Last Weekend of Melissa's Leave

Day 116 - Me trying to look tough in Patterson Park. This past weekend, we went down to FestAfrica in Patterson Park. It was... sparse. We'd gone pretty early on Sunday, and apparently Saturday had been the hopping day (plus, apparently more people came later in the evening). Still, we listened to some decent music (and saw the shortest swing performance ever) and had some yummy Tanzanian food (goat + green bananas, piri-piri, fish cakes, greens, mmmmm). There was less art and colorful cloth than we'd hoped for Ruth to look at. But we walked around the park, too, and saw some ducks and a goose (mmmmm) and some little sunfish. Ruth slept through most of it, of course.






Day 116 - A moment with mommy after everyone had lunch.

















Day 117 - Ruth likes being dried off from the bath! Monday was Melissa's first day back at work (and my first day taking care of Ruth all day). We had a big problem with the first bottle of the day - she screamed and fought it. The second full bottle went better, though she would occasionally pull off and scream at me, as if to register her protest, even though she was hungry enough to eat. The third full bottle she demanded right at 5PM, as Melissa was heading home from the train station, and she sucked it right down without complaint. I had a lot of angst about trying to take care of her on my own, especially given the bond that she clearly has with Melissa. We're still not quite into a good rhythm for "Dad Days" (Mondays are Dad Days, Fridays are Mom Days, is the current plan), since we spent a lot of time working on the basics (eating, not screaming at me all the time). But we played a bit, read her Dinosaurs book, did the laundry, took a trip down to Red Emma's for me to get lunch, and got a frame for her robot picture (unsurprisingly, I picked that one out). Nobody died (though I did get lots of unsolicited advice when she started screaming on a street corner on our way home). It wasn't so bad. I think she still loves Melissa more, though. This is from when Melissa gave her a bath after she got home.

Day 117 - Kisses for Mommy! Ruth was, of course, very glad to have Mom home.