For the past few months Kate has been totally obsessed with putting things in and taking things out, and it's always way more fun when it can be done behind a closed door. It's happened a handful of times that we've 'lost' a sippy cup for days at a time because she finds some ingenious hiding spot for it. Unfortunately a few of those times the cups have had milk in them...the most recent was about 6 weeks ago. I had given up hope on finding the cup - I had looked in every conceivable hiding spot for days on end and had decided that although I had no recollection of taking it out of the house, I must have lost it while running an errand. One night Kate and I were in her bathroom; I was getting her bath ready while she went through her nightly ritual of emptying the vanity drawers. Well, I turned around and saw that she had a sippy cup. I didn't think much of it - we often bring her milk upstairs so that she can have one last slug of it before bedtime. Then it crossed my mind - wait, that's the blue cup, the one that's been missing for days! As I'm thinking all of this she's putting the cup to her mouth...luckily she didn't drink any of the extraordinarily curdled milk, probably because she could smell it through the spout (you should have seen her face). Yucko. Anyway, you get my point. She likes to hide things. I've found chunks of bananas in my pots, toys in my tupperware, and sippy cups just about anywhere you can imagine.

With that background, you can understand why I knew that she was the sole suspect for the hairbrush bandit. First of all, she loves my hairbrushes - she's always grabbing them and showing how to brush your hair (generally with the back of the brush, *lol*). Monday morning on my drive to the gym it occurred to me - I hadn't packed my hairbrushes in my gym bag the night before! UGH. I made do with the small comb that I had with me, and when I was packing up for my Tuesday gym trip I scoured the house for my hairbrushes. Not only were they not on the bathroom counter where I was sure I'd left them, but they weren't anywhere - not under the vanity, not in the drawers, not in my closet or dresser or laundry hamper or under my bed...not in Kate's room...where the heck did she put them??? I was sure she was to blame, but I have to admit that this morning (day three of doing my hair without brushes) I was starting to wonder about my theory. They simply weren't anywhere.

Then, lo and behold, just like it always happens, the missing articles turned up in the most ridiculous place. The rag bucket at the bottom of the linen closet. It's always when you least expect it; I just opened the door, bent down to get a rag, and there they were. If I hadn't been right outside the sleeping bandit's room I would have burst out laughing, and as it was I had an ear to ear grin at the silliness of it all. I wonder what will disappear next - believe me, I have no doubt that some new plot is afoot...

I just spent 45 min reading everyone's spaces - phew! I haven't been on our mom's group message board in almost a week (I know it's a hopeless cause to try to catch up with probably 100+ posts now), and I haven't checked my Hotmail in days. Ay!!! Life is quite busy...

Things are good. I'm really enjoying my job, I have to say. I feel like I'm settling in and really starting to understand the various facets of my project. I've had a very busy week - I can't believe tomorrow is Friday already. I thought that I'd definitely be dragging at the end of my first full week, but I'm feeling pretty good still. I'll be glad when it's the weekend, though! It's hard to continually have my time accounted for. It's just such a different way of life so it's quite an adjustment for me, although I have to say that I finally feel like I'm me again. I really needed this change.

Kate is doing ok in daycare. Jay plays with her all morning (she no longer naps) and then brings her to the center at 10. She's cried everyday this week - tonight he told me that she starts crying as soon as they walk in the room. Poor baby, I do feel very bad for her; it can't be easy to be left alone day after day. I've been picking her up between 6:05-6:15, and she's not very exuberant until we pull out of the parking lot - then she's doing a little dance in her seat once she knows she's really going home. She's generally the last or second to last kid around (out off the toddler and infant rooms), and the teacher said yesterday that she gets really sad when all of the other parents keep coming and going. Breaks your heart, doesn't it? I was actually very upset after getting her tonight; when I finally figured out what room she was in (at the end of the day they consolidate the kids as the numbers dwindled) I look in the window and see her laying on top of her blanket, flat out on the floor. I walked in and she was just laying there...she generally only does this when she's tired, but I'm not sure that was it this time. I'm not going to dwell on it because this is what it is...she'll be ok, we're still transitioning. (Right?)

I joined a gym yesterday in Rockville so that I can keep up with my training. I went this morning, and it worked out great. I left the house at 6, so I beat all of the traffic, ran my 4 miles, and got to work at the same time (well, maybe 15min later) as normal. Excellent. That said, I miss Claire! I haven't seen her since we ran on Sunday, and we have barely spoken all week. It makes me sad since I'm so used to seeing her everyday. *sigh* We'll workout and hang out this weekend, but it's just not the same.

