This morning we took Eve to visit "Baby Tremp" (Trent) at the hospital. First, Eve put her pappies in the box. Then we tied a ribbon around it and attached a tag.
Eve was excited to take her pappies to Trent. Unfortunately, Trent was in the nursery getting his picture taken when we arrived, but Kennette took Eve's present and promised to give it to Trent as soon as he came back. Aunt Nette said she just knew Trent would love them!
Eve did so well taking her pappies to Trent that we took her to the store to buy an official big girl toy! She chose (with help from Mommy and Daddy) a Disney Princess tea set and a Cinderella dress (Like Rylee's.)
Eve has just gone to bed for her nap and...it's not going well! When I took her to the bed she looked around at first then asked, "Where's my pappy?" I said, "We took them to Trent, remember?" Not understanding she said, "Where is it?" I calmly reminded her again, "Baby Trent needed them. Remember how you put them in the box and we took them and gave them to Aunt Nette? Now, it is time to take a nap. Hold your bunny." I told her I loved her and to sleep tight and left the room. Choking back tears I realized this wasn't just hard on Eve, but hard on me, too. I went to our room and watched her on the monitor for a few minutes. Eve was tossing and turning amid cries of "Noooo!" (albeit over-dramatic and lacking in tears). She would stop occasionally to search the covers for a hiding pappy, but to no avail. I worried irrationally that we had taken away... no, given away... her only security and that she may never sleep again! Then her crocodile tears gave way to singing and calling for "Max and Wooby" and her tossing gave way to kicking the side of the bed and I realized the real truth to the matter... Without a pappy there is no guarantee Eve will ever stop talking and singing long enough to get any sleep! So I went back to console her (and myself) and tell her that it's time to rest and we will play tea party and watch Max and Ruby when she wakes up. She is still not asleep and is now crying in earnest... I think she realizes that the pappies are gone and she has to learn to fall asleep on her own. It reminds me of when she was a little baby and she cried herself to sleep learning to be a good sleeper (just like Baby Wise says). We made it through that time and I guess we will make it through again. But, for now... it is going to be a long afternoon at the Stark house.
Thankfully Eve didn't get sick and we made it to Dothan, Alabama, unscathed. Aside from a detour around Pulaski Tennessee for a wreck, some construction around every major town, and a rock putting a crack in our windshield, it was a pretty smooth, uneventful trip. I decided that since we were traveling on Friday the 13th, we had done well.
I wish I could say the story ends there, but it doesn't. I haven't mentioned any of the rest of the family yet because they chose to wait and drive through the night last night. So, this morning when Jay's cell phone rang at 4 a.m. we were concerned. We both shot up out of bed. Jay answered and the voice on the phone was Micah's. He said, "We are in Montgomery and we aren't sure which way to go." In our sleepy state we started to describe the directions. I actually got up and went in search of our written directions. Before long Micah let Jay off the hook saying, "Just kidding. We are just in Hunstville." To which Jay replied, "Dude! My wife's going to murder you!" A few minutes later I said, "You know, he better pray he doesn't really need directions later and he'd better not call me if he does, because I will land them in Atlanta so fast it will make his head spin!"
