Behind in Blogging

This weekend was really busy with Easter, which we hosted, and general running around. A few notes about what’s happening:

On Friday Jim was off and I had a half day for Good Friday. After Nicole’s nap we went to the hospital to visit our babysitter who’s having medical issues. After that we had diner at Red Lobster, Jim’s favorite. Not that dinner wasn’t tasty, it was, but paying $40 for dinner feels crazy when our weekly grocery bill for 3 people is only about $75.

Our babysitter is probably still in heart surgery right now which means I’m home with Nicole. We took the opportunity to visit daycares around the area just in case something doesn’t go well with surgery/recovery. My sister-in-law babysits which is a very desirable option but my major hesitation is that I wouldn’t be able to visit Nicole over lunch, or, more importantly Chris (I nursed Nicole every day over my lunch break which was great as I got to see her and didn’t have to pump) ever because of the distance. It’s probably working mother’s guilt but I feel very compelled to hang out with Nicole at any available opportunity I can over my break.

All the daycares didn’t live up to my expectations – while the proximity to work is great, the cost is roughly 2X what we pay now and I instantly didn’t like the odor that seems to linger in all daycare centers. I appreciate the activities they did – one classroom was learning shapes during our visit, but felt the the home atmosphere we get with a private sitter at half the cost outweighed the benefits of structure from what I witnessed.

They were probably just being polite, but each of my tour guides commented several times how impressed they were with Nicole’s manners, language skills, and general cuteness. I never get tired of hearing my kid is great.

I got my results back from the 3 hour glucose test – I passed. No gestational diabetes and no restricted diet – hooray!

Easter was nice. We went to church, cleaned up the house and started cooking for company and entertained from 4-10 or so. We gave Nicole some coloring books, an Elmo sing-along movie, and of course some eggs with surprises inside. All of which are a big hit. Because I feel that she gets enough TV accessibility at the sitter’s all day we don’t really let her watch any here at the house. The Elmo movie and recent permission to watch Sesame Street clips on hulu.com have her fascinated and she signs and asks frantically for “more more Elmo/Abby/Zoe/Big Bird” when the clip is over. It's cute but hard to tear her from the computer chair when she's had what we feel is enough.

Too much business this morning lead to Nicole falling asleep on the way home from the tours. She's in bed now, sans lunch, and I'm making the most of the quiet time by heating a chicken cordon bleu, munching on waldorf salad and contemplating some sauteed mushrooms.