Sort of NBR: I love my family!
My immediate family (mom, dad, 2 sisters) live all the way on the west coast, in Vancouver. I'm in Southwestern Ontario. It's a 5 hour flight, plus a 2 hour drive from Toronto Airport, so we don't see each other often.
My mom came down in June, but this is the first time the whole family's been out since D was born. I haven't had to do much of anything aside from stuff I don't trust others to do, like mix D's batch of formula, or shower with him. I've changed maybe 5 diapers in the last week, fed D a handful of times, and they don't even hand him back if he's cranky, they soothe him!
A bit of backstory: My brother borrows money off my parents constantly, and has since he dropped out of school at 17. At this point, he's probably borrowed close to $30,000 from them, and never paid back a cent. My one sister is still in university on their dime, and the other sister did a one-year course at film school ($20,000!), and is now a dog walker. Because the rest of them take advantage, I do everything I can to never ask them for anything. We didn't even let them pay for any part of the wedding, because it was close to $10,000 for their trip to be here.
They were all supposed to stay with us, but my dad ended up booking a hotel room so we weren't overwhelmed. One night we stayed in the hotel by ourselves, and the rest of the nights, my parents and my sisters switched off, so that someone was always in the house to help us out.
I was really hesitant to let them buy much while here, but my dad sat me down, and told me he was very proud, and happy with what I've accomplished for myself (bought house on my own at 22, married DH at 25, who they LOVE and now the baby), and asked me to let him try to even the balance between what he does for me, and for the others. His exact words were "At this point, no matter what, you'll still cost me less than the rest!"
So, they've bought us supper 3 times, paid for our gas (in a minivan, no less!) to go to a family reunion that required a full tank, and tomorrow we're going out again. My dad is a big reader like me, so we're going to get D a bunch of kid's books.
For the really NBR part that makes me super happy - I had several thousand dollars worth of shoes ruined by a pipe leak in the basement, including my really good running shoes. As a result, getting back into shape has been difficult, because I have bad joints. Tomorrow morning, my dad's taking me shopping for new runners, at a store that will spend a ton of one-on-one time helping select the best shoe for what I need, and he doesn't care how much he spends. I nearly cried when he told me this, because it means I'll be able to jog/run instead of just walking daily, without hurting myself more. I've been really unhappy with my weight loss progress, and this is exactly what I needed.
My family was always REALLY close, so being this far from them has been extremely difficult. Being back with them this last week has felt so natural, it's like we've just picked up where we left off when they moved, only this time with DH included.
This is probably longer than really necessary, and probably not interesting to anyone but me. Sorry if I bored you, but I need to rave about them!
Re: Sort of NBR: I love my family!
Nice! I'm impressed they change diapers - my dad won't do that at all, and my mom only started doing it like 5 days into her 2 week visit.
Have fun shopping for shoes - getting fitted for running shoes at a good store was the best thing ever. I had never had an athletic shoe that didn't give me blisters until then!
Me, too!
The break DH and I have had while they've been here is priceless. I don't think we've even had a minor disagreement the whole time, since we're not at all stressed! I love the help they're giving.
And Then There Were Three...
Married: 08/14/10
Baby #1 Born: 06/18/11
June Moms Blog