All great things must come to an end...

I had an amazing 14 months off work, but as the old saying goes, "All great things must come to an end". Today is my first day back at school after my maternity leave with Jenna. The start of a new school year begins with two PD Days before the students arrive on Wednesday morning. I truly have mixed feelings about returning to work... I wish we could afford for me to stay home with our kids full-time, but in reality, that's not an option right now financially. On the other hand, I really do love my job (but secretly wish it wasn't so much work!!) and enjoy it. I grew up with both parents working and I think it's important for our kids to be around other children too, so I know everything will work out fine. I'm sure the transition will be tough for the kids at first with the new dayhome, but if I learned anything from my first year of having Colby in dayhomes, kids are pretty resilient! They will adapt and do great at Becky's, I'm sure!! Fingers crossed for a good first week! :)

Gerry took Thursday and Friday off last week as holidays, which was SO nice!! I've been putting in quite a few hours at school in the evenings, but with him home on Thursday, I spent most of the day at work. The kids loved having Daddy at home! I'm so thankful for my wonderful husband who supports everything I do and puts the kids to bed when I'm at school or if I can't be home. Gerry, you're truly the best dad in the world and your kids ADORE you (just like I do!!) We had a fun weekend of playing, going swimming, and doing a bit of shopping! So good to have some family time before the craziness of fall hits. As I've mentioned before, I'm worried about balancing everything, but just keep reminding myself to be the best wife, mom, and teacher I can be, while still making some time for myself.

I achieved a personal goal yesterday that I'm SO excited about!! I finally ran 10 km!! I am racing in the 10k Rotary Run on September 12th in Stony Plain and wasn't feeling ready (truly... had fallen off my "running bandwagon") so needed to get serious again and had a great run late yesterday afternoon. Yay... such a great feeling. Just need to continue it and look forward to race day. My Goal = Finish! :)

We are in major transition mode with Jenna... she has switched over to Homo milk now, so no more making up formula for us! She loves milk and is doing really well with it. Also, we are trying to eliminate her bottles... so far, we have eliminated her naptime bottle, so we'll keep working on the others. One last transition... into one nap a day instead of two. She seems so young (much younger than Colby) to drop her morning nap, but if she sleeps in later in the morning, it just doesn't work. Hopefully we can figure out her schedule now with the new routine of going to the dayhome everyday. She's growing up way too quickly... planning Jenna's 1st birthday party has only reminded me of this! How can my baby girl be one already!?!

Colby is doing great on his bike... it's so cute (and yes, brings tears to Mommy's eyes watching him!) He loves riding his bike and is really good at stopping, starting, and walking his bike across a road. I think he really enjoyed having Gerry home at the end of last week and was needing some Daddy time! We are still working on his "behavior" and are all hoping this "phase" soon passes! It's very draining and I truly hope he is good at the dayhome for Becky. Kids are always better for others, right?! :)

Have a great week, everyone!
Lesley