First, we had a wonderfully lazy morning. We stayed in bed until 9:45, had some breakfast, and snuggled until my mom got home around 11.
Then I got ready, dressed Ruthe (a little easier this time!), and packed a diaper bag for our great adventure!! (Packing a diaper bag is crazy... what's crazier is that we used every.single.thing that I tossed in there thinking "we'll never use this".)
Getting her in the carseat is pretty tricky. Her g-tube sits right where the harness straps need to cross over her belly, so it takes a lot of careful wiggling and guiding to get everything perfectly situated.
First stop: Bonanza Beverage. This is where my dad works. He needed my mom to sign some papers, and we all wanted to show off the baby. My dad has worked there forever, and pretty much everyone there has known me since I was a baby myself - so bringing Ruthe in was a highly anticipated event! And then she slept through almost her entire visit, opening her eyes for a few minutes just to tease everyone.
After Bonanza, we headed to the bank for what was supposed to be a quick stop at the drive-thru ATM. Well, on the way, I realized that little miss Ruthe had been working on a little present for us that needed our full attention. So we parked and went into the bank for Ruthe's first ever visit to a public restroom!! Thankfully my mom's bank isn't very busy, so my screaming baby didn't disturb too many people. She did NOT like the hard changing table, or having to put on jammies in the middle of the day. (I didn't think we were really going to need any extra clothes, and I just grabbed the first thing I saw as an afterthought. Thank heavens I did though!!)
Once we got all cleaned up and back in the carseat we could finally get started with the fun part of our adventure - the mall!! OK, so it's not really a mall, but The District has some of our favorite stores.
We started with a small lunch at the Elephant Bar. Ruthe wanted to try a little sushi, but couldn't quite figure out the chopsticks...
She fell asleep while we were eating, and while she was eating too... That's one of the benefits of her g-tube - even if she falls asleep she still eats the right amount at the right time!!
Actually, she didn't eat very well, because her belly was so scrunched up in the carseat. We had to skip her next feeding to give her time to get it all down and start digesting. But don't worry, I'm making up for it right now during her continuous feed by adding the lost amount and adjusting how much she gets for the first four hours. It's finally math in the real world... but I'm still waiting to use all that algebra in my daily life.
My mom and I wandered around Anthropologie for a while, and the music and motion of the stroller put Ruthe to sleep AGAIN. We found some cute clothes in the sale section and picked out the handful of things we want to keep an eye on for their big sale at the end of the year! Fifty percent off is really worth waiting a few extra months at a store like that! We've learned that lesson the hard way.
Our real purpose for going to The District was to pick up my dad's new suits, so on our way down to that store we stopped at the Gymboree to find a dress for Ruthe. She woke up for a minute to look at all the cute stuff and make a mental Christmas list, but slept through me and my mom trying to figure out how to dress her and her g-tube for church. We thing we came up with a pretty good look, but you'll have to judge for yourself when we post pictures!
The suit store is clear on the opposite side from where we park, and the whole middle "street" part of The District is under construction so we had to maneuver through small sidewalks and hope the loud construction sounds wouldn't disturb Ruthe. Homegirl slept like a rock as long as the stroller was moving... she is hilarious.
We also stopped at William-Sonoma for an apple peeler/corer/slicer. My parents apple trees have FINALLY started giving off fruit that's edible, so we needed the contraption to make cooking with them that much easier. Apple pie fillings, applesauce, apples in salad, apple nachos. My mom and I want to try dehydrating them to make apple chips, too. I don't even like apples, but I'm excited for all of these new recipes!
There's an adorable little store called Janie and Jack there, too. They're actually kind of expensive, but they sucked us in with a big sale sign. And we found a gorgeous little dress ensemble for Ruthe. Sooooo pretty!! We decided it could be her two month birthday present from my dad!!
About two minutes after we got home and unpacked the car it started pouring rain! My dad thinks that Ruthe controls the rain. Haha. But it's kind of true... it started raining the weekend she was born, and helped put out the wild fires in Mount Charleston. And it kind of keeps raining on her milestone days... like the flash floods when she was one week old, and it rained the day she came home, and the day of her first outing. Maybe she's a rainbaby...
Anyway, instead of leaving Ruthe at home with my mom so I could run to the store for some random stuff, I opted to avoid the crazy drivers and bad roads by giving our Ruthe girl a bath. It's really more a soapy wipe-down because she can't be immersed in water until her g-tube heals. But she loved it!! She didn't even complain very much when it started to get cold. I think she just loves to be naked. And I would too if I'd spent the first sixty-three days of my life swaddled so tight I couldn't even think about moving.
We kept her naked for a long time. It was her favorite night with us so far. I'm pretty sure, at least. She stayed awake long enough for us to get a handful of really cute pictures. She even started talking a little bit. That only happens when she's really comfy and happy and not distracted by anything else at all. I was actually surprised that the dog barking didn't scare her or make her cry. But she probably recognizes it from when I was pregnant, and she knew it meant she really is home.
So there you have it. Miss Ruthe Clementine's very first day out. And her very first trip to a public restroom. And her first lunch date. And her first shopping spree. And her first bath at home.
Now I'd say I'm pretty well-prepared for the one measly doctor's appointment we have tomorrow... but keep your fingers crossed for me anyway!!
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