Ethan had his first babysitter this past week. Miss Heather came over for two hours while I stayed in my bedroom with the door closed and was able to work uniterrupted for two solid hours. Heaven! Since I work freelance there are days where I have lots of projects and days where I have nothing going on. I've had a lot of guilt lately though, because I've had a lot of projects and I feel like I've been going through the motions with Ethan and hurrying him off to nap so that I can get back to working. That goes against the entire reason that I decided to be a stay at home mommy, so I decided to figure out how to find a slightly better balance. Ethan had a wonderful time with Miss Heather and I caught up on some assignments so that I was able to relax and just enjoy Ethan later that afternoon. It's amazing what a difference those two hours made. I was also able to go to bed a little earlier that night, because anything I don't get done while Ethan is napping is reserved for after he goes to bed at night and I've been staying up pretty late some nights to get things wrapped up. That wouldn't be horrible except that Ethan is an early riser. To say I've been exhausted lately would be putting it mildly. I think we're going to try to have a babysitter for Ethan once a week (for just a couple of hours) which will be great for my mental health and for Ethan. Heather was fantastic with him and had way more energy for playing and entertaining him then I usually have. (Poor little guy - I have to drag him to Target and the grocery store, do laundry, etc. etc. so hanging out with Mommy isn't always the most fun.) I think he will really enjoy having a couple hours with Miss Heather every week!
This past weekend my sister and her best friend (who has grown up with our family - I affectionately refer to her as the "other sister") came to visit. We had so much fun and put together a royal wedding viewing party. We had all sorts of goodies to eat and of course, hot tea and scones. I refuse to share any pictures from the party, but let's just say that there were tiaras. It was so fun to get to do something girly for a change. I've been so focused on being a good mommy that I've kind of forgotten about myself lately. I'm working on finding a better balance with that too.
Earlier this week I thought Ethan was ready to drop his afternoon nap (he went 5 days without actually sleeping in the afternoon!) but thank goodness that today he decided that sleeping was fabulous again and took an afternoon nap. I would give anything to take one short nap a day, so this child has no idea how good he has it. He takes a solid morning nap now (he has settled into an hour and a half to two hour morning nap) and has now adjusted to a 45 minute to one hour afternoon nap. He went through a period a few weeks ago where he was shortening his morning nap, so I think that he is settling into his new routine. Ethan thrives on a schedule, so I'm curious to see what he settles on now. I've heard that once your child gets to be pretty predictable they go and change things up on you again, and Ethan is living proof of that statement. I put Ethan in his crib for "quiet time" the past couple of days which was fine (he just babbled to himself throughout napttime) but I wasn't prepared for him to give up a nap entirely just yet. I know that day is coming soon, but maybe he can hold on for a few more months....fingers crossed!
Now that the weather is nicer I've been taking Ethan on an afternoon stroll and to our neighborhood playground each day. He is so funny on the swings - he holds on so tight! This afternoon I took him outside to read stories under our peach tree. He tried to put his toes on the grass and would immediately retract them. I think he thought that the texture was funny. We might start doing storytime outside for awhile until it gets too hot. As much as I stress about everything, moments like these are so precious to me and I am so grateful that I get to spend my days with my son. I can't imagine anything else I would rather be doing.
My camera is still not uploading pictures properly (I think it has something to do with the fact that the memory card is full) so when I go to upload the pics they are all out of order and there are over 1400 on there so there's a lot to go through. I'm going to try to figure it out this week so that I can add pics on here as well.
That's about it for now - hopefully I'll be able to catch up on the rest of life this week as well :)
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