New Year's Week

We spent the first part of the week at home.  Poor Tom had to work, but at least he was able to work from home.  We're working on weaning Emmy off the bottle, which on the one hand has been easy, but I think that might only be because Emmy doesn't have the words to ask for a bottle.  If she did, I imagine we would have a lot more setbacks as Tom and I are sometimes at the point where we'll do anything to get her to stop fussing, even stepping backwards in our child rearing.
To be honest, at the time, I didn't really attribute the fussiness to the fact that she wasn't getting a bottle, but at some point, it sort of dawned on me that we had made a big change and not really considered the fallout.
It was Susan who reminded us that in the past, whenever she fussed, we checked her diaper, then gave her a bottle, and here we were refusing to give her a bottle, and instead presenting her with a sippy cup (!) full of cold (!) milk.
Wednesday night was Mom's birthday dinner.  I feel really bad about it, because Emmy was so fussy that we left early.  We've taken her to restaurants many times, and she is usually very well-behaved.  She loves to people-watch, and there are always so many people to see in restaurants.  But the restaurant was loud and crowded, and since she wasn't in daycare all week, her schedule was off, so for whatever reason, she was squirmy, fussy and loud.  All of which are elements of Tom's baby nightmares.  We tried every snack we had in the bag, we tried some of the restaurant's bread, we even broke down and gave her a bottle.  We tried walking around, sitting on laps, and none of it made any difference.  So, we got our food wrapped up and we left.  That's all you can do with a fussy baby at a certain point. 
The thing I feel bad about is that I had to leave Mom's birthday dinner early.  Tom says that we will wait until later in the month and take her out for another dinner.
Thursday morning, we drove down to Fayetteville to spend the weekend with Susan.  It was a good trip.  We got to do some shopping, and Emmy got to eat several new meals.  (Ham and potatoes! Clementines!)  We got home Saturday night and Tom flew out to Pittsburgh Sunday evening.
Tom's been traveling for work more frequently, and this, a four day trip, is one of the longest so far.  I try not to mention it because I don't want Tom to feel guilty about things that are required for work, but I hate it when he travels.  I hate that he's not home and I hate the added stress of taking care of Emmy by myself.  That being said, the days go quickly.  He'll be home tomorrow night, and we'll be at the airport to get him.