Mood: Frustrated
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Easter, Part 1
2007-04-10, 3:31 p.m.

I have been experiencing a pretty high level of frustration toward my in-laws in the past couple of days since Easter. Jeff finally said last night that maybe we shouldn't be the ones bending over backwards and putting ourselves out so that they can be in Jack's life. I've tried really hard to see it from their side. They are NEVER our first line of help when it comes to babysitting for Jack. When we do use them, it's always under the condition that they come to our place and I think it's usually pretty obvious that they were either our only available choice or last chance for a sitter. From their point of view, I've tried to think, well maybe they're feeling like they've been treated unfairly and want us to make the effort. Honestly, I can't and won't change a thing as far as the babysitting circumstances are concerned. My in-laws have a long history of agreeing to things and then not following through and doing things that I just don't agree with. I have a hard time feeling good about leaving Jack in their care knowing that they think the nieces are coming along just fine and that Nikki's Ex isn't an unpredictable lunatic who could show up on their doorstep at any moment and do something desperate. I just don't trust their judgement. I'd let them pet-sit at their house, but they can't have my son.

So anyway, that's not the point. After plans had been all cemented with my family for the holiday, we waited all the way until Friday afternoon for a call from them as to what their side of the family was doing. I truly believe now that that call would've never come. I finally had Jeff call them. As they weren't home at the time, he left a message saying that he'd be home until 4:30 for them to call back. They called right at 4:30 as he was leaving. They were planning to spend all morning at church and my MIL wasn't planning on cooking. Basically, they weren't doing anything. All right then, we figured we'd fit them in either before or after the plans I'd already made with my family (turns out we saw them before AND after my family... I really think we did more than fulfill our obligations to them).

The only reason we saw them in the morning is because I INSISTED we go to church. Last year we didn't make it to any service and so we just dressed up for the sake of having the clothes bought. I didn't want to do that again. We ended up then going out to lunch with them, which meant eating only an hour and a half before my mom's meal was planned. During that time they heckled us about saying that Jack doesn't care much for sweets while they watched him mangle and devour a cheesecake. It was in the spirit of, "we don't know our own son." In truth, no, he doesn't do sweets very much because we rarely feed it to him. I campaign to keep junk food out of our house as much as possible because I don't need to eat it, at least. So therefore he doesn't get much exposure. He does like soda, when he can get his hands on it, and he can spot a chocolate chip cookie from Subway a mile away. Mainly, his favorite sweet treats are applesauce and cereal bars and I like it that way (oh, and sometimes Teddy Grahams--I guess that counts for junk food then). I can't hardly beg him to take a bite of ice cream whenever we do buy it. So with the cheesecake, sure, if he gets it in his head to take a bite, I'm sure he will like it, but usually he won't even try it.

So anyway, we all went to my mom's with full bellies. Jack barely ate anything (a tiny bit of mashed potatoes) and Jeff and I force-fed ourselves the incredible meal that my family put together. It was a nice time with my family though. My cousins are in from college and my Grandparents are home from Florida and my brother was there, of course, and doing well, so it was a very blessed day for family.

Look to the next entry for part 2... This is getting really long.

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