A Mommy and Emmy Day

I went to bed on Wednesday night, and I was excited -- I had the day off on Thursday! And no, it didn't mean going on a trip somewhere or even getting to sleep in. It meant a whole 12 hours with my little girl! Since going back to work after my maternity leave, I haven't spent many weekdays with Emmy. I get a glimpse on the weekends of what it is like to spend a whole day with her, but the weekends are usually pretty busy, and I'm not the only one that wants to spend time with her. Of course I have to share with Daddy, and he tends to hog her! :) Needless to say, I was excited to experience just a regular 'ol Thursday with Em. 

Disclaimer: Before Thursday arrived, I did several things to prepare. "Why does someone need to 'prepare' for a day off?" you may ask. It sounds so strange perhaps, but I just knew I would enjoy the time with Em more if all of the chores and items on my to-do list were checked off. So last weekend, I cleaned the house: bathrooms, floors, dusting, all the usual things I try to do once a month every six weeks. Another thing on the to-do list was to swap out Em's 3-6 month clothes. It was time to once again pack up all the adorable onesies, sleepers, and outfits that were now too small. I replaced them with the 6-9 clothes and even the 9-12 clothes, so hopefully everything will fit for the next few months weeks. I also had a list for the grocery store. Knowing that shopping with a baby is not so wonderful, Boomer took the list and did the shopping on Wednesday evening before he came home. It was a big help, especially since he did it in tornado-like rain. Such a trooper! Aside from perhaps a load of laundry, I was ready for a guilt-free day of spending time with Emmy. 

We woke up at our regular time around 6AM and did our usual morning routine. Daddy left around 6:30AM as he always does. I knew he wanted to be home, too, so that's actually how this blog post came about. As soon as he left, I started sending him pictures, the first one of Em playing in our bed (something we usually never do!) Then I kept taking pictures throughout the morning and realized they were great snapshots of our day. Here is what our "Mommy and Emmy Day" looked like!

After playing in bed for just a little bit, we moved downstairs for some rice cereal. Em did very well eating her cereal, but she was also very interested in grabbing the spoon, the bowl, and of course my phone. 

While she was somewhat contained in the Bumbo, I took that opportunity to clip her fingernails. A part of me still nagged to "be productive," and it was something I knew that needed to be done. Her nails grow so fast! Usually I clip them during her Saturday nap -- yes, while she is sleeping! That was a tip I received from other moms, and those other moms are right; it's definitely more tricky when she is awake! Then we loaded up to head to the gym. I don't often work out during the week; usually I only have time on Saturdays and Sundays. With having the day off, I selfishly wanted to get in a workout. It is very convenient that the YMCA offers childcare, and we were there just a little after 8AM when childcare opens. I got an hour in on the elliptical, and before we headed back home, I fed and changed Em. Knowing that it would be past time for her morning nap, I wanted to be sure all the conditions were perfect for her to fall asleep. And sure enough, she did....

After I managed to get her inside and upstairs to her room, she slept for over 2 hours!

An yes, I left her in the car seat. Don't judge! I fully subscribe to the mantra "Don't wake a sleeping baby!" While Em was napping, I showered, pumped, painted my toe nails, and ate a nutritious lunch of Easy Mac and homemade sourdough bread. The sourdough bread was a gift from one of the parents at Boomer's school, and it was yummy. What a thoughtful family! With Em still sleeping, I even had time to start that load of laundry. 

Just as I was moving the laundry over to the dryer, Em woke up. Knowing that she would be hungry, we tried food again, this time bananas and blueberries. Em wasn't too interested. Like I wrote in my last post, she hasn't quite come around to other foods. Luckily, she takes the rice cereal, but I hope I'm not still pumping when she is in elementary school! As you can see in this picture, her face says it all...

We played around on the floor for a while, until something smelled a little funny. Since she was playing on her tummy, it caused the rare front blowout! Luckily I was close by, so I caught it before it got too bad. But yes, Daddy got a picture of that, too!

It was probably time we got dressed anyway, since by this point it was approaching 1PM. 

We practiced sitting up, and then we went for a walk around the neighborhood. The weather that morning still hadn't quite cleared from the earlier storms, but luckily we had a window of sunshine for our 30-minute loop around the neighborhood. 

It was close to 3PM by now, and I knew it would be time for Em's afternoon nap. In fact, it was probably an hour later than her usual time when she is at Grammy Daycare. After feeding her again (just milk this time), I put her down in her crib. 

I was hoping for another long nap like in the morning, secretly planning to take a nap myself. But less than an hour later, she was wide-eyed, looking at the camera, and babbling away. It wasn't too much after that that Daddy came home! Whew, I was glad, because as fun as the day was, I was excited to have a helper. Now that Boomer was home, my pictures to him stopped, so unfortunately there are no more photos to show of our evening. We went out to dinner at East Coast Wings (yes, again! we love that place!) Then we even stopped for a milkshake at Sheetz. It wasn't a bath night, so after a few minutes of jumping in her exersaucer, it was time for bed. 

As I was reading my book in bed that evening with Em asleep on the video monitor, I couldn't help thinking that the day was pretty perfect. Sure, I didn't get much of a nap, and Em didn't eat her fruits and vegetables, but it was nice to have so many uninterrupted hours with my baby. I'm not naive to think that every day would be like that if I stayed at home. It's hard to know what it would be like -- there would probably be a lot of days like Thursday, and there would also probably be days very different from Thursday. Even so, it made me look forward to my next opportunity for a "Mommy and Emmy Day!"