WHEW!

It has been forever since I have done a new post. It has been a crazy two weeks. On October 18th we had a going away “party” for Josh. He is off to boot camp for the Marines. As you can tell from the picture Daniel was very sad about this. We all wish God’s blessings on him while he is away. Almost two weeks ago Nathan got sick with what is most likely the swine flu. He is mostly over it, but has a lingering cough. I have spent the last two weeks worrying that Daniel or I would get it. That would be scary with such a young baby. Watching the news every night and hearing about the flu, and how there is not enough vaccine is not helping. Thank goodness (knock on wood) neither of us has gotten it. Hopefully I have some immunity to it by being a teacher and being around kids, and I have passed on that immunity to Daniel. That means Nathan has had to stay away from Daniel, so I have had to do all the feedings, etc. So, that means there has been no extra time to craft or blog. This week has been extra crazy because I am transitioning Daniel to daycare before I have to go back to work next week. The first two days I went with him, and the next two days he stayed for several hours, increasing each day, until today when he is going for a full day to daycare. Daniel has done really well going to daycare. He has good teachers at his daycare. The first two days when I went with him were really for mom to feel better, not him. He comes home exhausted though. As you can see from the picture he is very tired, but Elmo helps make it better. There is so much to look at and do there (including watching those other little people who are his size and crawling around), and all kinds of noises, that sometimes even wake him up from a nap. All this week I have been practicing getting Daniel and I ready in the morning. He has definitely been preparing me for what could all go wrong. One time I was feeding him and he ate too much. I knew it was too much, but he acted like he was still hungry so I kept feeding him. Needless to say he vomited it all up everywhere right before we needed to leave. That meant a wardrobe change for Daniel and I. I told him if he didn’t want to wear the giraffe outfit he should have just told me. He didn’t need to go through all that trouble. On another day he was taking a good nap, and I knew he would be hungry when he woke up. Needless to say he woke up literally just two minutes before I was ready to put him in his car seat and leave. I went ahead and put him in his car seat, and explained to him that we needed to leave. I warmed up the bottle right before we left, so when we got to daycare it would be ready. He was okay with all that. He didn’t cry or scream, and waited until we got to daycare and eventually ate. Daniel’s skin has also been an issue this week. He normally has dry skin, and bad cradle cap. This week his face has been all red and irritated. The ladies at daycare have asked if he is okay. So, of course Daniel would develop really bad baby eczema this week. So, we went out and bought soothing, unscented Aveno soap, and lotion. Hopefully that will help. I have posted a cute bath picture here. On another morning when I was already up feeding Daniel, Pepper our dog woke up and proceeded to vomit on our new carpet. That meant Nathan had to get up and deal with that. Needless to say Daniel and Pepper have been helping us “practice” getting ready in the morning by creating all the bad situations that could happen in the morning. I was a little worried how Friday would go. Today Nathan and I did a real run of what it will be like next week. We have both been dreading this, and how we are going to coordinate this and be ready on time. That means Nathan has to do the morning feeding (I need time to pump Daniel’s next meal), and all of us have to be ready and out the door by 7:30 so we can get to work on time. This morning went really well. Nathan and I were pretty much ready to go. We actually had to go wake Daniel up around 7:00 to feed him and get him ready to go. Nathan took care of that while I finished up getting Daniel’s bottles ready to go in his bag and all the other little things done. Now I just hope every morning goes so well. People have been asking me if I cried when I left him for the first time at daycare. I did not. Going those two days with him for several hours really helped me be okay with it. Also, having to worry about the flu makes leaving a healthy baby at daycare seem not so bad. People have also been asking me if I am ready to go back to work. It has probably a blessing that I have not had time to sit and worry about that. I am as ready as I will ever be. I went to school yesterday and meet with Cindy who has been my long term sub. She has done a wonderful job, so that has been nice for me to not have to worry about school. It was easy to get what I needed from her before I go back on Monday. Well… I have this whole day to get stuff done (thank goodness). It would be nice to sit around and just relax, but there is too much to do. This house needs to be cleaned, I need to do plan my science lessons and do some things to get ready to go back to work on Monday, and I need to get ready for Nathan’s dad to come over to celebrate his belated birthday this evening. At least there won’t be time to sit around and miss my sweet little baby. If I am productive today, then I can enjoy his first Halloween tomorrow!