Miscellaneous

The Peach had her first day at "school."  (I detest the term "day care" and can't think of anything better.  I decided on "school" so that when the time comes for kindergarten, "school" is something she's an old pro at, mentally speaking.) 

My role in this is quite small.  It's at Matthew's place of work, in a federal building. This means I get her ready to go while Matthew is getting ready to go -- and he takes her, drops her off, and deals with the separation; he also has the duty to pick her up, retrieve her stuff, and bring her back home.  This is at least 30-45 minutes each way with a 7 month old in the backseat, and I'm fine with not being a part of this, trust me. 

She wasn't entirely happy with the process.  Once there, she was fine up until she realized someone else was holding her, and then she started to cry.  Apparently she's also a social crier, and when any of the seven other children cried, she joined in.  She was mostly content to play by herself, but did spend a little time with a baby (belonging to a GS-14 that we strongly suspect bumped us from an earlier opening, even though we'd been on the list longer - but I digress.).   They had a hard time getting her to nap, but the bouncy chair helped.  I know all of this because they give us a sheet every day that lists all the times she ate, wet, pooed, and so forth, along with a summary of her day. 

The best part about all of this is that Matthew works on the same floor as the "school."  (I need a better term, or else just need to dump the quotation marks.)  He managed to visit with her during his lunch (she woke up for part of it) and could interact with her.  Wait -- I just asked him how many times he visited with her and he said, "It was a lot more than lunch, my dear."  (Apparently, he visited five times!)   Taking her is much more time than he gets to see her on average work days, and it's all a bonus for him.

But for me, it was weird. It was the longest I'd been away from Peach since the night after she was born (she stayed in the NICU for 24 hours).  I kept thinking about how I needed to be careful to let her sleep - and would only realize that wasn't an issue several beats later.  Most of the day I was confused about what day of the week it was (more than normal), because I was never without Peach on a weekday.

And it was a productive day -- not only did I get to eat breakfast before 10 AM, but I worked, went to the courthouse and the law library, and even had lunch (if Round Table counts) by myself (I ate alone!  And read while I ate!).  Nice stuff.  Once back at home, I painted some in her room -- this brilliant, bright pink that I found among the rejects at Lowe's, then painted a picture frame to match, then tackled the great china cabinet project in the garage (also the pink color - but another story). 

I did miss the little Peach, though.  I was so happy to see her when she came home, although she was so exhausted that it took her a full ten minutes to wake up enough to smile for Matthew or me (Norris, however, got grins right away -- she LOVES that dog). 

Now she's sleeping - in her crib.  In her room!  Those are good times.  (And I'd also be sleeping if I hadn't fallen asleep on the couch and dumped half a mug of peppermint tea in my lap...)