Downtown

We had some really great weather this past week, so Tyler took the older kids downtown for one morning to play soccer, ball, etc. That is an interesting thing about this city, at least compared to Chicago. You can decide to go downtown for a few hours and it isn't a big deal. It is like going to the mall or to a restaurant ... with a few more constraints on the available parking. In Chicago, you definitely had to use public transportation from where we lived. (Of course, riding on a train to and from downtown was all part of the fun! But it also meant a large time commitment in order to make the trip.) In Chicago, there always seemed to be a parade or festival or some other function occurring in a part of the city that caused mass congestion everywhere. When you go downtown here, there really isn't that much going on, not too many people around, and really not that much to do. You can drive through the downtown area, get across the bridge into Illinois, and never have to press on your brake. While I don't miss the Chicago traffic, I do miss that there was always something to do! And sadly, we just never had the time to do most of it. When asking about this year's family vacation, E. asked to go to Chicago!

Practice, practice, practice
I have been giving P. every opportunity possible to practice sitting up. She almost has it! She is just about to the stage where she is sitting up but has that forward lean. I sat her down in the chair today for a little photo shoot before the older kids woke up. She absolutely loves affirmation, so when she sits really well I start praising her and clapping and she just smiles so big! Her other new item of interest is that she has officially found her thumb and sucks on it whenever she is tired and trying to fall asleep. E. never had any interest in his thumb (he took a pacifier until 4 mo.) and S. is a two-finger sucker (you have all seen the pics ... and if not, just look back through old posts!). So P. will be my first thumb sucker. And she sure is cute doing it.

Warning! Busy week up ahead!
I have a very busy week coming up and I am really dreading it. I am not dreading the week's activities, just all of the unknowns that come with it. (I am a control freak and not having everything laid out and planned causes me unnecessary anxiety. This is just one of the negative side effects of my perfectionism.) My employer just finalized yesterday that I need to go into the office for four days (Northern KY/Cinci area). Normally I just have to go for a couple of days, but this time there are extra meetings I need to attend and a new online store feature that I need to get launched. (I am the manager for our online bookstore: www.AnswersBookstore.com. We are launching a new "live chat" feature where customers can chat live with our customer service team without having to call in.) The dreadful part is that I am nursing P. and she has only ever taken a bottle once . . . and that was over 3 months ago. Not only that, but if she isn't on site for me to nurse, I will have to spend a significant amount of my day pumping. Not fun, but the real anxiety comes in that our office is so fast-paced that many days go by so busily and quickly that it will be 3 o'clock and I will realize that I never had lunch. So stopping to pump every 3 hours for 45 minutes - 1 hour is a stretch for me, not to mention that I have to then find the time somewhere in the day to make up for all of the missed time pumping. If it wasn't for the physical discomfort of not pumping, I would forget entirely. So now I am debating if I should ask a grandmother to stay on site with the kids so that P. can be "delivered" to me whenever hungry or if I should just pump. I mean, pumping would be a nice lesson to me in drawing boundaries and walking away from loose ends in the heat of the moment, but it would also cause strain on P. by switching her virtually cold turkey as well as on the poor grandmother that had to try and feed her . . . while watching the other two. Wow, am I irrational and a worry wart or just super protective and cautious? I normally call this critical side of myself "realistic," but maybe "pessimistic" would be a bit more accurate! On a postive not (yep, I just have one), we will get to see all of the grandparents while we are in town. My days in the office are a Thursday – Tuesday, so we will get to see Tyler's mom and stepdad while I need to be at the office and then we are going to drive up north to see my mom and dad over the weekend. If anyone is up for it, drop in and see us!