Hadley's Happenings: Day 111

Monday, April 25, 2011

Day 111

Happy, or should I say Hoppy, Easter! I was very excited about Hadley’s first Easter, just as I am going to be excited about all of her firsts. I was a little bummed that she was too young to experience the fun of Easter egg dying/hunting, but I did explain the reason we celebrate Easter to her, not that she understood, but I thought I would try! We got dressed in our Easter dresses and headed to church. Hadley looked ADORABLE!!

Hadley and me

When we arrived at church, Hadley was asleep, as often is case; however, shortly before service began she woke up. I thought no big deal- she typically does wonderfully during church. She goes with me every week and has never in the past 4 months fussed or anything. So we get through the praise and worship singing, which always makes her smile, and even half into the message and it seems to be going well (do you see where this headed?!?). Then suddenly, Hadley decided she wasn’t happy- not only was she not happy she was ANGRY. She could not be consoled, so I had to step outside. Okay, I thought to myself, we will just walk around and watch the TV outside the auditorium while she calms down. No that didn’t work either; at this point it becomes obvious she is tired, but is insisting on fighting sleep (she has a really bad habit of doing this at really inopportune times, think like 2 am). At this point I decided to walk outside, usually being outside makes the crying stop right away. It didn’t happen right away, but eventually she did fall asleep (big sigh of relief from me). It was just one of those moments. I wanted so badly for us to enjoy the Easter service together and it be a pleasant experience and here is Hadley screaming her head off- it just goes to show , you never know what you’re going to get with an infant. In the midst of my own personal struggle with an upset baby I saw a number of parents (all dads by the way) trying to calm their upset toddler, baby, or child. I saw a boy about 6 throw a full blown tantrum in the lobby. He threw himself down on the ground and screamed. When his father picked him up and started carrying him to the car, the boy trashed and jerked in such a way I was certain his father would drop him.

Hadley and Gigi

New bib...love it (got it at Target)

It made me realize there is this whole world of parenting that you don’t really have empathy for until you are a parent yourself. I used to think the token crying baby in public was obnoxious and its parents needed to do ANYTHING to make it stop….now I see it completely differently ( I am still struggling with the embarrassment I feel when Hadley isn’t perfect in public. I know how people hate crying babies and the time- which luckily are few and far in between- when I have a hard time calming her down I panic in fear that others are judging me…because in reality some of them are).

After church, which I was able to catch the end of, we headed home to open Hadley’s Easter basket, she made out pretty good, and eat dinner. It was a low key afternoon, with a nice meal, two of the most important people in my life (my mom and my daughter) and fun. Hadley FINALLY rolled over from her stomach to her back not once but twice!!! All in all it was a perfect Easter Sunday. I love this time of year as it really makes me remember how selfless Jesus was- he died for our sins- it truly is amazing---that’s Grace!