Back From Girls' Weekend

Ah, so it's been a few days since returning from the wonderful CHILD-FREE Girls' Weekend. Rowan had a great time with Grandma and, I'm quite certain, didn't even notice my absence. She gave me a little smile when I got home, but didn't seem overly excited (like I was). I missed her just the right amount. It was so nice knowing she was having fun and didn't cry once. It made it much easier to enjoy Girls' Weekend without feeling the least bit guilty.

We had a wonderful time together. As usual, all 6 of us were there (for the record, Connie, Stephanie, Carrie, Heather, Andrea and myself), and, surprisingly, there were no children around. I was most impressed that Heather left her 4-month old son in Kentucky! The rest of us were at least within driving distance of our children, in case of some rare emergency.

On Friday we enjoyed manicures and pedicures and eating fabulous appetizers at Connie's house while standing and sitting around the kitchen island (see numbers list below). Saturday, we woke up early, but spent a little time being lazy before heading off to Holland and Saugatuck for some lakeshore shopping and a delicious lunch at Butch's. Then we made dinner at Connie's and talked and laughed hysterically. I was in tears with laughter when we realized some people thought (for a VERY brief moment) that Heather at one point dated Billy the Kim. Here I am laughing again. Hilarious. Sunday was a fabulous brunch at Charley's Crab where I ate way too much (of course).

Here is a list I stole from Stephanie's blog--I found it way to creative to not steal it! (Yes, I realize that #3 is exclusively Steph, but I'm leaving it anyway. For the record, I think I may have called my mom a few more than 3 times).

So here's the breakdown by the numbers:

0 - pictures taken. Inexcusable. Better next year, right, gang?
1 - confirmed pregnancy among us
2 - lovely restaurant meals we enjoyed without cutting food into tiny pieces for toddlers
3 - times I called Jason to check up on the family
4 - number of us who had to rev up the breast pump every few hours to keep the milk a-flowin'
5 - average hours of sleep per night
6 - pints of Ben & Jerry's out on the counter at midnight last night
7 - approximate hours spent standing around Connie's kitchen island, pretending we were going to stop eating any minute . . .
8 - more years until we're fairly confident that we'll all be done having children and can plan a 15th anniversary bash at a luxury spa in the desert
9 - children we left with others (for the record: Annie, Ben, Greta, Rowan, Amelia, Isaac, Jemma, Sam, and Wyatt)
10 - (at least) times the conversation came around to future baby names. Pathetic.

Now, we're back at my mom's. Yesterday we went to the Portage Public Library and Rowan played in the preschool room. She had quite a bit of fun with all of the toys. Yesterday evening Susan brought Lily and Ally over to play. They are both getting so big! Rowan didn't seem to be jealous when I held Ally, which I'd love to consider a great sign, but she still has 6 months to develop jealousy before the baby arrives. Today Susan and Lily came back to play for a bit. Rowan has decided to be extremely difficult with diaper changes. They have been very challenging for a while, but today included kicking, screaming, crying and a head-butt. Good times. But, for the most part, Rowan has been quite happy here and has been sleeping very well in a Pack-n-Play, so I can't complain.