After having a baby, it becomes more difficult to make spontaneous plans to enjoy a quiet lunch and leisurely shopping trip with your spouse.  Plans must be made to either bring baby along for the ride or arrange for childcare.   Today, we decided to give baby and grandma (my mother-in-law), some quality time together.  This is the third time mom-in-law watched Baby Champuru. Unfortunately, it seems that baby still isn’t comfortable staying at Grandma’s house.

Hubby and I dropped her off around 10:30 am and within the first five minutes, she already started crying, which turned into wailing, and eventually escalated to the primal scream after we left.  While we were out gallivanting, baby cried nearly the entire time, refused to take the bottle, and eventually cried herself to sleep. Hubby and I, on the other hand, had a grand time in the new Simply Organized store in Kapolei, getting ideas for customizing closet systems to help us manage our storage issues (or lack, thereof).  We also reconnected with one another over an unhurried lunch at Auntie Pastos in Kunia, enjoying stuffed mushrooms, caesar salad, and a spinach & artichoke pizza.  It was hard not to think about Baby Champuru being so unhappy, but we know that we can’t shelter her forever and that we really need to be better about socializing her.

We are determined that Baby Champuru must become more familiar with her grandparents. Baby will never learn to do that if we don’t give her some alone time to spend with them without her doting parents hovering nearby.  So, next week Monday, Baby Champuru returns to grandma’s house again while mommy and daddy go hiking.  It almost feels like I’m being cruel to her.  I think this is a small taste of what mothers go through when taking their child kicking and screaming to preschool (or kindergarten) for the first time.