Separation Anxiety

Yesterday was "Family Day" at Mira's day care. It was nice to see Molly again (her day care provider) and was good to reconnect with people from school. Molly only does day care for teachers, and it just so happens that I teach with everyone who uses Molly. Somehow that has helped me in my mental preparation for leaving Mira in day care. Speaking of . . . this blog is titled "Separation Anxiety" not because Mira is beginning to show it; rather, I am. Yesterday was something of a wakeup call for me. While I'm still very anxious to return to school, I'm beginning to realize that I'm going to be away from this beautiful little girl for nine hours a day. Most likely, I'm going to miss her first words, first crawling, and first steps. It's killing me. It's like the world's largest rock and hard place: can't stay home, can't bear the thought of leaving her. Hopefully there are still some Kleenex in my classroom.

Yesterday was also Mira's four month appointment (two weeks late). She weighed in at a whopping 17# 8oz and was 26.75" long. That puts her "above the 95th percentile" for both weight and length. What a big girl! I hit Dr. Mahoney with my big, long list of questions and was surprised by his answers -- or lack thereof. When should I start cereal? "Well, there's really no answer to that. It depends which culture you're in, what stage the baby's at, which philosophy you follow, etc., etc., etc." Hmmmph. While this leaves me plenty of leeway to do whatever works for us, part of me was looking for a cut and dry answer. No such luck. That was also the blanket answer for my questions about teething biscuits, how much cereal to feed her at a time, how often to feed her cereal, and whether to start with fruits or vegetables at the six month mark. I guess I'll just take this as permission to do whatever the heck I want. I'll be calling my mom all the time; I'm sure of it.

This brings me to today's picture. I'm going to try giving Mira cereal every day now. When do we move to twice a day? Who knows. This picture was the aftermath of today's attempt. What you can't see in the picture is the crusty film covering her entire face. I was laughing so hard. She's definitely eager to be eating; she grabs the spoon every time I approach her with it, and her fingers immediately follow into her mouth (and then go all over her face producing the aforementioned crusty film). Mira's new thing is "blowing raspberries". I'm hoping she doesn't choose to practice this new artform while I'm feeding her. She will, won't she?

On a last angelic note, I think my little girl must sense that I'm struggling with approaching separation anxiety. Twice today she's snuggled with me and has actually fallen asleep on my shoulder. That's very unusual for Mira. I struggled to put her down both times.