First off, I have to say that before the email (see below), I was just about to thank her for the flowers, and completely ignored the rest.

Tiny bit of back story: MIL asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday and I responded that a friend of mine suggested having a day for ourselves, hinting for her to offer to babysit. She ignored what I said and just asked about the cake (they like to bring a cake and we all have coffee). I told her I wasn't sure and she responded that we can postpone it for another weekend, but not after the 2nd week of Sept because they're leaving for a trip to France.

I didn't push it any further and although I was a little disappointed, she has a right to say no. But she loves to hold LO, she's the first grandchild and I thought she'd like some alone time with her for once, she never babysat before. I should mention that English isn't her first language, but she speaks it fluently and her own SIL (my aunt) was with us at the time and my aunt understood what she meant completely. When her and I (aunt) were alone, she suggested asking BIL to babysit for us.

Fast forward to my birthday. I got a call for a flower delivery! I really appreciate the gesture and at first thought it was from SIL since I sent her flowers for her birthday. It was from MIL instead and in the same purple color she seems to like so much (it's not my favorite color). But it was nice of her, I was just about to thank her ... then I read this message she sent through FB:

"Hope You have a wonderful birthday even if we are not visiting this weekend. Hugs from both of us"

Umm ... okay. If it wasn't obvious from the above, we don't really get along too well. There is no way I would have spent my birthday preparing for them to visit. LO's only 2 months old and still a handful! They'd probably expect a longer visit and there is no way we have the energy to cook, clean and fix the yard (which DH would feel entitled to do or else they'd comment on it). So either she REALLY thinks I'd miss her company or she's pulling one of her passive aggressive comments meaning she's disappointed that they couldn't come over and see the baby. Which, BTW, we'd visited them twice during the past week!

How would you respond? Just a thank you for the flowers and ignore the rest? Say thank you and wait until the next meeting and hint about babysitting again? Say how nice it was to have a day to ourselves as a little family? Say how DH's been killing himself all day because he's not used to being with the baby while I took a break?

*Note* I know it might seem like I'm way over thinking this, but this isn't the first time she's given pass/aggressive comments and there is also a back story (that I won't get into) where she'd hurt me tremendously and had walked over the line.