It happened.

So everything I prophesied about the gnome getting hungry during breakfast yesterday came true. No sooner did my meal arrive but I was out in the car nursing her. Fabulous. Then we went to dinner last night and the screaming started again. I tried nursing her (on the floor of the handicapped stall, natch) and she'd alternately drink and scream. I guess the tears weren't from hunger... I still don't know what was wrong, but it does seem to happen whenever there's company... I think she senses my stress level and acts accordingly. Anyways, the restaurant drama was terrible. My husband sent my MIL into the ladies room to look for me, and she told me she was there but then I thought she left, and for fifteen minutes I stayed with the gnome, feeding her and then dancing with her until she slept. and as I'm about to finally leave, my MIL is suddenly there saying "I'll take the diaper bag." Good timing, right?


Then we get out of the bathroom (me trailed by the MIL) and my husband ambushes his mother about where the hell she'd been for 20 minutes. Um, 20 minutes? She was there THE WHOLE TIME and I didn't know it. I mean, who knows what I said in my tear filled frustration. I was very quiet, but I believe pleas for help were issued to both gods and dead relatives... Oy. I thought after she finished talking to me, she left the room and came back, but she was there all along being quiet as a mouse...

Anyway my husband was FURIOUS that she didn't come back out and tell him what was going on, and he thought I knew she was in there and just didn't have the sense to send her out to check in with him. I don't know... His parents turn him into a different person sometimes. He loves them, but they make him a little jumpy. I guess a lot of peoples parents do that, though (or in my case, my grandmother). But he wasn't mad at me, and he apologized after we left the restaurant.

Everything went okay, I suppose. I think my MIL is really excited to be a grandmother, so sometimes she lets that get in the way of her better judgment, like when the baby is crying for food and she wants her to stay for one more kiss or to try playing on the play mat and maybe that will make her feel better. She also wanted me to keep putting different outfits on her, which gnome hates, but we obliged a few times to keep the peace. I know I should have refused, but the gnome was agreeable most times, so I just played along. They want to come back this winter, so hopefully by then gnomer will be feeling better and be more game for dress-up and all of that.

I will say, though, it was really hard at times. It's still hard for me to hand my child off to others for long periods of time, and its really hard for me to ride in the car and not be the one sitting with her in the back seat. I can now definitely say that I know how those mother tigers feel when they kill people for getting too close to their cubs. I wish it weren't so, but it is. I'm just not ready to let her go yet!