Rosie and Andrew Visit

30 May 2008

Today began for me at 4am. It began for Heidi at 2 am. That is when Amelia, lovely Amelia, began to cry. I noticed the crying but tried to stay asleep, but when 4 came and some real screaming was going on I thought I should wake up and see what was going on. Heidi was certainly ready for a break and, while groggy, I was happy to take Amelia.

My first attempt was to simply turn on the TV and hold her. Amelia noticed this pathetic try after 3 minutes and let me know with some good sqwaking. Next, I tried to start a load of laundry and hold her near the machine. I was careful not to let her bounce off but she still did not calm down. So at about 4:30 I suited her up, put her in the car seat and headed out for a drive.

I had a ton of talk radio recorded on my iPod and within 200 feet Amelia was asleep. I knew from past experience that driving would be the best thing to keep Amelia calm so I decided to drive for a while. I did hope I could get some coffee for the ride.

First I looked at the local place--closed.

Then I drove on to Alton to look for coffee. No big deal, I had to drive anyway to keep her calm.

But all of the places in Alton were closed too. I was now 9 miles of 35mph driving from home and I really wanted coffee. It was only around 4:50 so I decided to keep driving. I knew there was a Dunkin Donuts in Wolfeboro 7 miles north. The drive from the southern tip of Winnepesauke up along the eastern side was beautiful. As the sun rose to my right it illuminated the lake on my left creating incredible scenes.

At about 5:10 I arrive in Wolfeboro. The Dunkin Donuts was indeed open and I got a large coffee and a bagel. DD bagels are often terrible but this one was fresh out of the oven and terrific. As I spewed sesame seeds all over the car and spilled sugary coffee on my work pants, Amelia made....not a sound.

I dropped Amelia back at home around 6 and went to work. It was a long day but I actually will remember it as a fun one because of Amelia and I's morning together. It was further highlighted by the fact that our friends Rosie and Andrew came for dinner.

Andrew and Rosie are going to teach in the Philippines for 2 years and this was one of our last visits. It was great to see Rosie hold Amelia and rock her to sleep.