Well, it is finally the end of November! This month has been forever long, and really a bit of a pain. I am glad to see it end! The most exciting thing about this month is Leah's mobility. She has been a perfect army crawler! And, most recently the back-and-forth rocking has begun! I love these pics that our daycare provider captured. Each picture is best representation of November: here...I...come! 
We spent this whole weekend with both sides of our family. Which means we spent 6 hours driving in the car. Luckily, the minivan has made our travels much more enjoyable and roomy. This was the last picture of our weekend. Complete exhaustion. 
We have had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend thusfar. We have spent two days in Des Plaines, and will spend the next two in Clinton. Being a mother this Thanksgiving has made me reflect more emotionally than I have in the past. The frustration of sleepless nights, the exhaustion of long days of working as a teacher and then coming home to my mommy job, the heart ache when she is sick...is all worth it. It is your heart, moving around outside of your body. Oh so very thankful this year for so many things: most importantly, a healthy daughter, loving and helpful family, friends who make me laugh, a job that gives me satisfaction, my health, and overall happiness. 
Leah has been very busy at daycare. She has been reading books, playing with puzzles, learning to share, crawling around, and her favorite...holding the remote control. Daycare has really helped her be to a social kid and have very little stranger anxiety. Most of the little friends this week got the flu, so hopefully they will all recover and be back to play on Monday after the long holiday weekend. 
I am very fortunate that Leah is a good traveler. Mainly, because we have to drive quite some time to get to our parents' homes. She usually starts to smile as I excitedly sing, "we're goooooing on a caaaaar ride." Of course, Trevor thinks I'm nuts...but she's never quite as smiley when daddy is the one packing her up. Trevor and I also LOVE just driving around town: driving through the country, looking at big expensive homes, and driving across town to our first home together to see how the neighborhood looks. Hopefully, Leah will continue to love drives and this can be something we all do together once in a while. 
Leah is definitely to the stage of wanting to be entertained. She does okay playing alone for a while, but wants to either play with someone or be in the same room with people. This seems fine, until mom has tons of house chores to catch up on and dad is just plain exhausted. I snapped this picture while balancing laundry, cooking and organzing clutter. Trevor decided he would just "play" with the baby while I did all that. I love that Leah is just staring, wondering, "what does he think he is doing? This is not playing!" I couldn't resist this photo opportunity. 
I felt it was time for some old equipment to go, and some new to come out to play. Good thing too, she is loving her jumper. Trevor is freaking out, "this just doesn't seem stable," he keeps repeating over and over again. I on the other hand have no issues with it. And, the person who actually has a say, Leah, is having a ball! 
