A Time Out for Mom and Dad

Dad won a really amazing award at work which included a trophy, book with his bio in it (along with the other award winners) and a trip to Red Rock Resort, Casino & Spa in Las Vegas.

After getting over the idea of leaving my 6-month-old for a few days, which took a while, until Dad explained that he thought I would have the same feelings if we were leaving a 2-year-old Amelia for the first time, we made arrangements for Amelia to stay with Grandma.  I wrote a big ole book about how to take care of Amelia, packed up her exersaucer, and off we flew.

The resort was amazing.  The weather was gorgeous.  I loved the spa.  If you ever have a chance to go on a spa vacation for free, I highly recommend it.  We spent 4 glorious days lounging around the pool, enjoying spa treatments, seeing Vantage Point at the resort's movie theater, and visiting the strip where we saw Love, which I also highly recommend.

We called Grandma twice daily and each time we learned that Amelia wasn't missing us at all.  She had a fabulous time, slept soundly and loved all the company that came to see her.  Knowing that made it much easier to be away and relax.

All in all, it couldn't have been a better week!  A huge thanks to Dad for being such a stellar performer at work and taking me on a fun, relaxing vacation.  I couldn't be prouder!

Girls Interrupted

Lia and I made it through our crazy week and took a good, long snooze today.  Some of the week's highlights:

• Amelia cut her first tooth!  Bottom right, if you're into details.  No sign of any more yet
  
• Wednesday, Amelia went for her 6-month check up and we learned that she has dropped to the 75th percentile for length and the 50th for weight.  Will someone please feed that kid?
• I went back to work.  It went pretty well and it was fun to catch up with everyone.  It is funny how little has changed in 6 months
• Dad got sick.  I took Wednesday off to take him (and Amelia) to the doctor.  Dad's feeling much better (95% he says)

One (Daycare) Day at a Time

Lia started daycare this week.  And while I personally believe that daycare is good for our specific family, it's still been hard on me.  Lia's been loving it, which has made it much easier for me to drop her off each morning.  And, I'm really, really happy that she's having so much fun.  She loves their jumper, which is much fancier than ours.  And, on Tuesday, she'd been fingerpainting...something I wouldn't have thought to do with her until she was much older.  She's mesmerized by the other kids, and they seem to love her.  This morning, when I left, DCL (the daycare lady) was putting Lia on her back under a playgym and all the other kids were crowded around to watch.

But, last night was a tough night.  Amelia threw up in the middle of the night and generally didn't sleep well.  She had a low-grade fever this morning, but was smiley.  She was a little more cuddley than usual, but otherwise she seemed all right, playing with her toys and talking to them.  So, off to daycare we went.  As soon as she saw DCL and just beamed.  I was taking her out of her carseat, and she wasn't looking at me...she was looking at DCL.  I told her goodbye, that I loved her and Dad would pick her up tonight.  I gave her a big hug and a kiss.  All the while, she was smiling at DCL.  It's great to see that she loves it there and is so bonded to DCL, but I can't deny my jealousy.

A friend recently described the first week or so of daycare as sort of novel.  Like, Wow!  I can have a kid and go about my life at the same time.  Neat!  But today, the novelty has worn off.

Change is hard on everyone, especially Mom.  But, as I said, I honestly believe it's for the best.  And, so I go about my day.  Neat.

I'm "it".

I was tagged by Michelle.  Here's some more info about me:

What I was doing 10 years ago:

• Living in Appleton, WI working for American National Can Company making plastic
  
• Just starting to date the man whom I would eventually marry.  Since he lived in the Twin Cities and I lived in Appleton, this was a BIG deal
• Playing a lot of volleyball at "The Bar"

5 things on my "to do" list today:

1. Buy some new pants for my return to work (using my Gap giftcard...thanks Mom and Dad!)
2. Run to the grocery store to buy more formula
3. Get my haircut
4. Take Jazzmine for a walk in the beautiful, sunny, 40 degree weather
5. Run to the post office to mail a birthday gift to Lia's great-great-aunt

Snacks I enjoy:

• Blue corn chips with guacamole
• Clementines
• Peanuts and cashews
• Peas.  Weird, I know
• Apples with peanut butter
• Popcorn

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

• Give at least 1/2 of my billions to charity
• Move Mom and Dad to the house of their dreams, wherever they wanted it
• Move to Washington State
• Buy Mom her yellow Caddy and buy Dad whatever truck he wanted
• Give Jazzmine a HUGE, fenced in yard with squirrels to chase and lots of shade

3 of my bad habits:

• I've become a procrastinator
• I'm a worrier (but working on getting better, thanks to a book on loan from B&ES)
• I can be an email addict

5 places I have lived:

1. Twin Cities
2. Appleton, WI
3. Madison, WI
4. Waukesha, WI
5. Virginia Beach, VA

4 jobs I have had:

1. Packaging Engineer at General Mills
2. Process Engineer at American National Can Company
3. Worker-bee for The Institute for Chemical Education
4. Telemarketer for the Waukesha Freeman newspaper

Tagging Margaret

Toes, Daycare and a Movie

Miss Amelia found her toes this weekend!  She's certainly touched them before and wiggled them, but I think she's finally figured out they are, in fact, attached to her and that she is the  supreme dictator over them.

Daycare started today, and drop-off couldn't have gone any better.  Dad put her right into the bouncer and she started jumping away.  We said goodbye and left, watching her bounce through the window.  I, of course, had to call at lunchtime to see how it was all going.  She was having a ball with the caretakers, and couldn't be bothered with a nap.  You never know when you might miss something!

Finally, I just had to post this movie of someone else's kid.  It makes me laugh every darn time I watch it and I just had to share the joy.

Things Lia's Loving This Week

Taking a cue from Michelle, here's what Amelia's loving:

To sing:  "Doe a Deer"  She just beams when I sing it.

To do:  Bounce in the Johnny Jump Up for 30 minutes at a crack.  She figured out how to do this about 4 days ago and now it's all she wants to do.

To play with:  Still loving the orange, bell-shaped rattle and any kind of ring she can easily grab and shove into her wide open mouth.

To say:  "Geeeee"

To eat:  Rice cereal with banana flakes and rice cereal with apple juice

To see:  Dad when he comes home from work and herself in the mirror

Sooooooo Tired

Dad often sits on the couch while Lia's in her Bebepod chair on the bow window sill.  She loves watching the cars go by.  But, sometimes, it can be downright exhausting.