So Long Summer

The bright yellow ice cream truck hasn't played it's annoying little melody on our street this week. Our little community pool closes on Friday. The school supplies are on sale EVERYWHERE you go. The buses are out practicing. The end of the summer and start of the school year is definitely upon us.

Today was my last day at home with Cate. I had kind of wanted it to be spectacular...but let's be realistic- Cate is 6 months old. We started off the day early at Children's Hospital. Cate is fine! Better than fine actually. Remember that flat spot she had on her head as a really little baby? Well, the doctor had us make an appointment with a plagiocephaly (flat head) specialist back in June. At Cate's six month checkup last week, we asked her if we needed to keep our appointment. Dr. Brown's recommendation was to go ahead and keep the appointment just in case since it took us two months to even get in. So today was the appointment and after 4 hours at the hospital, Cate came home with a clean bill of health. No helmet or therapy necessary. Her tummy time, rolling over, and sitting up have all contributed to it correcting herself. Needless to say, Cate was exhausted when we got home and slept for almost 2 hours.

When she woke up, she had a late lunch. Cate is in a phase right now where she wants to eat her bib the second food isn't in her mouth. I discovered today that finger puppets (which we keep in the diaper bag to distract her when she gets fussy when we're out) also keep her from trying to eat her bib during meals.
The finger puppet above is from the new pack of puppets I got at IKEA yesterday. That's also where I bought this cute frog organizer.
Cate's room is themed Animals and ABC's and the frog matches perfectly. It's the best place to keep some of her odds and ends like pacifiers, swimmy diapers, and sun hats. Cate cracks up just looking at him.
We spent some time hanging out on the floor, practicing our sitting up.
We also played a little in our exer-saucer.
After daddy got home and we ate dinner, we decided to head up to our community pool for a little swim. The pool closes on Friday so tonight will probably be the last night we make it up there. We did find out though that our pool passes (which were a whopping $10 each) are good through December at any of the 3 indoor pools that Cincinnati Recreation Center has. So we might get to swim some more this fall. Cate loves going to the pool.


So tomorrow Cate starts at her sitter. It'll be weird not having my little sidekick with me all day. I don't have to be at school tomorrow for anything, but I wanted to make sure that Cate had a day where I could be reached in case there was an issue. She'll actually be the only one at the sitter's tomorrow which will be a nice way for her to get acclimated. One of the other babies will join her on Friday and then all three (well, one is part time) will be there next week. I have everything ready to bring with me and am praying that Cate adjusts well and "fits in." I know she will though.

It's been fun being home with Cate all summer. And while I did shed a couple of tears as I nursed her tonight and just held onto her in those moments before she slipped into sleep, I know that this is all going to be great. I love my job! I love Cate! And this year will be about figuring out balance. I already proved to myself last year that I could leave work at work (I only brought papers and projects home to grade two or three times throughout the year). Cate's only with someone else for 6 hours a day too and she'll make friends!

~Melody :-)