What a difference!

The transition back to work has gone fairly smoothly thus far. Of course I haven't started grading papers yet, but in terms of teaching, it's going well. Nadia was happy to go to Sarah's house on Monday. She asked to go back there yesterday. It's easier for Paul and I for Beth to come over to our house, but it's nice to know that once Beth moves, Nadia and Ian will be in good hands with Sarah. Yesterday was exhausting for me, but that was because Ian woke up at 3:15 and 4:15am. The good news was that he then slept from 4:30-7:15am. I had let him cry at 3:15 and fed him at 4:15. I then tried to fix my laptop.I went back to bed at 5am, but I didn't fall back asleep until shortly before Nadia woke up. I didn't really enjoy choir rehearsal last night, which is very unusual, but I had a splitting headache. As soon as I came home from choir, I headed straight to bed, and thankfully Ian didn't get up until 6:05am. What a difference! I am sure I'll enjoy choir rehearsal if I don't get up so early other Wednesday mornings. Paul put Ian to bed earlier than usual last night. He did feed him once (as Ian awakened twice before I got home), but still he got more sleep last night than usual.

Yesterday morning the cleaning service came and cleaned all the first floor windows and the venetian blinds in every window of the house. I can't believe what a difference it made! The house is so much brighter!! Three people worked very diligently for 3 hours to accomplish this task. It cost me about $95. I view it as VERY well spent money as it would take me much longer than 9 hours considering #1 I don't have as much experience and #2 I have many interruptions due to my two precious munchkins. Instead, I played with the kids the whole 3 hours. I wish they were able to start the bi-weekly cleaning service this week as we're having 8 people (5 adults and 3 kids) over for dinner on Saturday night. Oh well. I'll just ask Paul to watch the kids for me for awhile on Saturday so I can dust, clean the bathrooms, etc. in addition to preparing the meal. The regular cleaning service will start in 2 weeks, and I have a feeling I'm going to be very happy about that as well.

Another change which has been greatly appreciated is that Ian is finally taking longer naps. Yesterday his first nap was his usual 30 minutes, but his second nap was almost 90 minutes long (with a slight interruption for a short feeding in the middle). He had been taking 3 naps a day again, but yesterday was a 2 nap day, and today will be as well. It's sooooooooo nice to have more than 10-30 minutes of time during the day when both kids are asleep. Today his first nap was 55 minutes long. WOOHOO! He's taking his 2nd nap right now (it's 1:25pm), and I'm hoping it will also exceed his traditional 30 minutes.