Wow, I am happy to report that I successfully finished out my 27 days of work. My summer has now officially started. I am soooo excited to be able to be home with my little boy again. Chad and I were so blessed to have such great babysitters (our moms and my cousin, Laurie) while I went back to finish out the school year. They all had such great bonding experiences with "E." The time went by pretty fast, but it was definitely difficult getting back into the swing of things. I can definitely say that finding a balance between being a teacher and a mom is going to be my greatest challenge of all challenges I've encountered in life so far. However, I'm not going to even think about that right now, because I have three months to be home with my little boy! Yay!
Gosh, Chad and I haven't blogged for so long that I don't even know where to begin. Let's see. I think I'll go ahead and list the highlights that I can think of, and if I forget something, I'll add another post.
My mom was here for two weeks spending time with "E." He sure enjoyed talking to her! He developed his louder voice while she was here. I enjoyed having my mom start out the babysitting experience, as she kept notes for me so that I knew exactly what went on during the day. "E" knows my mom so well that I wasn't worried one bit.
Chad's mom was here for two weeks as well. She and "E" enjoyed plenty of walks, shopping trips, visits to my school to get milk (trouble with milk supply for awhile), and bathtime. It was so fun to see Rita develop a relationship with "E." It's hard as she's in Nebraska, but they truly enjoyed each other. It was hard to see her leave.
Laurie, my cousin and E's godmother, spent two weeks as well here. She just recently moved back to MN from FL and has thoroughly enjoyed E. She just can't seem to get enough of him and actually cried when her time with him was up. She and E enjoyed plenty of laughs and shopping trips. I enjoyed Laurie's yummy meals she likes preparing. She's welcome to cook dinner for me anytime. :)
E was baptized today! He did so well and actually smiled when water was placed on his head. Pastor Judie did the baptism, as she married Chad and me so we wanted to keep the tradition. My parents were gracious enough to host a get-together after the service. Most of my family was there and one of Chad's aunts, Judy, even came up with his mom. That was very special. Dad grilled burgers and hot dogs. The day was gorgeous so we were even able to hang outside for awhile. E received quite a bit of money today to add to his savings account at the credit union. He also received several crosses to hang up in his room.
Lastest things:
Began cereal. He was eating rice cereal two times a day for three weeks beginning when he turned four months old. He was doing so well, so we switched to oatmeal and that seemed to block his system up. So we stopped cereal and were told to give him diluted pear juice. That did the trick, so we are back to rice cereal now twice a day.
Discovered his feet. He likes to pull and suck on his socks.
Sucks on EVERYTHING! He puts every single thing he can get ahold of in his mouth including his clothes and other people's fingers. We often wonder if he's teething, but no signs of teeth yet.
Enjoys the pig noise. He loves when I make a pig noise. He responds by actually laughing out loud.
Grabs onto objects intentionally. He'll pull his Nuk out and sometimes even put it back in his mouth. I'm certain he's going to be left-handed like me, as he constantly grabs with his left hand, but one never knows for sure.
Eats about every four hours during the day. He goes to bed around 8:30 and usually wakes up once in the middle of the night to eat. The trouble is getting him back to sleep in his crib after his feeding. We've found that lullaby music helps, but sometimes that doesn't even work so he ends up between Chad and me in bed. We'll fix it this summer...we hope! I long for a solid night's sleep.
Enrolled in a daycare center. Chad and I enrolled E into a child development center where he'll begin the first week of school. It's a little more expensive than a home daycare, but it just opened up last month and is only a mile for our house. The staff is wonderful and know the atmosphere will be more learning-based. I think of it like a school. He'll go there to learn and play. I'm not looking forward to having to drop him off, but let's not think about that right now.
This is all I can think of for now, but I'm sure Chad will add more soon. And if I think of other things, I'll come back too.