Let's just say that MIL was in RARE form and pushed me beyond reason. I am sooooo tired of dealing with her.
A few years ago she was up before Xmas and she asked us if she could do a 12 days of Xmas thing and give him a gift everyday. Well, our assent apparently was for every freaking day she sees him for all eternity. Over the visit He got gifts everyday - we went to a museum and she tried to buy him a ton of stuff and I told her no, he already had too much and we're trying to cut back on stuff since he's always looking for the next gift.
Anyhooo - we go out to dinner for the B-day (the girls were 40 minutes late!!!) and I've packed up the goodie bag with coloring books, crayons, Leapster, etc. About an hour in she pulls a toy out of her purse and gives it too him - fine whatever with me. THEN 40 minutes later (while DH was in the bathroom), she pulls out ANOTHER TOY!!!! I grabbed it and said no, that's too much for one dinner out and handed it back to her. Nik was busy playing with his Leapster and didnt' see it go down, but he heard it and looked up - and she was dangling it and swinging it around to make sure he saw it.
She could have said sorry, she could have said nothing while putting it back in her purse and I would have been fine, but she didn't. She proceeded to say that she brought the toys to distract him and make sure he didn't act up. HMMMM, 1) He wasn't acting up, but she insinuated that he was, and 2) WTF was all the stuff that I brought that he was busy playing with. So in one felled swoop she insulted her GS's behavior and my mothering skills. Lovey woman. Of course, I became momma bear at that time and said that he was behaving just fine thank you very much and that I had already taken care of his distraction needs and he doesn't need new toys at such a rapid pace, of course that is when DH got back to the table. GRRRRR.
I did tell her she could give it to him the next day so he could have it on the plane. Then the next morning she kept asking me if it was ok to give it to him - she asked 4 times the passive-aggressive woman that she is and I told her each and every time, sure whenever is fine.
DH tried to talk to her about it and told her that one gift and a book per visit is more than sufficient, but then she broke it down a:, the zhu zhu (god it's annoying!!!!) was the visit present, the book was the halloween present, then there were 2 more that I can't even remember the justification for - so she's unstoppable. And Nik, when he opened the zhu zhu first words out of his mouth were where's the habitrail - see looking for the next gift!!!
Oh, and the best part of the trip. My dad's 80th Bday is 12/24, so we are spending the Xmas week at my parent's house. My mom is inviting MIL and SILs to Xmas day dinner. One SIL is a nurse and we counted out her days to see if her day off fell on Xmas so it would work out (she works nights). She has the 23rd and 24th off - meaning that she starts work at 11:00 PM on the 25th. MIL starts off the conversation with "We have a problem with our Christmas plans this year as Virginia's parents will be inviting us to dinner".
So, in my mind she let me know EXACTLY how she really feels about me and my family over the weekend.
