What am I? Chopped liver?

So my friend Shannon says that kids like to play the chopped liver game with their caregivers. One moment Mom is the best and Dad is chopped liver- the next both parents are chopped liver and their babysitter is the best thing ever. I don't know why, but I can tell you that Holly acts totally different for her nanny than she does for us.

The first day I dropped her off with the nanny I had a particularly rough night the night before trying to get her to sleep. Tom and I both had walked the floor with her, rocked her, sung to her, shushed her---everything we could think of--- for over an hour trying to get her to sleep. The next day when I picked her up after her first stint with the nanny (back still aching from the night before) the nanny said, "Wow is she easy! I rocked her about three times and she fell right to sleep in the bouncy chair! She's so much easier than my kids!" I looked at the nanny for a few seconds totally stunned and then looked down to make sure I was picking up the right child. Either way, Holly has continued to be easy going with the nanny and somewhat more challenging for us.

We survived our first week on the new schedule! I managed to get up every morning by 6AM, Tom managed to remember everything in the diaper bag when he dropped her off at 11AM and Holly worked on consuming her fists (photo above courtesy of the nanny). The only real challenge has been how to manage dinner in the evenings. Some evenings I can come home and cook while Holly sleeps. Other days I'm missing ingredients to make anything resembling dinner and Holly wants to be rocked for two hours with frequent nursing. Last night I made a monster batch of corn chowder and I hope to make a few more freezable meals this weekend (on my lovely new gas range) so next week won't be so difficult.

Holly continues to be a joy and is sleeping in my lap now as I work from home. She's still sleeping great at night and smiling every morning. Frank and Cubbie continue to hate her. Frank voiced his displeasure on Wednesday by pooping in the tub. Yikes! The cloth diapers have stopped and we bought ourselves a Diaper Genie.