Complete social meltdown

Yes, I'm still here. It's just hard to find time to post in the midst of feeding, changing, playtime, etc. Throw in Holy Week and family gatherings, and it's downright impossible to find spare time around here.

We discovered over the last few days that Olivia is just not ready for daily social engagements. She's such a social baby, wanting to be awake and see everything, but her little brain just goes into meltdown mode with too much input. I was able to get her to sleep through Holy Thursday Mass, but Good Friday and this morning's Easter Mass found me playing the walk, jostle, distract, repeat game.

We spent most of Good Friday in the back of church, but that was impossible this morning. There's something about Easter that makes lapsed Catholics come out of the woodwork. People I've never seen before come in droves and fill our tiny church to bursting. The back of church was crammed with folding chairs, and there was absolutely nowhere for us to go when the fussiness started. Outdoors was also out of the question because of the cool temperatures and Olivia's cute but definitely NOT warm Easter dress.

So I pulled out my entire bag of tricks, including her favorite soft book with the paper in it that crinkles because, seriously, crinkle sounds are way better than listening to my baby shriek through the entire Mass.

We survived. I even remember parts of the homily. I was listening, but the servers could have done a jig in front of the altar and I would have missed that completely. I had to keep my eyes constantly on the baby in order to keep the inevitable shower of spit-up from hitting her Easter dress or my own clothes. I succeeded in this task, with the kneeler taking the hit instead. *Sigh*

I suppose we made it worse by dragging Olivia to family gatherings on Friday night and Saturday. The noise and chaos of the 30 or so cousins, aunts and uncles who were able to attend just gets to her, and quickly.

We are not a quiet family. And while most of us have learned to either join in the chaos or completely tune it out, the "in-laws" have more trouble with this. My husband is one of those who gets overstimulated by the noise and confusion...and that's just from the adults. Add in the many small children and the seven (yes seven) babies that were born into the family last year, and it gets pretty crazy. Even I think so.

So I think we'll be laying low for the next few days. We could all use some peace and quiet.

Speaking of the princess...she's awakened from her nap and is crying for her supper.