Swinging

I'm in that limbo between care providers for Jack again, with school gearing back up and my undergrads manning their sorority booths or cleaning their co-ops (and by the way, I find it highly amusing that my two babysitters are at such opposite ends of the undergraduate social spectrum). Yesterday I went down to visit my grandma because I missed her and she hadn't seen Jack in a while, but also because I needed someone to distract this darling boy for a few hours so I could try to get some work done. But today I decided I am going to pretend that it's summer for the last week and a half of summer and not expect myself to get anything done. Except for the meetings I have to go to, like tomorrow, and the two-day long field trips, like next week. Aside from that, I am going to enjoy myself until my care-swap starts on Aug 31 and I start working full days three days a week and taking care of Jack and another little boy the other two.

To that end, I met some friends at the park today. A few of the women from my birthing class have continued to get together over the past months, and I'm trying to harangue them into making it a weekly thing on Wednesdays-- the one day of the week one of the gals has off work and also one of the days I'm playing mommy to two boys and could use the social support. So we sat on a blanket on the grass and watched our little ones romp. Aside from running interference for potential eye-gauges by curious little fingers, I was impressed how much time we actually had to talk to each other, and how well the babes played together. We headed over to the playground after a while, and discovered something fantastic there.

Today was Jack's first ride on a swing. Actually, I think one of the babysitters told me she'd put him on the swing before and he'd loved it and I tried not to be jealous, realizing that I hadn't even thought about the fact that he was old enough to try something like that. But I am invoking the policy one of my friends told me her mom had made, having gone back to work early on. She decided that the first time she saw something happen was going to be considered the first time it officially happened. The nanny would tell her the baby took her first steps that day and she would say, nope, not until I see it tonight. So, today was Jack's first ride on a swing. And he LOVED it.

Here are the mommies, Amanda and Bethany, with Jackson and Isabelle. I'm missing Abby and son Reuben, who is another regular, but had a different nap schedule today. This photo makes me laugh. You'd think with three kids, just by random chance you'd have one looking at the camera. But no, two looking left and one looking right. I love it.

Anyway, the four of us having actually been hanging out from the start, I think way back when I commented on feeling sheepish for wanting to proudly announce that Jack had been holding his head up for quite some time already when Amanda remarked on Isabelle's strong neck. Isabelle is now crawling and pulling herself up to standing and practically walking, while Jack is doing none of those things, so the urge has since been quelled. But it's funny to think back to those early days. Funnier still to think about us all sitting around with our great big bellies looking at a model of a pelvis with a doll pointed down into it and wondering how the hell that was going to actually work. When I was pregnant I remember declaring that I didn't want a mom's group because I couldn't imagine anything lamer than having friends based solely on the fact that we both had children. But I guess I'm just extremely lucky that I wound up in this particular class, because these are some smart (all higher degrees), passionate (all devoting their careers to improving the environment or humanity), interesting women. There's lots to base a friendship on. And it's kind of fun to watch each other's kids grow up, too.