I just read this horrible story about a crocodile taking a girl and her mother trying to save her. My heart goes out to the mother and the poor child..
http://au.news.yahoo.com/070904/2/14c94.html?f=mv

It has been a while since the explosion at the airport. I had a few sessions with a counsellor to try to deal with my feelings about it and work out how i would handle future encounters both face to face or telephone. Basically I won't speak to her unless I have to. I won't be rude but I won't be saying anything I don't have to.

Because I love my husband I printed out some photos of our little girl for him to sent to his mother and I organised a keyring from one of those portrait places.- Just don't tell her I had anything to do with it! It certainly isn't a peace offering! then he said he wanted to send her a photo of the three of us.
NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I managed to resist asking "why - does your mother need a new dartboard?"
Then on Sunday she rang. I kind of knew she would, I dreaded picking up the phone all day but luckily he was home from work when she did ring. She said hello and asked how I was. I said fine thanks here he is and passed the phone to DH as if it were a snake. We were both in the family room and I was hanging the washing on the indoor rack when he put his mother on speaker phone. eeeeeeeeeeeeeek!
Eventually our baby made so much noise while  sitting on his lap that I took her into another room. - the great escape! Then a friend arrived so that gave me a good excuse not to go back into the room while he was still on the phone.
Later he said that his mother had been going to say hello to me. - Guess that means she is ready to talk to me again. I have nothing to say to her.
Back in March I apologized for swearing at her while she was backseat driving on the way to the airport . She waited until at least 15 minutes after my apology before she said her vile piece but  I suspect it will be a cold day in hell before she even thinks that she has anything to apologize for.

Yesterday SHE rang. It was the call I had been dreading- my mother in law ringing to speak to my husband. I don't want to stop my husband talking to his mother, but I really don't want to speak to her ever again. Not since the nasty blowup at the airport a few weeks ago.
To be honest I wasn't sure she would manage to be civil in the brief exchange required for me to tell her when he would be home to receive her call. She even asked how I was and got a polite "fine thankyou" in response.
I was holding my baby when I answered the phone and she cried so that made it obvious that I wouldn't be able to speak for long.
Glad that is over. Lets hope next time is as brief and civil.

It is now nearly two weeks since the explosion with my MIL that I talked about in my last blog. I am home and she is a few thousand kilometers away but I still can't seem to move on and forget the incident.
I am still dreading the next time we have to go there 15 -18 months away and dreading the next time I answer the phone to find her on the other end. She is most likely to ring on a weekend so I dread answering the phone on the weekends. I shouldn't let it get to me, but I don't seem to be able to stop myself. When I wake up in the middle of the night I think about it.
When people ask about our 'holiday' I say "I am glad to be home" or " don't ask". I need to move on. Easier said than done though.