Stay at home mommy

I gave notice to work today.

I have been struggling with the decision to continue working part time (which is usually 3 days a week) or to be a full time stay at home mom ever since returning to work in June. After a lot of soul searching and discussion with just about every woman I know, I have decided to stay home with Emma. She is going to be small for such a short time, I don't want to miss any of it. She is teething already and is 14lbs 13oz at 5 months. I can't believe how fast the time is flying. It seems like yesterday she first smiled at me, and now she is laughing up a storm. I am having such a good time with her. We love to sing and dance and play together. When I am at work, all I can think about is being home with her, and when I am home and have to work the next day, all I can think about is how much I don't want to leave her. Our day care is fine, but I just miss her. Financially, we should be fine. With day care costs, my salary barely brings home much extra. If things do get tight, Shawn's boss will let him do a couple hours of over time. I don't want him to have to do that, but it is nice to know there is that option. My boss also said that she would love to have me per diem a few days a month, if she could create that position. It would be great to be able to keep my hands in clinical practice a little bit.

I am just so glad the decision is made! I've been debating for so long, it's good to be done. Of course I had to give 2 months notice (better than the 4 months from my last job!) so I still have a lot of time.

Now I have to get moving on finding some mom's groups/activities to join so I don't get bored out of my gourd after the novelty wears off.

First Camping Trip

We took Emma camping to Cooper's Rock a few weeks ago and she did pretty well. Shawn's mom, Nora, brother Bill, his girlfriend Monica, Desi, and Ella joined us. Bill, Monica, Emma, and I went out on Friday afternoon to set up camp, and the rest of the family joined us after work. It's about 3 1/2 hours away from home, so the whole party wasn't together until after 9pm. We tried pretty hard to keep Emma's sleep routine. Unfortunately, we were not able to be at the campground with electricity at the campsites, so our air mattress was barely inflated. Shawn and I slept with one of our crash pads under a partially inflated mattress and Emma slept on a firm pillow above our heads. I woke up a million times in the night to check on her.

The next day, we had breakfast burritos with eggs, bacon, and cheese, and headed out to the boulders. Shawn, Bill, and Desi did great; even Monica climbed. (She actually did better on her first time outdoor bouldering than anyone we have ever taken!) I sprained my ankle the week before, so was out of climbing commission. It was hot, but fairly comfortable in the forest, and we had a good time. We had fantastic steak skewers (thanks Des!), chili lime corn on the cob, and grilled pineapple for dinner, and smore's for dessert.

Aside from the unfortunate incident of Nora's car breaking down, getting towed, and having to leave her behind to come home later on Sunday night to get it fixed, we had a good time. Oh yeah, it rained on Saturday night and we didn't bring things inside before going to bed, so that sucked too ;) I look forward to going again when it cools down a bit more. We did our best to protect against mosquitos, but they still got most of us. Emma was covered most of the time so she was pretty safe.