I Suck At Visiting Nana

Yesterday, Karen and I took our newborn daughter on her longest road trip to date. That road trip was from Norwell to the mean streets of South Boston. So what is in South Boston besides a history of prejudice (thanks to South Boston's opposition to desegregation)? Karen's grandmother... also known as Nana.

Now I suck at visiting Nana. For Karen and I, it has been some time since we last visited Nana. Nana currently resides in the nursing home known as Marion Manor, which is located in South Boston. It's not that we did not want to visit Nana. Karen and I used to visit Nana a lot. Unfortunately, time management has been a little more difficult these days with a newborn daughter (Briana).

Karen has been itching to bring Briana in to see Nana. As it turns out, the visit made Nana's day. Nana was all smiles and as happy as could be when Karen, Briana and I arrived.

Interestingly enough, the hospital staff cautioned us against bringing Briana out during the first 4-6 weeks. Particularly, they were concerned about supermarkets because the elderly apparently love to swarm and touch babies at supermarkets. You may think I was kidding, but it was true. We were warned about supermarkets/elderly because the staff was afraid of Briana contracting germs and disease due to her underdeveloped health. (For anyone curious, Briana was born 7 weeks premature.)

Naturally, for those 4-6 weeks, I thought of the elderly like... well... zombies... which is something to avoid altogether. Instead of walking slowly and wanting to eat brains, the elderly walked around slowly and wanted to touch Briana. It was an easy association to make for someone as warped as myself who has played way too many Resident Evil video games. Regardless, the association worked. We avoided going to the supermarkets... and elderly nursing homes... with Briana until now.

Interestingly enough, there weren't that many elderly people who swarmed around Briana when we brought her in. Lucky for us, Karen's mother and father were already there and had brought Nana down from the general populace. So it essentially was just Karen, Karen's mother, Karen's father, Nana, Briana, and me... and some occasional stragglers in the lobby area.

Anyway, like I mentioned earlier, Nana was all smiles. I think we made her day, which is a nice feeling. As for Briana, she pooped like there was no tomorrow. Amazingly, the poop was contained entirely in the diaper.

Following the nursing home visit, we made a brief pit stop to see my favorite sister-in-law (Janine) and my favorite brother-in-law (PJ). Janine's BFF (Gretchen) was also over helping out as PJ was getting ready for his mini-bachelor party for his younger brother.

As usual, it was great to see Janine, PJ, my favorite niece (Kaleigh), my favorite nephew (PJ), and Gretchen. We stayed as long as we could... or as long as I still had fine motor skills because I was on the brink of starvation. Neither Karen nor I had eaten dinner by that point and it was getting rather late. But thanks to our favorite restaurant (Not Your Average Joe's), I was fine. We ordered takeout from there, hurried home, and I immediately devoured my meal. And in case anyone is curious, Not Your Average Joe's does give you bread on your takeout order. I was pretty excited about that. Of course, I was just excited to eat at that point... which is another case that time management is so hard these days with a newborn baby.

Anyway, Not Your Average Joe's was a great way to end the day. The burger was delicious. The burger to me was like what brains are for zombies... or for the elderly.