I heart mango!

A. with a face (and bib) full of mango!

We're at that fun stage that is past the sleepless nights and before the crawling...she sleeps through the night but isn't independently mobile yet! Life is grand!
The only non-grand part is that I am going back to work this week. I shouldn't put it like that because I really WANT to go back to work (much to my surprise). I always knew I loved my job, but I didn't realize I would miss it when I was at home with A. on maternity leave. The problem, of course, is that I miss A. so darn much which I am at work. The ideal situation for me would be to be able to bring her to work with me (picture baby strapped to back) so that I wouldn't miss any time with her, but would also still get to enjoy doing what I love. Of course, that is not an option. I had the next best thing last spring when my mom stayed with us (for 8 weeks! :) ) to watch A. until school was out. I mean, who is going to take better care of a baby than her grandma?
We ARE very fortunate that our neighbor (a stay at home mom with 2 elementary age children and one toddler) is going to take care A. this school year. Daniel can drop her off before he goes in to the office and I'll pick her up when I'm done. It is pretty darn close to ideal. So I'm not complaining....I'm just being a mom. I worry that I'll miss her doing something new or that she'll feel like I'm abandoning her or choosing my job over her. My brain tells me that I am showing her that a woman can have it all, a career and a family....but my heart still worries.
Okay, okay, enough whining!!!
Everything is a new discovery at this age. A lot of the recent discoveries center around food since she has recently started eating solids and I've been making her baby food! Homemade sweet potatoes are a recent discovery and she can't get enough of them. So far I've made her sweet potatoes, green beans, carrots, butter beans, just to name a few!
Yesterday I bought a mango for me to eat with my lunch and decided to share with A. I could have blended it, but instead I used our Mesh Popsicle Feeder (see picture below if you don't know what I mean). She loved it. I mean L-O-V-E-D it. I had to literally pry it out of her fingers whens he was done. I gave her more tonight after dinner and she had the same reaction. She was so tired from her first day at the babysitter's that she could barely keep her head up, but she was NOT about to let go of the Mango Popsicle.

So TIRED but don't try to take away my mango...I'll fight you for it!