May. 14th, 2007

ste_noni: (Default)
[x-post with Ellie's blog]

So, despite a rough beginning, the week ended really well. On Thursday afternoon, Ellie and I made brownies for her daycare teachers as part of a Teacher Appreciation lunch they were having. Ellie and I had lots of fun making the brownies and licking the bowl afterwards. Friday, after work, we made brownies again since the entire first batch had gone to the teachers.

Saturday, Joe and I decided that we were tired of spending our weekends working around the house, so we got up early and decided to head to the southwest corner of the island. On our way, we stopped at a car wash fundraiser Joe’s cadets were having and then we headed to camp Santiago to get gas, drinks, and let Ellie play on the military planes and Jeeps they have there. After that, we headed back in the car, drove for a while, and then got lost. The southwest corner of Puerto Rico is almost like a savannah – hot and dry. Good ranch lands, I guess, but pretty empty. Since we had the dogs with us, we couldn’t enjoy the beautiful state park beach we saw, but we headed off on a pretty rough dirt road that led us right next to this beautiful beach. The only bad part was that there were weeds in the water. We found a clear spot and spent some time just enjoying the water. I found all sorts of huge shells and large pieces of coral. I found an entire conch shell about five inches long. The dogs had a great time swimming in the water. Unfortunately, Ellie had not slept much in the car so she was pretty tired. And it was incredibly hot. We all piled back into the car and once we had cooled off some, changed into dry clothes. We then drove down to another cool looking town with a beach and then headed to the very tip of Puerto Rico. It was sort of disappointing – mostly salt marsh. So, we headed back north and up and around the island towards home. In the end, it was a nice day away from the house.

On Sunday morning, Joe went downstairs to make breakfast, I lay in bed next Ellie, who was still sleeping, and read for about an hour. While I was there, I couldn’t help but think that this was the perfect Mother’s Day – reading in bed next to my sleeping baby. We eventually got up, had a great breakfast (pancakes with fresh blueberries), and went to church. We then came home, did a little bit of housework, and then went for a swim in the pool. After that, we all went out front to wash the cars. Ellie had a good time with the hose. She was in charge of rinsing the wheels, although she needed a fair amount of assistance and supervision. It was a good day and a fun weekend.


In Ellie news, her new favorite activity is to walk the dogs. Or dog really. She does not like to ride in her stroller for walks anymore and instead likes to walk Sebastian. If I try to help her, she is very insistent in her “no, no, Mommy”. I insist on holding her and the leash when cars go by or if we see other dogs/cats, but mostly, Ellie does a good job of walking behind Sebastian holding on to the leash. She probably trips about once per walk but she gets up right away, determined to keep going.
ste_noni: (Default)
I have rewritten this thing 3 times so far. So frustrating.

I need to go to this 7-week course for my new job - July 9-Aug 24. (Of course, I have to go to practically the only other place on the planet that is hotter and humid-er than PR in the middle of the summer!)I’m not willing to leave Ellie with Joe for 7 weeks and he’s happy I feel that way. He could handle it just fine, but that’s too long for me to be away from her.

Originally, the plan was that my MIL would come stay with me in the hotel during that time and watch Ellie during the day. However, Joe thinks his mom won’t handle that very well and to be honest, I can’t really see it either.

I’m hoping the daycare on the base will have room for Ellie. She’s #3 on the list and the director sounded like it was a possibility. I’m a bit anxious about sending Ellie somewhere that I haven’t been able to check out, but all the other federal daycares I’ve seen, including her current one, have been top-notch. However, hope doesn’t guarantee her a place.

One of the options, though, is for Ellie to go spend some time with my parents. I will be spending the 5 days before the training starts with my family in Indianapolis. She seems very comfortable with my parents and I am very happy about how they all get along. But the thing is that I’ve never spent a night away from Ellie. Having her away for a week for the first time ever seems pretty extreme. Am I being too protective?

This doesn’t answer my over all question because the truth is that there is no way I’m letting Ellie go for more than a week tops and I still have to find a place for her for the other 6 weeks.

Ugghhh – this work/parent thing is hard!

Profile

ste_noni: (Default)
ste_noni

June 2012

S M T W T F S
     12
3456789
10111213141516
171819202122 23
24252627282930

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags