We had a chance to get away from the house and mingle with new friends over the weekend. RT and I were just discussing how some of the friends we have made since we moved here are all moving away! You can't blame them...it's so hard to make a living here with scarce opportunities for jobs and if you do land a job, the pay is so miniscule that it's hard to make ends meet. For our friends who have moved on to new adventures, we wish them luck and happiness and hopefully they'll return to this area--if not to live, then at least to visit!

Anyhow, we had a great time at the barbecue. One of the couples had twin baby boys about 6 weeks old. My friend Wende is expecting in November. Her bro and sis-in-law are expecting in September, and they have a 2 year-old cutie, Aya. She was fascinated with Little P and even made up a song in her honor! Then, there was us with our 11 week-old. It was a houseful of new and expecting parents!

For crafty folks, if you've never checked out www.etsy.com then you're missing out. I cannot take credit for these sweet little owls--I purchased instructions from this website the day I went into labor. Finally after 2 months, I finished the mobile for Little P's room. It was actually fairly easy, just time-consuming. So, every chance I got when Little P was napping, I grabbed my stuff and sewed away. The bodies of the owls are from little girl socks. How clever!

My favorite flowers are hydrangeas and sweet peas. Both are fairly easy to grow and maintain. I don't know why it took me forever to start growing sweet peas. Last year when we started our square foot garden, we planted some sweet peas. They did very well last year and continue to do so with very little maintenance. Our garden has been a little challenging lately with so many slugs being enticed with our young seedlings. RT has tried organic methods to keep the slugs at bay--putting out beer apparently does the trick!
After spending the day weeding the backyard, installing a door to the shed, reorganizing the garage, RT brought me a vase full of lovely sweet peas! I was so thrilled to see them in all their pink glory. I couldn't resist taking a few photos. How sweet it is!

I'm sure most moms have mixed feelings about returning to work. Frankly, I couldn't wait to go back. I was looking forward to breaking up the monotony of my days. I think it would've been much harder if Little P had to go to daycare or a nanny, but she has the best "babysitter" a baby could have...her daddy! I'm slowly returning to work, going only one day and a half. My work has been so great allowing me the flexibility to pretty much set my own days and hours. RT's work is also working around our schedule, allowing him to go in later in the afternoon on Wednesdays. He still has the furlough Fridays, so I work the mornings on those days.
My first day back, I didn't really think about what RT and Little P were up to. I think I was so caught up in my work that I didn't have time to think about home. I felt kind of bad that I didn't call to check up on them. The surprising thing was that even though Little P and I spend 24/7 with each other, I actually found myself missing her a lot and couldn't wait to get back home to hold her!

Alas, the Spring Fling has come around again, but this year I couldn't make it because of the babe. That was ok since it gave Little P and me an opportunity to hang out with my folks. This was also a good test run to travel away from home. She did well, crying at first but settling down and sleeping the whole way.

The Spring Fling is a vintage VW show and a huge swap meet for VW parts and paraphernalia. RT was hoping to find some parts for his VW Bus. He came away with some useful parts and even some cool t-shirts and onesies!
You never know what you'll find at these shows!

I have not been out of the house on my own since Little P's birth. Sure, we'd gone to appointments and run some minor errands, but to be out on my own and actually driving by myself was so exhilirating for me! I wasn't going out to shop or have lunch or anything FUN like that. I was actually meeting my supervisor from work to discuss when I would be coming back to work. Truthfully, I didn't feel that Little P was ready for me to go back to work. I was emotionally ready, but not physically. Besides being sleep deprived, my body was still quite sore (yes, even after all this time!) from the labor & delivery and I couldn't imagine having to sit on my bum at work for hours at a time.

Our conversation went very well. I suggested another 2 weeks of time off and then going into work for one full day and one half day to start off with. Our organization just went through some major changes and responsibilities are being shifted and reassigned. As of now, my hours are minimal, but by July or so, I'll start back to three days a week. Yikes, that only gives me a couple of months to find a trustworthy daycare source!
As I glanced at my watch, I realized my time was up. I had to go back home and relinquish my freedom. It was fun while it lasted. It was a nice reprieve from baby duty.

It has been a whirlwind of days ever since our little one was born. Instead of having this blog consumed with baby news, I decided to have a separate one dedicated to the baby and the trials of motherhood http://lilsweetp.blogspot.com/.
I cannot believe that Little P is now one month old. The day-to-day time has gone by slowly but the overall amount of time has really flew by. So, here she is at one month. We've had lots of visitors, so these photos have her cousins and her aunt in them.

We still look at her and think to ourselves, "Wow! We created this little miracle. She's all ours. What is she thinking?"