Chan, Chan, Change...

So, I went back to work last week. I started panicking and worrying about it probably a week after Nina was born. I think secretly, I thought that if I didn't talk about it, it would never happen; but it did. The scheduled date was January 12. However, after many snow days, and semester exams being rescheduled, I reentered the world of teaching young minds on the 18th. The night of the 17th, I honestly thought my heart was being ripped out every time I did anything for the "last" time as a stay-at-home mom. ("This is my last time to nurse" "This is my last time to tuck her in") I swear you would have thought I was going away for years. I made Lee promise months ago that he would have her my first day back. I think I thought that it would make me feel less lame calling and crying on my breaks. (I forgot how infrequently those happened in teaching) The morning came and I quickly complained about how early it was! Nina had been sleeping until 7:30-8:00 every morning and 5:30 was super early. I got ready, and nursed Nina and cried the whole time. As I got ready to walk out of the door, I think I nearly kissed a hole through her face.

Once I got to school, I was okay as long as nobody asked how I was doing. I'm there to do a job people, let's keep it professional! ;) As first block rolled around, I had forgotten how it felt to be in front of 31 people! My students filed in and took their seats and looked expectantly at me as though to say "Okay lady. Teach us something." In the midst of all of the things in my life in the last few months, I have turned very introverted and being in front of a group, for the first time in my life, was a huge fear. As I got in front of the class, it was like getting back on a bike: it all started to come back to me. With the help of my kids, I remembered my class rules and my expectations (hilarious that I forgot to tell them what to bring to class!). We just finished week 2 (With some snow days mixed in there) and I feel like everything is going great. Nina is doing well with all the awesome people that are so wonderful to keep her, and I have remembered why I love my job. I honestly think the anticipation of it all was worse than the actual event. Just glad to have the first day over with!

The last few weeks, Nina has been waking up several nights to nurse at around 12:30. She hadn't been waking up to nurse since she was 10 weeks old. I think it was a direct sign to us that the time for rice cereal had come! I plan (but don't hold me to it) on making her baby food, so I dug out my food processor. (I think I only ever used it for grinding up Oreos for the making of Dirt Cake) I ground up my brown rice and boiled it with water and then mixed in breastmilk. It wasn't too bad. We prepared for the whole event with video cameras and Lee's big, fancy, baby-picture-taking camera. Here are a few pics from the big event:

As you can tell, it was a great success! She even wanted a second bowl. I think Nola was hoping she would drop some (she is so helpful like that!). Attempt #2 after she wakes up from this nap!