mother's day out

Leah and I decided we needed to take some time apart from one another so that we could fully appreciate our relationship. We decided as Leah moved fully into the terrible two's, that this was a phase of her life that I wanted to be able to check out of for at least a few hours a week. That's when we walked into the glorious doors of Yorktown Baptist Church and signed Leah up for a mother's day out program. It meets for two days a week from 9am to 2:30pm. Yep, it's pretty awesome. Leah has done great from day one. And I relish the opportunity to go shopping with only one little friend to get in and out of the carseat and shopping cart. The only person who seems to struggle with it is Ian. He is a bit out of sorts on the days Leah is gone. They have become pretty good buddies lately, entertaining each other underneath the kitchen table during the day while I try (mostly unsuccessfully) to get my household chores accomplished. They don't do much besides laughing hysterically at each other while Leah steals toys away from Ian the moment he shows any interest in them. She also says a very stern "no, no, no" as she takes the toy away. I wonder where she learned that from?


Anyway, so Leah needed a napmat for "school" so I whipped one up the day before she was to start. As I was making it, I thought "Yeah right like my daughter is going to lay down on this thing in a room full of kids and go to sleep. Good luck!". Day one, no sleeping but her "teacher" reported that she was quiet during naptime which I guess is acceptable. Then when I picked her up on her second day, her face clearly had the "I just woke up" look to it. And sure enough, they said she fell asleep no problem. I was astounded, but pretty glad about it. To put her down for a nap after she gets done at 2:30 in the afternoon means a very speedy drive back home to get in before the 'it's too late in the afternoon for a nap' time hits. All in all, I'm very happy with her going to this mother's day out program. She seems to love it and has no problems being dropped off. And I pick her up hours later feeling like a much better mother. Everyone wins.


Something weird seems to be going on with her hair in these pictures, but there's really no telling what since I spent this entire afternoon sewing her napmat. Everyone survived and I guess that's all that matters.