennel him a couple times when she got so excited that she got HIM excited. He IS still a puppy after all, regardless of his size. But we persisted.
When the Beast finally returned home we found out why it took him so long. It seems the ball on the trailer hitch actually snapped off and it was just a block and a half away from where he had to drop it off. He was fortunate that two strangers stopped to help him get the (empty) trailer moved out of the way of traffic and off to the side of the road. They also stayed to watch the trailer while the Beast ran up to see if he could get another ball of the proper size so that he could get the trailer returned. They didn’t have one, believe it or not, but he purchased one close enough in size to at least get it back. He stopped on the way home at an auto supply store and got the correct size because we DO need the same size to haul our boat.
I had made my homemade chicken soup with homemade noodles in it (as requested) and even the baby had pigged out on it when they first arrived here. It was all I could do not to be constantly kissing the baby’s cute little face. It shocked and surprised me to actually see that her dark hair she had at birth was now blond as could be and her eyes were the brightest, clearest blue. She also seemed to remember me even though it was so long since I last saw her. The Princess thinks it is my voice that she remembers more than anything and I guess that could be it.
The funniest part of having them here is the interaction between Baron and the baby. Watching it develop has been so funny. Yesterday, she climbed into his kennel and he climbed right in with her. He’s become very gentle and careful around her. Today she was actually sitting on him and he just laid there while she bounced on him. She will lay her little head on him, tug on his lip and he will just let her. He realizes, somehow, that she is a fragile creature and is treating her accordingly.
The Princess has taken him for a couple walks now. She is in the process of learning how to walk him and he’s been amazingly good with her, too, although he does show that he knows she isn’t experienced by switching from side-to-side when HE feels like it. She didn’t know the correction for it so, of course, she felt like she wasn’t in control as much as she should be. Her confusion came from not being sure what side he SHOULD be walking on but we cleared that right up when the Beast went for a walk with them today.
He’s really taken to the Princess and it’s causing some competition between HIM and the BABY for HER attention. If she is petting him, the baby has to come over to climb into her mother’s lap and she will grab her mother’s hand so she can’t pet Baron. I think we are going to see some high comedy here in the days ahead.
The Baby, meantime, found the kibble for the dog AND his water and decided to hand feed him. It was grab a piece of kibble, dip it in the water, feed the dog. Grab the kibble, dip in water, feed the dog….etc., etc. And Baron stood there patiently, loving her attention. We finally had to take the dog food off his stand and only put it down when the rest of us are eating (or the baby is in her highchair at least). Bratfink, upon hearing this, said, *Oh, so she’s part raccoon, huh?* It made me laugh because that IS so typical of raccoons, after all but it had never occurred to me to make that comparison. Leave it to Bratfink…..
The Beast is pretty much trying to make sure Baron and the baby learn to get along together without injuring each other. Other than that, he’s trying to recuperate from the trip and get ready for his surgery. I talked with the nurses both at the hospital and the doctors office and found out that it should be relatively painless and easy. A couple tiny stitches, no bandages and (hopefully) no pain.
I’m tired now, too tired to go over all the news so I will write more tomorrow. The baby insists now that I have to be in the room with her when it’s time for her to go to sleep. Most of the time, she drops off after only 2-3 minutes. Tonight I think the Princess gave her some sort of sugar shot before bedtime so she was fighting it all the way. I had to sit in the dark, at my computer (she could lift her head up to see me when it got too quiet for her liking) while she was fighting sleep she needed. She finally pooped out and feel sound asleep after a few feeble attempts to get me to take her out of her crib and rock her to sleep but we don’t want to get her into that habit. It might be okay by me right now but I know I would regret it later down the road when the newness wears off.
Meantime, I hope you all enjoyed your weekend, at least as much as I did mine. Love you all and talk to you tomorrow to bring this saga up to date.
