Friday, March 12, 2010

The First Week

So, a week has gone by since my last thoughtful post, and oddly enough, my daughter threw another monkey wrench into my musings over schooling by...............drum roll.............. giving up her afternoon nap!

*MOSTLY*

As I type, she is currently dozing in her room. But, she has not napped all week, and has slept solidly through the night, from 8 pm to 8 am! I, needless to say, am a happy mommy!

So, our first week as a napless family has gone, much to my surprise, quite well. I admit, I dreaded this day, especially as my second-born is coming along. However, things were not as I expected. My mom came to visit Monday and Tuesday, and spurred me to ferret out some "mommy/toddler playgroups", which seriously helped us out. Our first attempt at M.O.P.s wasn't successful, seeing as it turned out to be a study group of sorts for Moms with nursery available for toddlers. I wasn't comfortable leaving her in a strange nursery, a whole floor away from where I was. Plus, the topic of study wasn't riveting. We decided to drop that one and move on towards something more inclusive of both moms and toddlers.

Next stop: Friday play group at a church member's home. This one was much more successful. I even ran into an old friend I hadn't seen in 5 years since I left H-burg! It was a full basement of toys and babies, but I did enjoy fellowshipping with other moms my age, and watching our little ones play together. Violet had a blast, in spite of being the oldest one there, by a full year! She does love babies. :)

This gives us a pretty good variety of activity now, including dance, gymnastics, play group, and swimming during the week. Not to mention warmer weather introducing our back yard to us again! Oh yeah! I have a back yard!

Resultingly, I think I'm settled into keeping her out of a preschool for now, since nothing I saw in town here so far has lept out to me as a delightfully interesting experience for my daughter, and most are in the middle of a semester right now, anyhow. I'm not sure how long my energy can keep up with hers, though, what with the loooong, napless day, but....we shall see. At the end of the week, I'm tired, have plenty of braxton-hicks, and even starting to swell a little bit (thank you, Gracie), but we are both definitely fully entertained and best of all, sleeping through the nights! The activity will make the days pass quickly, I am sure. I just have to remember to put my feet up before the end of the day and keep pumping the fluids!

*****NEWS FLASH*****

70 MORE DAYS TILL BEN COMES HOME!!!!!!!!!

1 comment:

Jenny said...

Glad to hear you're finding some groups to play (for both you and Violet!). I'm just realizing lately that I, too, really need something like that! I realized that I've gotten pretty isolated with only a few friends that I still call to "chat" and such. I have to force myself sometimes just to get out and be around other adults -- my soul needs it as much as my mind! It just seems like most of my other "mommy" friends are also crazy with trying to maintain their own schedules and homes. It takes really effort to coordinate a visit. My goal is to try to get a regularly scheduled something for both of us -- maybe together, maybe not. Maybe with preschool in the fall, maybe not. UGH! Really want to get Evie into dance, swimming and gymnastics, too (HOW do you have time for all that?!?!?). Finances and time are issues for all of that. Gets kinda crazy and just plain out-of-hand sometime! Soccer just got over last week, so now we move onto the next thing...whatever that is!!!
Nice to see the countdown! As long as you can look ahead, hope is alive and well!