Daycare

C started daycare 3 weeks ago when Hubby G started his new job.  Before I go any further into the daycare situation, I must first say that our previous child care situation was heavenly.  Wonderful.  Couldn't have asked for anything better.  Hubby G would watch C in the mornings and my sister in law would watch him in the afternoons at our house.  It was amazingly convenient.

But with Hubby G starting the new job, his schedule changed and we felt that daycare would be our best choice.  Also, C is no longer a tiny infant and we thought that it would be in his best interest to be around other babies and take advantage of the learning environment that daycare could provide.

The crazy thing was that our turnaround time to actually find a daycare, take a tour, and enroll was CRAZY short.  Like a week.  Less than a week actually.

God was watching out for us though and we were actually able to get into what we determined to be the best daycare center in our area and even though they typically have a waiting list that is several months long, they had one opening in the room that Baby C needed to be in!  It was meant to be!

First day of daycare- couldn't sit still!

The first week of daycare was crazy.  I wasn't really worried about my little dude because this center is really nice and clean and well-staffed and I'm really happy with all of that.  Plus every room has web cams so that parents can login and see what their kids are up to at any time during the day.  It was crazy because Hubby G was out of town for training for the ENTIRE WEEK.  Adjusting to the new routine of daycare , working full time, plus getting all the household chores done all by myself was exhausting- it definitely made me appreciate all of the work that Hubby G does!

And luckily daycare initiation didn't hit for C until his second week when Hubby G was back and able to help me out.  And by daycare initiation I mean that C got his very first cold.  My opinion is that yeah, I hate to see my little guy sick, but kids are going to get sick no matter what at some point- daycare or no daycare.  I read somewhere that kids who are in daycare get sick less later in life because they're exposed to more germs earlier, so I'm not beating myself up over C picking up a cold.  

C had a runny/stuffy nose, drainage from his eyes, and a nasty cough.  I picked him up early one day when his daycare caregiver was concerned that he might have pink eye and so I brought him into the doctor.  Luckily the doctor checked him out and found that he did not have pink eye, his ears looked good, his nose looked good, and his lungs even sounded good despite a cough.  It was just a cold, but even so, we decided to hold him out of daycare the next day to let him snuggle his mamma and rest.

Mama, I'm sick! :( -Taken before we headed to the doctor to get him checked out.

C's still got a runny nose and the cough is on it's way out, but we can tell that he's feeling WAY better and more back to his usual self playing with toys and babbling like crazy.  We've survived his first cold!

Changes

Whew!

I promise I have not fallen off the face of the earth and I have really REALLY been itching to blog for the past week but my goodness readers, it has been a crazy house over here!

1. Hubby G started a new job. Yay! This is a good-for-our-family change but also required him to be out of town for the entire first week. Boo.

2. With Hubby G starting the new job, Baby C started daycare. C got his daycare initiation right away and is just now getting over a week-long cold.

Those changes, plus the cold (which I think he was very generous with and passed along to me as well), plus life and work in general have left ZERO time for anything else. I've barely even had time to look at my reader- the horror!!

Hopefully now things will settle down a bit and I'll get back on track!

Notes on Faith 2.0

For a little more background, please check out Notes on Faith 1.0

Getting to tag a long with Hubby G while he went through the RCIA program was a great experience for both of us. In addition to the opportunity to explore the Catholic faith together, we met a lot of other young couples in our parish.  It helped us to really feel like we were a part of the parish community.

One interesting detail that was looming in our minds as Hubby G went through the RCIA program- the day of his confirmation (the Easter vigil) was also my due date.  So I was actually praying that our little guy would be at least a day later than expected so that we would actually be able to celebrate Hubby G's confirmation.  And you know, actually be present for it!

God heard my prayers and despite the church being 1,000 degrees on the evening of the vigil, I did not go into labor and Baby C waited until the day after Easter to make his debut.

After we took a little time to get into the groove of being new parents, we had C's baptism at the end of August.  In combination with the baptism, Hubby G and I also got our marriage convalidated!  Basically that means we made it even more official Catholic-wise since we didn't have a Catholic wedding.  It worked out perfectly because the godparents that we chose for C had also been our maid of honor and best man in our wedding, so it was a nice little way to tie everything together.

Hubby G and I are really enjoying getting more involved in our parish.  Hubby G has joined the Knights of Columbus (he's a 3rd Degree Knight!), we helped to deliver a Christmas dinner and gifts to a family in need over the holidays, and I recently attended a brainstorming session for a Young Adult Ministry group.  To give you an idea of the fun things that are hopefully in store for this Young Adult group: they're planning a coffee social/discussion group and calling it "He Brews" har har har.  I love it!

