On August 9, James was called to the Bar. It was the culmination of three years of law school plus one demanding year of articling (combined with an intense first year of parenting) - definitely an achievement worth celebrating, if you ask me! We were so happy to have James' parents, Granma, brother Sam and his wife Anne here for the occasion, close family friends Ken and Georgia, and my parents too. It was a lovely ceremony at the courthouse, followed by a reception at the firm and a nice family dinner to cap off the day. Charlotte was at the bar call too - or most of it, anyway: she got tired of sitting and not being able to explore the courtroom, and my Mom kindly offered to take her out and kept her happy in the foyer for the last few minutes. In the evening a friend put Charlotte to bed and stayed with her for the evening so we could enjoy a leisurely late dinner. In addition to celebrating James' accomplishment we just really enjoyed the chance to visit with family. Charlotte seemed to enjoy it too. No surprise there - apart from the half hour bar admission ceremony she was generally the centre of attention!
The other big event of late has been my return (turn, more like) to work and Charlotte's start at daycare. I'm teaching a course this semester at the smaller local university, conveniently located just a fifteen minute walk from our place, and also working on finishing my dissertation. In order for this to happen, we placed Charlotte in daycare at the start of September. I'm not going to lie - we're still in the adjustment phase, and it's been tough. The first day was pretty good, the second day a little less so. Then there was the long weekend, followed by a bad teething day (the only really bad one she's ever had) - it was a non-teaching day so I stayed home with her. The first day back after four days away was so rough that the staff were concerned that Charlotte might be getting sick and called James to pick her up at 2:30. They hadn't been able to get her to sleep, eat or drink. But when she got home she was happy as a clam and put food away like usual, so we knew it was difficulty adjusting rather than sickness. The upside of this is that we've been really impressed with how the staff have handled it and the care they've given Charlotte. She's in a daycare at an elementary school just up the street. She's in the youngest room, for 12 to 24 month olds, and there are three staff for ten children (in theory -I've never actually seen more than eight there at any one time). All three are so calm and gentle and because Charlotte's been having a tough time they've been giving her a lot of one-on-one attention. The last two days of the week went better than Wednesday. She has a blanket from home there now for nap time, along with a couple of familiar books, and most importantly, she brings her Rabbit with her now. It's an adorable fat rabbit that Uncle Dan and Aunt Sarah gave her for Christmas. Charlotte is really into stuffed animals and blankets these days (anything soft), and the Rabbit is her favourite (with the pink bear her great-grandma gave her a close second). She's been clutching it so tightly at daycare that she's made permanent little handprints. Kind of heartbreaking, but it's definitely helped! Because my schedule is flexible she's only going for about six hours a day, with a 1 1/2 to 2 hour nap in the middle, and I feel really fortunate for that. I'm expecting tomorrow to be a rougher go again, but hopefully by the end of the week she'll be starting to feel a bit more settled and secure there.
I'll save an update on Charlotte's emerging abilities and personality for next time, except to say that she's becoming more and more affectionate which has been really gratifying for us. It's so sweet and affirming when she crawls over and puts her head on our legs, or snuggles her head into our shoulders, or ever so often, plants us with a full on kiss!
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| Last week the weather was the hottest week of the summer, hitting 30 degrees. |
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