our weekend begins

I'm so accustomed to my 3 day weekend now that I forget others are working on Fridays (poor them!). The 4 workdays include an evening that feels too rushed - getting E home, fed, bathed, nursed, before she crashes between 7:30 and 8. But I have nothing to complain about for the three days off. We have E on somewhat of a schedule but it's based on what she was doing anyway. The idea behind doing it was to help David be assured of getting his naps on the days he keeps her, but as soon as we decided this and got a suggested schedule from Erma the sitter, David started working every day (the feast or famine life of a freelancer). So he's only tried the schedule a couple of times (and already resents its restrictions as I knew he would!). So it's not very strict - like the pirates' code, it's not rules it's "guidelines"!

E wakes up normally around 5, nurses one side, plays for 30-45 minutes, nurses the other side and goes back to sleep for 30-45 minutes. Then she's up for a while, say 7:30 til about 9, when she takes her morning nap. She has some milk around 10:30 - 11, then playtime, and lunch at noon. Afternoon nap starts approximately 1- 1:30, can last 1-2 hours. Then a snack, and playtime til "mama comes home time" of approx. 5:30. A little milk before dinner begins at 6- 6:30. Bath at 6:30. In the rocking chair to start nursing and rocking to sleep by 7:15.

It is true, however, that as soon as you start being able to predict them, they change! Emma's waking time has fluctuated a lot, and when she was sick it was all through the night. Some days she won't take one of her naps. But she has consistently gotten sleepy at night at the same time ever since about 3-4 months old. Maybe she's a morning person like me.

The two of us went out to dinner last night with some of my work colleagues, and it went well. We met at the restaurant at 5:30. I tried to nurse E in the car beforehand so that she wouldn't want that during the meal, but she didn't do much. She was too excited to hold the car keys! In the restaurant she ate avocado and tried tortilla chips. The avocado was a hit, and a mess. She didn't distract the table conversation much because she just sat and stared for a long time, taking things in, and then when she did get animated it was directed toward the children and the balloon at the tables nearby. We got home about 7:30, skipped the bath, and she went to bed on time. Just didn't see her daddy much.

Okay, enough of this. Here are two more photos from July (age 8 1/2 months).

fistful of Cheerios
trying spaghetti