Home Again

There's a photo of The Newbie and her great-grandmother/my mom. We--The Newbie, her mama and I--just got back from our visit.

What did we do with my mom on our visit?

Well, we went shopping. My mom and niece went crazy buying outfits for The Newbie. Letting those two loose in the baby clothing department was like throwing buckets of chum into shark infested waters. It was a onesie feeding frenzy.

And we made and decorated a lot of these things:



Yes, those are gingerbread cookies. Yes, that's a pink-striped gingerbread rhino in the center. In addition to gingerbread, we also made and decorated sugar cookies. We made chocolate-dipped orange cookies and chocolate-dipped pretzels. We made fudge and nut brittle and rice krispy treats. We made two different kinds of blondies and chocolate-walnut bread and something my mom calls "3C" bread. It sounds like a 3M product, but it's really carrot, cranberry, and cherry bread. (No, wait, I think there was also coconut in there. Maybe it was actually "4C" bread?) And that was it. Oh, no, wait--we also made apricot and coconut candy. And peppery pecans. And a Chex Mix rip off snack mix. And I think that's it. It was enough.



At my mother's request, we also had our portraits taken. That's a photo of me and my niece practicing our fake smiles in the mirror of a public restroom just before we had to go in an pose for a photographer. My niece totally beat me in the fake smile portion of the competition, no? I'm not so good at fake smiling. I only have the one smile. When I'm not smiling--when my face is relaxed--people often think I'm super pissed off or menacingly sceptical--neither of which is generally true. See, even my secret addiction to America's Next Top Model hasn't helped. (Help me, Tyra Banks. You're my only hope.) The photographer was really great with The Newbie, by the way. She--the photographer--utilized a pom-pom with great success. The Newbie had never before encountered such a magical thing as a pom-pom and its very existence made her absolutely dizzy with photogenic delight.

Hmmm. Let's see what else did we do? Shopping. Baking. Picture taking. A lot of chatting and eating. That just about covers it.

And The Newbie? Well, I think that The Newbie was super thrilled to have a bunch of neophyte caretakers at the helm, especially after my mom made her a bottle of formula that was as thick as a milkshake. (My mom read the directions wrong and accidentally doubled the amount of formula in the mix.) It took The Newb a long time to drink it, but she was pretty happy after. Babies are so easily satisfied, no?