Andrea visit

So my "BFF" Andrea just came back from the states after a year stint in Kurdistan (and 5 years in Egypt before that). The plan was for her to be a bum in Washington for a year and then finish up grad school in Minnesota. She's only back 2 days and finds out she got an assistantship at her university and needs to leave in a little over a week if she's going to take it. I don't blame her for taking it (they pay for grad school, plus it gives her more working experience in her field), but...DAM*IT!

She's been staying with us the past week and we've had a grand time. Chris spent more time with Anya, and I went out a lot more than I usually get to. So it was a win for all. But Andrea just left this afternoon, so life will be back to normal. I miss my friend :(

The only not-so-fun time: on Friday we (me, Andrea, Anya) drove down to Olympia to have lunch with Andrea's grandma. Anya seems to have developed a 20 minute tolerance for car rides and then gets irritated at being unable to roam free. So of course, 20 minutes into it, she gets cranky. And then gets crankier and crankier, which results in screaming at the top of her lungs the rest of the way down there. It certainly doesn't help that traffic sucks.

So we get to the restaurant. I give her a bottle. All is well. And then I put down the diaper bag with bottle in the side pocket and the bottle shatters. I have no idea how (side note, Born Free glass bottles are NOT tempered and break into a million little pieces that stick to and rip right into your flesh. Ouch). So without a bottle it was going to be difficult to feed her the next meal. We eventually leave the restaurant to head back, thinking we'll have time to get home to feed her. Nope. Traffic is at a standstill once we hit Tacoma. And then speeds up to a crawl. And then Anya gets hungry again and is cranky from being in the car seat. She screams at the top of her lungs. I keep looking at the side of the road thinking "this looks like a nice spot to drop off the baby and let her fend for herself" (yes, I'm a terrible mother). We plan on going to Southcenter and searching for a bottle to feed her with (unsanitized, I was that desperate). But of course, traffic clears right when we hit Southcenter so we just went back to the house and Anya got to eat. I didn't have to leave her on the side of the road afterall. But I did leave her with Chris when I got home so I could get the echoes of screaming baby out of my head.

I guess the moral of the story is bring a plastic bottle next time. Chris, Anya, and I are driving to Portland next month. Pray for us please.