Day One: The owner had left the cottage unlocked and the key inside for us. The first thing we noticed is that the door did not have a deadbolt that locked and there were at least 15 windows in the place. Every wall had a view of outside. The owner had left all the windows open, anticipating us arriving earlier and seeing the view of the river. The scene was a little creepy. I had visions of deranged baby killers lurking in the closet waiting to pounce. I quietly shut all the windows and searched the cabin completely. I did not want to spook Frances so I kept my mouth shut and did my reconnaissance. I didn't realize at the time she was doing the same thing.
We decided to snuggle in for the night and get some rest. Lily had been asleep for hours already and we just needed to transition her into bed. The cottage came equipped with a queen bed and a day bed with a trundle. The day bed combo was in the sun room with walls of windows. My big master plan was that I would put Lily on the day bed and I would sleep next to her on the trundle. The day bed and trundle were not made up so I search the cottage for linens. No dice. I found a quilt and a blanket and decided to make it work. The night was a little chilly and I spent a long night awake worried that Lily was too cold as she continually scooted closer to me. I was stradling the gap between the two beds to share my body heat and keep her from falling through the crack. Finally, making the call at about 3 am, I pulled the mattress from the trundle into the living room where it was warmer and slept with Lily in my arms, half on and half off the mattress. She survived unscathed. I will be getting adjusted for the next month to recover from the damage.
Day two: Lily woke up at 5 to nurse so I stayed up and decided to crack open the puzzle. Frances picks the hardest and most amazing puzzles, usually from an art exhibit. The last one we did was from the Body World exhibit when we stayed in my brother's fifth wheel at the coast while I was pregnant. Frances upped the ante this time getting a 1000 piece puzzle. It was going to be a challenge. I spent a few hours laying out all the pieces, separating the edges and trying to finish the border. When the sun came up, our creepy cottage in the woods turned into this beautiful oasis on the river complete with sloping lawn, beautiful old trees and a rope swing.
Frances awakened, saw the view and we laughed at our discomfort the previous night. The puzzle frenzy began. Puzzles breed obsession- looking at the 1000 pieces before us, we both were concerned that we would not finish, which is simply unacceptable. We agreed to assess at the end of the day and ask for a late checkout on Sunday if need be. Meanwhile, the pee breaks would be limited and we would minimize our outings for food. We decided to make one trip into town, find a restaurant, order several meals and bring them back to the cottage and eat on leftovers the rest of the weekend. Sweet!
What followed was an idyllic day of nursing, entertaining the baby and working on the puzzle. I knew Lily would go to sleep around 7-8 and then Frances and I were going to stay up late and work on the puzzle. When 8 o'clock rolled around, Lily was wide eyed seemingly not wanting to miss the action, but also not wanting to watch us put the puzzle together! What was her problem? Didn't she know we had to get the puzzle done??? The panic began to set in. What if a baby means no puzzle on girl's weekend? I sang and rocked and nursed and sang and bounced and nursed and changed diapers and let her cry and played and sang and oh and that piece fits and nursed and danced for almost two hours. Finally, she relented and passed out around 10 pm. The puzzle frenzy picked up steam. Fueled on strawberry rhubarb pie from the Wimberly Pie Company (YUM!), we got to work. We pooled all the lamps from around the cottage to shed light on the subject worked into the wee hours. When we knew we had enough done that we could finish the next day, we slept.
Day 3: We got up, had leftovers and finished the puzzle. It was great. We high fived, snapped a picture, crumpled 1000 pieces back into the box, and headed outside to stick our toes in the river and lay in the shade of the trees. Mission accomplished. We strolled through Sunday and headed home, talking about our next adventure knowing without a doubt that girl's weekends are something this mother can do.
2 comments:
I spent the girl's weekend working on Lily's downstairs environment. I put up her grab rail by her mirror and installed toy shelves on the bottom sections of the bookcase. Lily's downstairs play area is starting to take shape.
Next I need to build a couple of pieces for her bedroom and redo her closet. A carpenter's work is never done. I think she is going to become my favorite customer. When I see how her using the toy shelves, armoire, and drawers help her become confident and proud of what she can do for herself, that will be the best payment for my work I could ever hope for.
Post a Comment