what's going on

time for the bi-monthly not-too-terribly-interesting-but-at-least-somewhat-informative blog post!

as you probably know, fall semester started last week, which meant back-to-work-for-real for darren and me. or just me, really, since darren has been working steadily on his dissertation all summer. he's a trooper, that one.

so here's what the crazy schedule looks like so far:

MWF: (that's uga-speak for monday/wednesday/friday)

i teach from 8am until about 1:30pm, so Darren (a.k.a., SuperDad) is in charge of dropping off Will (a.k.a., Mr. Snuggles) at the sitter's (a.k.a., Awesome "Grandma Debbie's") before he teaches from 10am to 12:30pm. i do a little planning after classes, then pick up the little guy around 4:30. we have one glorious hour of playtime and snuggling before i hand him off to daddy and go to karate. by the time i get home, he's usually bathed, fed and sleeping soundly, so it's a quick dinner for darren and me, then bedtime for mommy.

TR: (tuesday/thursday, because abbreviations are a little tough for uga-ers?)

i try to use the 8am-11am window to do some planning while darren watches Will. then, the hand-off, and daddy goes to work while i make up for hardly seeing Will MWF.

the benefits of this schedule:

-we both still get a good amount of quality time with Will, even though we're both working full-time.

-i get a little time to myself, even if it is teaching and planning. it's a reminder that i didn't lose my identity at all by becoming a mom--i just added on to it. and, strangely enough, i have realized again how much i really enjoy teaching.

-Will gets time outside the house and with other people--not just Grandma Debbie, but also a couple other babies from church that Debbie occasionally watches.

-whether it's a direct consequence or not, Will has started napping better! sometimes he'll sleep for a total of 3 hours or more at Debbie's, and at least 2 hours total at home. (hence this blog post!)

the drawbacks so far are few:

-i really miss seeing Will the days i teach and have karate. on the upside, though, i feel like i appreciate my time with him even more, and i feel more patient when he's having a rough day.

-well, 8am classes are never fun, even though it's the most convenient time for us. i am really exhausted at the end of every teaching day. but being able to rest a little on TR makes it bearable.

-apparently our little genius has already learned some math: an earlier bedtime + a few naps = the right to get up at least once during the night. whereas he used to sleep 10 hours straight easily, now he wakes up after about 5 hours. or like last night, after 5 hours, then 3 more hours, then 2 more hours....(that's still very unusual, though). again, we can't complain--plenty of babies don't even sleep 5 hours straight at his age.

overall, things are going smoothly, and we're still counting our blessings everyday. we both have jobs that we love (most of the time) and that manage to pay the bills, we have wonderful family and friends to help us learn the ropes of parenthood, and we have the sweetest, cutest, snuggliest little boy ever.

and just to prove that last point: