On Preschool and Applesauce

I'm exhausted. It's 10:30pm, and I just walked in the door. Today I've been feeling badly about the fact that I am now spending only . . . oh, say around 20 minutes with Marcie directly each day. That doesn't include the car ride to Grandma's house, but a car ride together hardly counts. I know it feels like I see next to nothing of her (or Casey, for that matter)-- and I suppose that would be a fair assessment-- but it's not much less time than before I went back to school at night. I mean, in January, I still had to be at work at 8am. And I wasn't picking her up until 5:30 or 6:00pm (depending on traffic). After getting home and disposing of jackets, that only leaves around an hour and a half. At least 30 minutes of that time I was preparing dinner. Another 30 minutes was devoted to Daddy for bath time. So that left maybe another 30 minutes of time-- an hour if I was lucky-- with Marcie. Which means all I've really reduced our time together by is that final 30-60 minutes of the day. I have no idea if that made sense to anyone reading this-- but I'm glad I got that off my chest anyway.


Now 30-60 minutes isn't nothin'. Don't get me wrong. But when I'm not getting home until after 10:00pm, it sure feels like more than a lost hour. It feels like many lost hours. So it'll take some adjusting. And continuous reminding that it's just until May . . .


Last night when I got home, I just couldn't resist picking her up. I knew I shouldn't, but I couldn't help myself. Of course, it woke her up. And then she didn't want me to put her back down, so I rocked her to sleep on my lap while I (unsuccessfully) attempted to watch television. As I started dozing off myself, I slipped her back into her crib, and she slept peacefully until the usual 4:00am.


Is it odd that I now consider waking up at 4:00am for 20 minutes normal? I mean, at 14 months, I'd think she could last 12 hours without eating . . . hmm.

Anyway, none of this is the reason for this post. I wanted to share our happy news of the day. Marcie has been accepted to preschool. Yup. My girl has been placed for the fall! The way the law works, she can't start preschool in a 2-year-old class until she is 22 months old, which will be September 15th. The school year starts the first week of July. Which means the preschool is holding her spot for 2 1/2 months! How great is that? We are so glad that Casey and Marcie will be at the same school for the next year. We think it'll really help Marcie's transition to preschool (and my transition to life in a law firm). It's such a great school, and Marcie goes every day to drop off and pick up Casey, so she's familiar with it-- and with the staff. Yay for Marcie.

The other reason for this post is our recent Applesauce Experience. Marcie is so good at stealing her brother's left-behind spoon and eating whatever remains of his apple sauce or yogurt that I thought I'd let her try it on her own. And we followed the apple sauce with a meatball sandwich chaser (she loves meatballs). Of course we broke up the bread and the meatballs into little pieces, but somehow that didn't reduce the mess. In fact, after dinner it took me a while to figure out how to get her out of the highchair without making things worse. Check it out:




And just for good measure, lest you think Marcie gets all the attention around here, check out what a good giggler our Casey is:

Who couldn't love such a cutie?