I love MDO

So it's about 11:30AM on a Monday morning, I'm actually getting to sit down to eat a meal uninterrupted, my house is clean (though in the interest of full disclosure my master bath could still use some work), laundry is put away, and I have some free time to write a blog post. How in the world is that possible with two young kids you ask? Jack is now at his first day of Mother's Day Out this morning!

This past weekend, I kept feeling this sense of sadness from time to time knowing that today was coming. Now why in the world would I feel bummed out that I get a break for five hours today? I guess it's just the realization that he's growing up and I'm starting to lose some control over the influences in his life. He's been in childcare for a few hours at a time each week while I attend some other groups I'm involved with, so it's not like he's never been away from Bob or I for any extended period of time. This Mother's Day Out thing just feels different though, maybe because it's more structured and that reminds me of him going to school somehow? I'm not 100% sure.

Anyway, I thought I would be sad without him here today, but I confess that it's been absolutely WONDERFUL. I don't know what I was so worried about this weekend! I've had time to play with Anna and then get the house cleaned up while she's napping. I even have time to go to the grocery store during the day now! I still haven't tackled an HEB run yet with two kids. Bob and I have just taken turns taking Jack at night to get our groceries, but now I can actually do it during daylight hours. What a concept! I do miss Jack, but boy it's nice to have some time to myself. If it wasn't for the fact that he's already in childcare two other mornings of the week as well, I'd bump him up to two days at MDO instead of one. I think we'll do that in the Fall.

My only frustration with MDO has been searching for a silly nap mat for Jack to sleep on. Those things are impossible to find in stores! JC Penney was the only store that had some in stock, but all they had was Dora the Explorer. I saw a bunch of sites online that sell them, but needed to get one for Jack by today and didn't want to wait on shipping or pay the prices I saw. Luckily a friend of mine had one to spare, so Jack is using that one. I figured with the number of moms that have their kids in daycare, preschool, or MDO that these things would be easy to find, but apparently I was wrong. Hello Target? Walmart?

The other wonderful thing that's happened over the last week is that Anna has decided to start sleeping through the night! Actually, I should say we've started to let her sleep through the night. At her two month well-baby check, her pediatrician told us that she should be able to sleep through the night now (meaning at least a six hour stretch). We had been waking her up to feed her around 11pm thinking that it would help her sleep longer, and when we stopped doing that, she's magically been sleeping longer on her own!! We've put her down around 8pm and she's slept until about 4:30am the last few nights. Now I know that little babies can be really fickle with their sleeping habits and that this may change next week, but I'm encouraged we've had a few nights in a row that she's been able to go so long. It's amazing how much better the world looks when you've had a decent nights sleep!