Today was our twice-monthly NAMI coffee and conversation! On the first and third Mondays, several NAMI facilitators meet at the NAMI Hut for coffee, pastries, and to have fun hanging out. My friend Sabrina tried so hard to come, but couldn’t make it, and everyone was really sad that we didn’t get to see her.
When I walked in, Felix was walking next to me on the ground. He saw something behind a chair that scared him a bit and he let out a few boofs. (Boofs for those who don’t know are single muffled barks indicating uncertainty.) I didn’t know what was going on, and picked him up. As I bent down to pick him up, I saw a baby on the floor! Felix has never met a baby before—I don’t have reliable access to anyone with young kids.
So we sat on the couch across the room and just watched the baby. She was super cute and extremely well behaved! She just played on the floor within 3 feet of her mom’s chair. At first Felix was more comfortable in my lap. After a bit, I was able to put him on the floor. He only let out 2 more boofs, I picked him up again, and then after more watching the baby put him down again. He was very confused about the baby! He watched her a lot, and relaxed more and more the more he watched her.
After a while, the mom, Julia, brought the baby, Addie, over to sit next to us. Felix was intrigued but still a little wary of Addie. I put Felix in my lap, and after a while of being on the floor and in her mom’s lap, Addie reached over to Felix. He reached his nose out to sniff her, so I let him. He sniffed her fingers, and she was pleased.
Felix never wanted to really interact a lot with Addie, but he did become totally comfortable with her next to him, so I count that as a win! Hopefully the next baby he sees he won’t even get to the boofing stage with.
We had a wonderful time talking with everyone there! I got to see several old friends, and made a few new ones, too! We got hungry, so put a frozen pizza in the oven and had pizza to share!
I also got to pick up my gift certificate that I won for the volunteer appreciation drawing! I am very excited, but don’t know yet what I will spend it on.
After we ate pizza, we got out the Uno cards and played two rounds. I won the first game! Which was a huge surprise to everyone since I kept getting draw 4 and draw 2 cards played on me at the beginning! Felix fell asleep on the floor while I played.
I stayed for about two hours, but soon it got to be doggy lunchtime, so I had to head home. I can’t wait for the next NAMI coffee and conversation! It’s really so fun!!!!
Sorry no pictures, because I was too busy having fun to take them!