Emily and Jodi
On Friday, 19 August, Jodi's friend Emily hosted a baby shower for Jodi and her friends at TJ and Jodi's house. Jen, Carolyn and I decided to drive there together. Carolyn met us at IKEA in White Marsh, and Jen drove...once we were finally able to get away from the house...Tom was looking after Ryan and Lily until Jay got home from work. As I was preparing to walk out the door, Tom corrected Lily, and Lily just lost it. Tom was right, of course--I had told him recently that I give Lily her one allotted soda in a cup instead of letting her handle the can - the reason being she has cut herself TWICE in recent days. Unfortunately, Lily is
very sensitive to correction and Tom comes off as harsh, even when he has the child's best interests at heart. Lily's cries were the heart-breaking, breathless sobbing kind that most mothers cannot just walk away from.
I wasn't eager to leave her, even though I
knew she would be fine moments after we left. Jen spoke to Lily, encouraged her to take a few moments to pull herself together and we left. Then I remembered the ice cream - the ONLY thing Emily asked me to bring! So back into the house I go. Lily was nowhere in sight, but she was also quiet-already. Turns out she was in the bathroom, following Mommy's advice. Moments after we left, she was deeply involved with Ryan and Tom in repairing our plumbing. They also built a bird house before Daddy got there. Daddy was late because of the weather, so Tom ordered Chinese for all of them when Jay got there, and they settled down to watch the Ravens on TV.
TJ got a little wet escorting the guests into the house
Speaking of the weather - it was a major player in the evening's events. While driving to meet Carolyn, I called her to let her know we were running late. She said she had just entered the storm and was taking her time, so don't worry. Then all traffic on the highway was suddenly crawling. We could only assume the storm was slowing people down. The rain started and was really heavy. I was not eager for the transfer when we picked up Carolyn, but the rain eased a tad at just the right time. During the drive south, we hit such heavy rain that the windshield wipers were barely worth using. Jen handled things just fine, but it was a relief to pull off onto a different highway and notice it hadn't even rained in that area! As we got closer to our destination, we noticed clouds that were not exactly friendly-looking in our path. The rains came again, and actually caused traffic lights to malfunction. Poor Jen had to negotiate a left-hand turn on a four-lane road with no traffic signals and her grandmother sitting next to her. She did well, and again on the NEXT light that was out, and we arrived at the shower in the midst of a
very heavy downpour. TJ was ready with an umbrella. He ran out to escort first his grandmother, then me to the house. Then he went to get Jen after she parked the car. As we got to the house, Jodi announced "We have no electricity!" Oh, no! So we went inside to find we were among the first to arrive (20 minutes late!) due to the weather. There were candles everywhere and some of the other guests were opening windows because the AC wasn't working. We introduced ourselves and checked out all the cute decorations in the half-light left to us. More and more people arrived, wet but happy to be there. Jodi introduced everyone - she was very kind to me, telling everyone she was lucky to have me as her mother-in-law. :) Her own mother was unable to be there, which was sad because she really wanted to be.
The Alphabet Banner and food display
Homemade by Emily
Before the lights went out!
Jen took pictures as Jodi opened her gifts - I am wondering how they will turn out since Emily sat next to Jodi with a flashlight so Emily could write a list of the gifts and Jodi could see what she was opening. I hope Jen was able to get some nice photos to share with Mary Ann (Jodi's Mom) and the rest of Jodi's far-flung family. The gifts were so cute--dogs being a general theme to the clothing, when it wasn't sports. There were a few handmade items, which Jodi just loved. I gave her several books, one of them about the care and keeping of Teddy Bears. Naturally, I also provided the bear. :) Then there was the little outfit - trousers, shirt and sweater vest with little argyle socks! Too cute. Jodi's sister shipped a carseat--perfect gift for the new baby. She sent something else, but I cannot remember what it was.. :( We enjoyed each other's company despite the lack of light. The lack of light also prevented Carolyn from actually seeing TJ and Jodi's home. She had never been there before and had heard from Jen and me what a great job Jodi had done in decorating and using the space they have.
Shortly after we left, I got a text from TJ that the lights were back on! Figures.
