My favorite job

Being a mommy is more than I honestly thought it would be. I had visions what it would be like and those are accurate for the most part. However, the feeling of being a mom is no comparison to what I imagined. The joy that overcomes me when Georgia learns something new or the feeling of excitement each morning when I see her smile light up the room. I have learned to slow down and take in each moment. Being a mom cannot be explained, only experienced. It is the best job in the world. Indeed it is a job and the hardest job you will ever do.  When you become a mom, it becomes who you are. I never knew I could love a little human SO much! 

Big Girl

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This weekend you really turned into a big girl. First of all, you got your very first water bottle. You think you are so big drinking from it!! Also, you ate three whole bananas on Saturday. Anyone that knows me, knows that I'm *slightly* particular about what you eat. So your obsession with bananas I am totally fine with but we may want to lay off so many or prunes will be in our near future. Speaking of food, some of your favs right now are zucchini fritters, turkey dogs, string cheese, blueberries, and peas and carrots. Your new fav breakfast meal is yogurt with a peanut butter honey waffle. I love meal times with you!😋

Park Fun

We went to the neighborhood school playground today. Georgia had so much fun! She is growing and changing each day and taking her to a place like a park it becomes very evident just how fast she is growing. She thought she was something else climbing everywhere and running around. She loved going down the slide and trying to walk back up it. When it was time to go home, she was very upset. She did not want to leave the fun. Miss too big for her britches even walked the whole way home. 

Favorite Things

Your favorite new thing to do in the bath is clean up your toys. You put each toy one by one back in the container. You clap for yourself after each one. I love watching you learn new things. You also love pulling everything out of the laundry bin, but not for long until you will put every last piece back inside the laundry bin. 

Another place I find you often is in the laundry room. You like to feed Rudy one piece of food at a time. You are so motherly and amaze me at how you instinctly know how to care for Rudy and your baby dolls.

Bed Time

All I heard while I was pregnant with GC was "get all the sleep you can now..." and to be honest with you I only had about 5 weeks of little sleep before GC started sleeping 8 hour stretches. I literally thought I birthed the best sleeper in the world, until she turned 6 months old. I blamed it on teething for the longest time. I never really rocked GC to bed, not even as a newborn. I always laid her down awake and she put herself to sleep. Summer came around and she all of a sudden needed to be rocked. Obviously I started it at some point and didn't even realize what I was doing. All summer I pretty much slept on the floor in her room because she would cry out needing a back pat, paci, or just some snuggles. I repeated over and over, "she will never sleep in our bed!" Never say never, my friends!!! August rolls around and all of a sudden the up and down nightly routine just wasn't so glamorous when the 5 am alarm clark started going off. That is when I decided well maybe she can sleep in our bed. Well, let's just say it was December and she was still sleeping in our bed. Caleb looked at me one night and said, "Claire, at some point we have to decide what kind of parents we want to be!" Boy that hit me hard! He was so right. In my classroom I run a pretty tight ship and don't let my kiddos get away with much, especially when I know they can do something better. I looked at Caleb and said, "you're right...she can sleep in her bed and she will, but just give me until Christmas break!" 

Christmas break rolled around and I was motivated to get GC in her bed and sleeping. I was determined. I bathed her, fed her a bottle, and immediately laid her down still awake. Night one was awful. I repeat awful. I laid her down and she screamed for one hour. Night two was better. We were down to about 40 minutes. Night three was even better. She only cried for 12 minutes or so. Night four was what we both had been waiting for. She laid down at 8 pm, cried until I shut the door, and then nothing... Not one peep until 9 am the next morning. Needless to say she has been taking naps better than she ever has before AND she is sleeping in her bed for 12 hour stretches. She can do it! I feel so much better. She is sleeping so much better. There is not a perfect way to parent or perfect routine or "way" but you do have to find what works for you and your family. Sleep is an essential and I am thankful we have finally found our groove. Speaking of essential, I also started diffusing  Peace and Calming at night. I definitely think it helps.