back to school

First, a few quick updates on the little guy. Eli is now 7 months old! He is starting to finally mellow out more and I can actually set him down and leave the room for a few moments without him freaking out. He has also started sleeping in his crib all night, which was a huge struggle for all of us. I am anti cry-it-out and pro baby cuddles, but in the end it worked itself out. One day I just thought he was ready and that night we laid him in his crib. There were tears, but we got through it and he's doing much better now. He is also napping in there, which is a fairly recent development but a good one because I dont have a swing for him at my parents house, so when we're there he has to sleep in his pack n play. He has also started crawling, or shuffling with his belly on the ground, I dont know that I'd call it crawling proper but close enough. see him crawl! I need to bring him back in for a weight check in two weeks or so because at his 6 month check up he was only 13lb11oz. Meh I think he's fine. The past week or so he's had a little cold or allergies or something. He is over it now but it was rough for him. We're getting him baptized May 29 at our church in Fort Collins, and we're very excited about it. All of our family is coming up for it so there will be about 25 people there!

Ok, now that I've covered Eli, heres whats going on for our family as a whole. Eli and I are moving in with my parents in August. No, Geoff and I are NOT getting a divorce or separating or anything like that. We just can not afford daycare up in Fort Collins! I interviewed some, and it would cost us aprx. $1100/month to put him in daycare. Thats more than our mortgage. Not to mention I am kinda wary of daycare to begin with. So we talked to friends and whatnot and I am hesitant to leave him with people I dont know well, and we still cant afford to pay anyone what they would want to be paid for watching my little man. So we spoke to my parents and they agreed to let Eli and I move in. My class schedule is actually pretty unique and lends itself well to my mom and Chelsea watching him for me. I will have class on Tuesday from 2-6 and Thursday from 5-9 and Saturday from 8-5. So my mom can watch him on Thursday and Saturday and Chels can watch him on Tuesday. I will also have to fit 150 hours of practicum in somehow, but that comes out to be 150hrs/15wks=10hrs/week so I will probably put in a few hours Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning in order to be done with practicum by Nov 30. My classes end Nov 29 so I will likely move back to FoCo for the month of December. It'll be super hard to be away from Geoff but it makes a lot of sense in a lot of other ways. If we do this, Eli will be well taken care of, childcare will be free, he'll be with people whom he loves and who love him, it'll save us a lot of money, and it will allow Cole (Geoff's BFF) to move into Eli's room and pay us rent. We're not charging him a ton because E and I will be in and out but it helps him out too and we could use the money! I am not looking forward to being away from my awesome husband but I am looking forward to finishing up school. This way, Geoff will be free to take classes in the fall because he wont need to help me with Eli in the afternoons while I study and do homework. My parents are pretty excited to have Eli there too. I hope it all works out for the best. Finishing this program will be awesome for me as well, because I only have 12 credits of classes left and then 1 semester of student teaching. Once I am done I will have my teaching license and be able to finish my masters degree online. Provided I find a job, Geoff will be able to quit his and finish school full time. Eli will be old enough to put in daycare or preschool at that point. Its stressful and I would rather be home with him but I am too close to not finish right now. In the long run I will be glad I did (I hope). Phew. It feels good to get it all out and on "paper".

I leave you with this