Visit with Grandma, Part I

Isaac was very lucky this past weekend: his Grandma Ferne came to visit him!  While all three of us were very excited, the first day with his grandma was, well, a pretty fussy one.  Murphy's law was in effect--you know, everything that can go wrong will.  First of all, I had to wake him when we got to the airport, and like his daddy, Isaac's a little slow to really wake up.  He then started manifesting signs of both separation and stranger anxiety, deciding that the only thing he wanted was to be held by Mama--which is fine, but it's illegal for me to hold Isaac while driving, not that he cared.  I then exacerbated things by doing something really terrible--going to the bathroom without him.  I could have taken him with me but apparently the only thing Isaac's truly afraid of is the flushing of a toilet seat, making bathroom breaks a tragedy waiting to happen. 

By the time we got to Trader Joe's (like I'm going to Madison without going to Trader Joe's), Isaac was pretty much inconsolable even when I was holding him.  Now that a week has lapsed, I can laugh about it, but picture the scene: Ferne's patiently wheeling the cart around while I'm holding a very loud, screaming Isaac-bear and simultaneously trying to make crucial decisions like how may bottles of three-buck chuck or frozen tikka masala paneer to get.  Pretty much every Trader Joe's employee come around to try to help us out and console/buy Isaac's love through stickers, balloons, etc--as if I needed another reason to love Trader Joe's--but he wasn't having any of it. 

Finally, Isaac fell asleep on the way home and returned to being an angel baby (or at least, not a demon-pig baby) when we got home.  He was still a little wary about Grandma, but he happily accepted the tasty stacking cups she brought him as a gift.  So I decided that Ferne should feed him his dinner; the boy's mad about food, so what problem could there be?

Well, the main problem turned out to be that Isaac pretty much refused to take food from his grandma.  Now, I understand--Isaac only sees three people on an everyday basis--Mama, Daddy, and Amanda, his babysitter.  (He also sees our friend Amy pretty regularly, and he's totally in love with her.  But I digress.) So naturally, he's wary of people whom he doesn't know very well.  But it's not just that Isaac wouldn't take food from grandma; it's that he would refuse to open his mouth for grandma (or, if he did, he would then stare at her and refuse to swallow it) and then giggle and open his mouth wide for me.  Really, did he have to be such a little sh!t?

Now, I have to brag about my mother-in-law because Ferne was such a good sport about everything.  Can you imagine how frustrating it would be to fly out to see your grandchild--especially when you hate flying--and then have him act like this?  I felt so bad about Isaac's epic fussiness.  Ferne just took it in stride, though, and kindly said that she was impressed with how much personality Isaac has.

That's where I'll leave us for now--in a cliffhanger like a serialized nineteenth-century novel.  Will Isaac ever be sweet angel baby to his grandma?  Will grandson and Grandma be reconciled?  Will all four of us succumb to the manure smell of rural Wisconsin?  To be continued...