Summer!

Summer is, hands down, my absolute favorite time of year :) I went into summer vacation knowing that my main goal was to spend as much quality time with Ella as possible. My mom would sign us up for every sport/activity/class possible during vacation and we always were at some kind of museum, pool, water park, or play-date. I really want my kids to grow up that way because I have such fond memories of those times. Our vacations consisted of one week at the Newport beach house and one week at Bass Lake. I'm determined to eventually do the same for Ella and, once she's old enough to appreciate it, take her all around the world :)

Well, to say the least, we definitely managed to keep quite busy. Ella took swim lessons and my-gym classes each twice a week. We now have passes to Disneyland & Sea World and were able to visit San Diego Zoo, the petting zoo, pool, and lots of different local beaches. She loved having play-dates with all of her friends and enjoys spending time with kids her age (we are working on her being nice and "gentle"). No matter how girly I dress her, it's becoming quite clear that I have more of a tomboy on my hands. Once I caught her eating her second earthworm (I wish I were kidding) I knew she was my little wild child.

Now I am trying to transition her into a local in-home daycare for the 4 hours that I am at work. We had our transition day where I left her for 2 hours and although she cried for quite some time, I think that it will work out. She did much better than at the 24 hour Fitness daycare (she's only been twice and they paged me after 20 minutes both times!) It's funny because before I had Ella, I wasn't that sensitive to parents leaving their children with me on the first day of school. Since I taught kindergarten for 5 years, I always had to practice being stern and encourage parents to leave the room as soon as possible. I thought the longer they clung onto their child the more difficult they were making it for them. So selfish! Well, talk about being a hypocrite! I went to hug Ella good-bye for the third time and the teacher looked at me like, "Really, I thought you weren't going to be one of those parents." And there I was, knowing it was best to leave but not able to pull myself away. When she goes for real, I'm determined to be a good parent :) I need her to know that I will always come back for her and I could cry just thinking about it. I was telling my sister that the second you have a child you become a walking waterfall. I can tear up at anything that reminds me of my baby, crazy! We have a great nanny option just in case but, after really thinking about it, I do want her exposed to other kids. All 6 of the kids in her "class" are within 18 months of each other so we'll see how she does.