My new job

The start of the school year always makes me think of the leaves changing colors into deep reds and oranges, apple cider, trees arching over sidewalks, and children lining up outside of school buses. Now, I know this visual is mostly in my head since we're in Texas and the trees usually turn from green to brown, but I still romanticize autumn anyway.

 Still, when I was a teacher, I could feel the electricity in the air as school began. The buzz of students in the hallways and the feeling that I was starting the year with a blank slate was just about the best part of my job.

I do miss it a little, and it was really strange not going back yesterday when all of my teacher friends were posting about their first days. BUT, I do feel so very fortunate that I can be home full-time with my buddy. We have the best time together, and I don't have to dole out any discipline (hey, she's only 7 months old) or grade anything EVER (hands-down the part of teaching I loathed the most). Now my days look quite a bit different than they did when I was in the classroom...

We go to breakfast at our neighborhood coffee shop a couple of times a week.

We experiment with different foods. (Prunes are a recent fave.)

We go to the Austin Children's Museum.

We work on crawling!

We dabble in Baby-Led Weaning. (Norah thinks shredded chicken is tasty.)

We swing at the park.

We read books.

We come up with silly games like "splash the water in the giant pot." Hey, she's easy.

My "new life" is pretty awesome, I have to say :)

Neighborhood Love

I haven't blogged in a while, and, to be honest, that's because it's so intimidating to try to go back and log everything! I've been jotting down N's milestones in her baby book and in my Google Docs, but am still trying to get actual post-dated blog entries together. Also, if you have a baby, you know how much you try to cram in while they're napping, and blogging doesn't always make the cut! So, in the meantime, I'm just going to start with where we are. It's easier that way, don't you think? Lately, we've been taking morning walks up to the coffee shop in our neighborhood, Russell's, and then moseying on over to our park. N LOVES to swing and ride down the slide with her mom. I'm so, so thankful that Jacob works from home so that we can take these leisurely morning walks together. I have a feeling that these will be some of our favorite memories of our neighborhood.