mama

last week i got the most tremendous news. my mom, after seeing the pictures of eliana smiling and interacting with her mobile, decided to book a ticket to come see us. my mother is not a spontaneous woman. she is organized, thinks things through, and always has a clear plan. when she said, "how does next week work for you" as a time to visit, i was floored. for years i have been telling her about great deals from burbank to spokane, always offering to make the three hour drive (six if you go both ways...) to the airport in spokane. it is literally three to four hundred dollars cheaper to fly into spokane intl than missoula. so mama booked the ticket, and elie and i got ready for our road trip.

at first the whole thing gave me this combo excitement/anxious feeling. think of how far you've come, i told myself. i can remember when i was anxious about driving eliana to the good food store (which is about seven minutes from our house). the learning curve is fast and furious when you are a new mom. so thursday morning came, and after a good long feed, i put her in her carseat and we hit the highway. eliana screamed the first ten miles or so. i contemplated pulling over at every exit, thought about calling my mom and telling her that i wouldn't make it, but then sped up and decided to persevere. letting my baby cry is not easy for me. especially when she's strapped in to a little chair and i am miles away in the front seat. what i didn't remind myself is that i do, indeed, have the most amazing baby in the universe. and this amazing baby managed to cry herself to sleep before we even hit frenchtown, and then slept the entire three hours until we reached spokane. the whole drive i was waiting for the wails, waiting for her to wake and cry. i even hallucinated some elie whimpers. i'd turn the radio down and realize that she was silent, i was just making them up, making up things to be concerned about.

we found my beautiful mama waiting on the curb by the southwest terminal. she sat in the back with elie while we made our way to coeur d'alene for lunch. we sat on the sidewalk and sipped ice tea while little perfect nursed like the demure lady she is. we then packed everyone back up in the car. within five minutes, eliana was out again and we made the drive home with a blissed out sense of contentment.

now it's my theory that eliana was really on superior behavior the whole time her gran was here. i think she wanted to show off, perhaps let her british grandmother know that she did, indeed, inherit all the manners and refined qualities passed to her through her gran's lineage. we spent three beautiful days talking, lounging, nursing, eating and just admiring, with ever so much wonder and awe, eliana. my mom slept in elie's room on the futon and she was really able to get a sense of what our days are like.

eliana didn't bring elsinore out the whole time my mom was here. there were no long witching hours, no inconsolable cries. perhaps it was because we didn't try to do too much and elie didn't have to spend too much time outside of her house. perhaps she was just in a calm way. i'm not sure. all i know is that i have the best baby on the planet (who even did her first eight hour straight sleeping stint while her gran was here!)

sunday came and we decided to head to coeur d'alene to spread out the driving and take a little mini-vacation. eliana had her first adventures in a hotel room. she seemed to love her time there and fell asleep in her gran's arms, letting mom take her first bath in weeks. when i emerged from the bath i found that gran was asleep too, baby elie asleep in the crook of her arm. this image of these two people, the one who gave me life and the one i gave life to, asleep together in absolute peace, was worth every second of the car trip. it was one of those moment's that makes life shine, brilliant and true and full of all good things.