Saturday, July 30, 2011

Jesus Loves Me, verse 203.

This week McKenna and I went to visit our friends Lil, Karl, Lorinda, and Karlisse at their lake house on Lake Champlain.  It was fantastic!  We missed Brett and Charlie (hard-working men, back at home, while we all got to play...) but McKenna loved all the fresh air and the extra attention from Karlisse and other kids who were around, and she slept like a hundred hours a day.  Insane night sleeping and naps.  Apparently Brett could just bottle lake air and use it to knock out his pediatric cases.... 
The weather didn't really cooperate for water activities, but we relaxed and played outside and had fun anyway.  The big kids flew kites and fished and entertained Mickey during the day.  Karl caught a ridiculously large fish.  Lil fileted it.  I didn't gag or puke while documenting it on camera.  We were all successful in our tasks.
My friend Shannon from Casey Family Services now lives in VT, across the lake, and she was able to spend an afternoon with us.  She brought her two darling kiddos, Brennan and Kieran, and it was fun to see the kids all playing together while we caught up.
It was a great time with great friends, and we were so thankful for the chance to spend a few beautiful days there.
Always with the rocks in the mouth...
 



BIG fish.
Ewwww.



Hanging out in the swing with Karlisse
Swinging with Uncle Karl
A storm rolling in
Kieran, McKenna, Brennan, and Karlisse
Karlisse loved helping feed McKenna

Me, Kieran, and Shannon
The lake after the storm
 

McKenna liked petting Karlisse's bunny, Snowflake
  

So proud to be sitting in her own chair
Great memories with great friends!

Auntie Lil
Lorinda and Karl

McKenna has entered a new phase in which she hates riding in the backseat of the car alone.  So unless she is sleeping, she is usually whining or fussing in some way back there.  We were lucky to have Lil with us on the trip up, so that went pretty well.  On the 2 1/2 hour trip back, though, it was just us.  She slept for the first hour and was then awake the rest of the way.  Her fussing escalated to crying, and I tried valiantly to entertain her from the front seat.  She was clearly very annoyed and hurt and insulted that I wouldn't take her out of the car seat.  We sang Old MacDonald a thousand times.  Usually on our shorter journeys, this helps get us from point A to point B.  But this was a longer and more insulting trip for her, apparently.  Sometimes she responded with her "Ee-Oh" line and other times she ignored me and continued to wail.  Sometimes she would tearfully respond with a pathetic "Ee-oh", as if she HAD to do it even though she didn't want to.  That was adorable. 
Eventually, Old MacDonald lost its charm, so I moved on to our other favorite wail-stopping song, Jesus Loves Me.  It worked.  For quite a while.  I sang it for about 45 minutes.  Every time I stopped, she wailed.  So I just kept on singing.  To make it more interesting (mostly for myself), I made up lots of new verses.  "Jesus loves it when I ride, quietly without a cry, He thinks I am very strong, listening to mommy's song."  Etc.  There were verses about crying, and traveling, and playing with friends, and sleeping, and going for walks.  There might have even been a verse about Jesus making mommy lots of wine to drink.  If so, that would have been towards the end of the trip......
We made it, not without having to pull over on the Northway because she was tired of Jesus Loves Me and was infuriated with me for ignoring her pleas, and she cried so hard she made herself gag and then puke all over the place.  Sigh.  She is a strong-willed girl, that's for sure.  Life is going to be a series of interesting rides, I believe.
Thankfully we have Jesus.  And wine.

2 comments:

  1. Love the blog Erin! So glad you had such a nice trip to the lake. I am very impressed by the fish filet process! WOw!

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  2. Another blogger!! So exciting! I don't blame you for not starting a blog during your crazy year, but I'm glad you started now... I will definitely be a faithful reader/(stalker) :) Glad to hear things are getting better and that you're enjoying the summer... looking forward to reading more!

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