One thing you quickly learn as a parent is that nothing stays the same for long. Take for instance, Bella's development. These days, she has been tirelessly trying out her newfound talent for rolling. Which is perfectly fine and cute except that she hasn't figured out how to roll back onto her back. So she patiently waits on her belly and whimpers for help to be flipped onto her backside only to immediately roll over onto her belly again. This routine is endearing the first 20 times around, but chaperoning beyond 20 rolls really makes for quite an inefficient day.
This fun jumper and play-saucer allows Bella to use her ever-so-strong legs to bounce while she uses her hands to entertain herself on the activity lights and gadgets on the front panel. And best of all, Bella LOVES it! She actually sits and plays by herself for 30 minutes or more at a time. Which frees us from our constant baby-vigil.
So when my brother, Henry, and his girlfriend came to visit for Christmas, Jin and I took full advantage of the extra caretakers and treated ourselves to an afternoon at the movies while Henry and Christine watched Bella. We felt fairly comfortable leaving her with them since Henry was eager to spend time with Bella. Plus, Christine was in Med School and had her own personal experiences with babies in her recent pediatrics rotation. Equipped with the Deluxe Jumperoo and the love and patience of her Uncle, we were confident that Bella woud have a great time with them while we were out.
Jin and I left the house around 11:30am, eager to catch the 12:30pm showing of the highly-anticipated film, Memoirs of a Geisha. We made it to the movies with 30 minutes to spare so we loaded up on theater junk food, nachos with cheese whiz dip, buttered pretzel bites with jalapeno cheese whiz dip and a 12 gallon size coke large enough to quench the thirst of a small army.
As we slumped into our theater seats (which to my dismay, did not recline), I had a fleeting thought to call home to see if everything was ok. But Jin persuaded me otherwise, convinced that all was well on the homefront with the Jumperoo assembled...
Four hours later, after packing in a brief run to Target and Old Navy, we returned home to find the house eerily quiet. We assumed the baby was napping but as we rounded the corner into the family room, there was my brother and Christine on the floor with Bella. My brother looked up at us with a look of desperation in his eyes. Bella was silently playing on the Jumperoo and as I went to greet her, I saw her tear-stained cheeks. "How did it go?", I inquired with hesitation.
"I don't know how you do it!" my brother announced with an exasperated sigh. Apparently, things didn't go as smoothly as we anticipated. Poor Bella cried unconsolably for nearly an hour and then cried herself to sleep for an hour and a half. They tried calming her by showing pictures of mommy and daddy but to no avail. She hardly opened her eyes wide enough between tears to notice the pictures. They even put her in the Jumperoo as instructed but somehow she knew that even the Jumperoo could not replace the warmth and comfort of the arms of mommy and daddy.
As I motioned to pick her up, she eagerly reached up for my arms, her sad little eyes brightened. Although I felt sorry for Henry for having endured what seemed like a lifetime of relentless crying, I couldn't help but feel a tinge of relief in knowing that my baby wanted nothing more than to be with her mommy. Heh, heh, heh.
Here are some pics of our memorable first Christmas with Bella:
Don't let the toothless smile fool you, Bella unnerves even the most patient and laid-back, Uncle Henry.
.Uncle Henry takes a try at bottle feeding.
All eyes on the camera, except for Bella, who has her eyes set on the mouth-watering honey-baked ham.
"I want my Christmas presents!" Bella exclaims as she dances excitedly.
She tries to hide her dissappointment when she sees that all she gets is another overall jumper suit...
"I wanted a Jumperoo Jumper, not a another jumper jumpsuit!"
Do you mean the DELUXE Jumperoo?
"YEAH! Mommy and Daddy aren't stupid afterall! Thanks mommy and daddy!"
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