killer beatle

Harper had a pretty eventful Sunday. It started out like any other Sabbath day: 6am wake-up, walk in the stroller, nap, rush to get to church on time(ish. Or not really.), 10 minutes of crying due to fatigue (Harper, not me. I only feel like crying due to fatigue, however one is not afforded the luxury of public breakdowns when trying to maintain the facade of sanity and capable motherhood), me trying to get her to sleep, me getting frustrated and handing her off to Rivers, and finally, meeting Rivers out the back of church for a baby hand-off so he can go to his meeting. Oh-and I mustn't forget the unshaven legs (who has time to shave?), poor dress choice considering the wind, and announcing 3 times that "I'm going home if she doesn't fall asleep soon." Yup, it was shaping-up to be a typical Sunday.

THEN, soonafter handing me the now-sleeping Harper, Rivers looked down to find a GIANT beetle hanging out in the grass. Of course any other person would have pointed out the creature either excitedly or in disgust, then went on his/her way. Not Rivers. Nope, he picked that land manatee right up and decided that it should be placed on sleeping Harper's little foot to give some proportion for a photo opp. I vehemently opposed the suggestion after I saw the mammoth's spiny legs dig into Rivers' fingers. After assuring me that "it doesn't hurt, they're just little feet", I felt that I had no choice but to agree. He seemed pretty set on the idea. The only stipulation was that if Harper woke up, he had to get her back to sleep. Fair enough. So, Rivers guided the thing onto her foot and we both watched helplessly as it quickly dug its' feet into her skin (not really dug, more like 'grabbed ahold of tightly'). She stirred, but didn't wake up. Phew. Rivers quickly snapped a picture and, upon my frantic insistance, began to remove the creature from her foot. This didn't go as smoothly as he had hoped. Actually, the beetle's feet were like little hooks that basically rooted into whatever they happened to be standing on. In this case, it was our lil' babe's foot. So, I'm screaming at Rivers to "GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF", Harper wakes up and starts crying which makes me burst into tears and Rivers is desperately trying to remove the beetle's feet from our baby's feet, and finally succeeds in removing the beast. And all of this behind a church. Anyways, tears are streaming down my face while Rivers is appologizing thoroughly. "I'm sorry, I didn't know that would happen...!" he said. "Well what did you think would happen when you put the gargantuan beetle on our baby's foot?!" I responded with more anger than the situation merited. After Rivers' had insisted, "you gotta admit that was a pretty cool picture" and Harper had fallen back asleep (actually, she hadn't really ever woken up), I began to see that humor in the situation and asked my dearly adventurous husband if he would wipe the tears from my face in case anyone found us in our church hideout (also not good for the sanity facade). "No, they look cool," he said. "Like black stalagtites." Great, so now my mascara was running too. Eventually, after much pleading, more crying and lots of laughing, Rivers wiped my face and went back to his meeting. Harper slept for the rest of church.

After church we were invited to a family's house for dinner. Being a CocaCola addict, I was extensively excited to see two 3-litre bottles set out on the table. My kind of place. The best part, though, was Harper's enthusiasm over Coke. She couldn't get enough of the stuff. Okay, we didn't actually give her any of the sweet elixer of life, but we did watch as she tried her hardest to suck whatever she could from the outside of the bottle. Maybe she's really into osmosis. At any rate, I'm really glad to see that Harper is shaping up to be just like mommy.