OK, I'm off to assemble my stuff for the morning so I can leave at 6 without delay...

Whew! It's been a wild couple of days, and I know you're itching to find out how everything has turned out over here. I'm the only one up right now, so I thought I'd quickly get some thoughts down while it's quiet.

I'll start with Kate. Reminder: last you heard, Kate was going to be moved to the new daycare on Monday, the asst director from the old daycare wanted to speak with me. Wednesday was a pretty bad day; it was emotionally exhausting, and I cried a lot. My mom convinced me that evening that my first day at work would be way better if I didn't have to worry about whether Kate was getting scratched, so Jay figured out a way to take Thursday off to keep her home. That all happened before bed, but then the real fun began. Kate was up all night, I swear it was every 20min or so from 10:00 on. Jay and I think we were in there at least 15 times that night, and it was probably more than that. It was horrible. I had an exhausting day, I was starting a new job the next day, and poor Kate couldn't stand to be without us. As sad as that was, I really just wanted to sleep! At 2:45 I brought her into our bed in hopes that she'd sleep if we were right there with her. Luckily that worked out. Unluckily, it took about 40min for me to fall asleep because I had no room - Jay, Kate, and me in a queen sized bed...Kate refused to let me move her over. She was a total pillow hog! Eventually I fell asleep and got in almost 3 good hours of sleep. Jay kept Kate home, and when I got home later on I called the new daycare to see if we could bring her in for part of Friday. Sure, no problem, we'll just transfer the paperwork between the centers (both KinderCare). Jay was awesome and went to the old daycare to pick up her stuff and talk with the asst director about our decision. I was glad to not have to be involved in that, and he came home feeling like they'd had a good conversation. Thursday night's sleep wasn't that much better, unfortunately, for Kate. I somehow managed to sleep through a lot of wakings after midnight (last night I was talking to Jay about it and I said that she slept from 12:30 on, and he was like, what? I was in there at least 5 more times!) - I guess I just subconsciously prioritized my own sleep somehow. Yesterday morning Jay brought her to the new daycare around 10 and picked her up at 3, and by all accounts she did great. Monday will be a full day, and I hope she still does well. She still isn't doing well sleeping by herself, though.

At 11:30 last night the fun began. She'd wake up absolutely frantic, so I'd go in and she'd calm down and pretty much fall asleep the moment I picked her up. Normally (that is, prior to this week) she can then be put down without incident and we all move on. Not so the last few days. Putting her down only upsets her, maybe not instantly, but within 5 min. I guess Thursday night Jay and Kate actually laid on the floor for a while together (we'd already tried to bring her to our bed, but it was clear she thought it was a game, although I'm still not quite getting the laying on the floor thing; hey, it's the middle of the night, right?). Anyway, last night was really impossible. After the first two visits in a 10min span I was sure that the problem was that she'd open her eyes and realize she was alone and get upset. So I took a new approach that I've read about. I'd lay her down and rub her belly, and as long as I was right there she would start to fall asleep. The problem was that that isn't an instant process, and I was freezing and tired, so I'd leave after 10min or so when she was mostly asleep. Twice I did that only to have her start crying again about 15 sec after I got into bed. Then I started to sit in the glider - at least I didn't have to stand, and I could wait a little longer. Still no luck. At 1:30 I had Jay go get the sleeping bag from the basement so I could sleep on her floor. I really didn't want to, but I couldn't figure out another solution. We really don't want her to get used to being in our bed, and I can't sleep when she's there. The aero bed in the guest room isn't made and that room is freezing; otherwise I probably would have taken her with me into that room. I was unwilling to sleep in the glider, so the sleeping bag it was. It took some effort to get her to not be upset about the whole thing, but eventually I got her to the point of laying down quietly, and we both started to fall asleep. For about a minute. *sigh* She got up, crying, so I brought her into the sleeping bag with me, and she was asleep in a moment. We slept like that until ~4 when I woke up, moved her to her crib, and moved myself to my own bed. So, last night wasn't any better than the last two nights. I totally understand that she is probably totally freaked out by all of this time without Jay and especially me, and I of course feel awful about it. I just wonder how long it'll be before she's able to sleep again. Poor little kid.

OK, that turned out to be more long winded than I had planned, and now Kate is up. I'll write more later about my job.