Mama Bear Growls

This weekend was packed!  We had THREE birthday parties to attend, two on Saturday alone.  The first was for the kid I watch.  We got there and we were in a room full of people we didn't know.  Hubby found a seat and really didn't move.  Squirmy looked around and was cautious.  Slowly but surely he ventured further and further away from me and found the toys.  He went up to a few people as though he wanted to be held and managed well when they picked him up.  Everyone marveled at how cute he was and how he was much more about the festivities than his birthday boy counterpart.  Towards the end of the party, I could tell nap time was much needed as he started to melt.  We begged out early due to nap time and needing to get to another party.

Between parties, we had about 45 min in the car (had to run home first which made the drive much longer) and Squirmy napped peacefully, waking on his own as we neared the next party.  We arrived about an hour late to our nephew's party.  The family was all gathered around while the kids played on the playground and did a treasure hunt.  Of course Squirmy was the charmer and everyone was excited to get to see him walk.  Of course, being on his second party of the day and having a rough night (congestion) the night before and waking up early and only having a 45 min nap in between parties, he wasn't in his finest form.  But, we were at a small park and there wasn't anyone there but party goers.    He tolerated going to anyone who asked to hold him, even if it was just for a few minutes.

(our 78lb, 13 year old niece in the Ergobaby)

After a little while this family "friend" starts in.  Now this family "friend" is a woman whom Hubby has never liked and I don't exactly have a fond opinion of her, myself.  I got in trouble because I didn't invite her to my bridal shower (I'd literally met the woman less than a handful of times before the wedding and she was invited to the wedding).  She likes to kiss Hubby on the lips despite his protests and attempts to avoid her kisses.  Against my better judgement, I invited her to my baby shower to avoid controversy only to have her hound me at the party, asking how much weight I'd gained.  Luckily, when she tried to rally the other moms into bullying the amount out of me, they all protected me and changed the subject.  So suffice to say, she's not my favorite person.  But...she's a family "friend" so I smile and keep my distance.

Anyway, like I said, she starts in.  Two of the nieces at the party had meltdowns at some point because, well, they did.  She was complaining about how ALL the girls in Hubby's family cry too much (and by ALL the girls she meant 2 out of MIL's 5 female grandchildren).  Cue Squirmy fussing.  He wasn't crying, just fussing because it had been a long day.  It was now 3:00pm and he'd been up since 7:00am with a 45 min nap.  I instinctively started swaying as he sat on my hip while I chatted with people, careful to keep my back to the "friend" to prevent me from getting too frustrated with her rude, opinionated babble.  Then, oh THEN, I hear her make a comment about Squirmy crying too much just like ALL the girls in the family.  My blood started to boil.  A 10mo who's fussing because he's tired is no comparison for a 5 year old who's crying because someone didn't want to play her game or a 13 year old who is crying because life is so unfair.  But I continued on with my conversation and tried to ignore her.  WELL, that wasn't enough.  She came up to me and put her hands on my son while I was holding him.  He started fussing even more and clinging to me.  I resisted giving him up.  She snapped "Oh just give him to me" and made it clear that either I let go or my son would be in the middle of a tug of war.  I let go of him as she ripped him from my arms and walked away.

I know she couldn't hear me but I didn't care who else might have.  I was PISSED.  I made it clear that it was TOTALLY unacceptable to RIP a child out of his mother's arms.  She didn't even ASK me.  She just TOOK him.  Hubby was so lost.  He's the peace keeper of the family and NEVER wants to cause a scene.  He also knew what just happened was totally unacceptable and it was up to him to fix it since it was him family "friend" and he knew I'd be in jail for murder if I handled it.  So he gave me time to finish spewing hate which gave her a minute with Squirmy, then he took her back from her.  She tried to say he was having fun with her and Hubby shouldn't have taken him away, but neither of us cared.

After that we said our goodbyes.  Squirmy was really starting to melt, I was fuming, and we were over it.  All 3 of us just wanted to go home.  As we were walking to the car, I saw MIL go into the bathroom (one of those classic park bathrooms where you can hear everything that goes on outside while you're pooping) and I made sure to loudly express my discontent and drop a couple of f-bombs to Hubby as we passed by.

No doubt we're scratching 1 off his birthday guest list...