It's interesting because our church is really active especially in a lot of youth ministry because of the area we live.  The Christian Reformed Church is HUGE in our area (no joke, there are at least 4 large reformed churches within 5 miles of our house) and because they have a lot of really engaging and active youth ministry programs, our Catholic church does the same in order to provide the same level of programming.  I don't necessarily want to say that our church has to do this to stay competitive, but to a degree that is completely true.  To me, it's just a great motivator to have phenomenal programming at our church, and that's definitely something I'm on board with!

Savvy & Sweet Sponsor Swap!

I'm stealing this idea from Kelley over at Brixton Makes Three (love her and her blog- go check it out!) and I'm doing a Sponsor Swap!

What does that mean?  It means you send me a button for your blog and I'll post it here on Savvy & Sweet- I just ask that you return the favor and post my Savvy & Sweet button on your blog.

Totally easy, totally FREE.

Woohoo!  If you need help making a button for your blog, try following these directions.  I tried a dozen times and then Kelley sent me that link and it worked like a charm!

Notes on Faith 1.0

One of my goals for 2012 is to get more involved at church. I realized that I haven't really ever talked much about my faith here on the ole blog, so here we are! I'm going to split this up into a few "installments" just so it doesn't run on too long.

 Hubby G and I are Catholic. I was born and raised Catholic, but Hubby G just went through the Rite of Christian Initiation in Adults (RCIA) last year to become an "official" Catholic. I couldn't be more proud of him! Although I was born and raised Catholic, I stopped attending church regularly while I was in college. After college, when Hubby G and I got married (with a non-Catholic wedding) we both agreed that we wanted to join a church, but we were divided on which church. Hubby G was raised Methodist, but he didn't necessarily feel strong ties to the Methodist faith. He was, however, quite skeptical of the Catholic faith. He held some common misconceptions about Catholicism, but after attending mass with my family in my hometown, he was also completely unimpressed with it all.

 It's hard for me to describe, but even though I hadn't been attending church regularly through college, I still felt strongly tied to the Catholic church. As much as I really wanted to think that I could be open to exploring different church options, I knew in my heart that I belonged in the Catholic church. I really wanted to be open to finding something we could both agree upon and feel comfortable with, but I just couldn't.

 Hubby G could.

 I'm still in awe and amazed at his ability to open his heart and his mind like that. We found the nearest Catholic church to our house and went to mass together one Sunday. It just so happens to be an AMAZING parish. I'm not exaggerating when I say it's infinitely more engaging than any other Catholic church I have attended.  After attending mass for a couple of weeks, Hubby G made the huge decision to covert to Catholicism and go through the RCIA program. Not only is this a big decision because of the commitment to the faith, but the RCIA program is a big commitment of time as well. Hubby G met with his class for about 2 hours every.single.Sunday. from September until April, plus several other commitments outside of those 2 hour blocks on Sundays. Each Sunday, the RCIA candidates and catechumens would be dismissed from mass after the homily and begin their class meeting. Mass would end and I would join Hubby G in the class and it would end about an hour later. I didn't HAVE to join Hubby G for the later part of class, but I really wanted to be there for him and show my support while he went through this important process. As it turns out, I learned A LOT myself! I'm really glad that I got to be a part of it because it helped me understand my own faith better and to cultivate a deeper faith in addition to supporting my husband and allowing us to grow our faith as a couple.

Stay tuned for the continuation of this topic!

2012 Goals

It's time again for me to announce my ten goals for the year.  Although I haven't had a stellar success record in years past, I really do like writing these goals out and posting them here- it makes them feel a little more 'real'.  So without further ado, here are my ten goals for 2012:

1. Run in a race

2. Read at least 5 books

3. Write at least 100 blog posts (average about 2 per week)

4. Cook or bake at least 10 new things- and keep track!

5. Learn a few basic signs and teach Baby C to sign

6. Create a birth -1 year scrapbook for Baby C

7. Create our wedding album

8. Take more photographs

9. Organize a business plan

10. Plan a one night getaway with Hubby G

Numbers 1,2,3,4, and 7 are repeats, or similar to last year.  They're goals I either didn't accomplish or want to repeat again for 2012.  And I actually have an amendment to my Review of 2011 Goals post- I waiting until the absolute last minute, but I did actually run in a race in 2011!  On New Year's Eve my mom and I ran in a benefit 5k.  It was awesome, but I'm definitely keeping that goal on my 2012 list since I'm already working hard at training for the Fifth Third Riverbank Run 25k.

What's #9 all about?  Well....I'm not ready to reveal that quite yet.  But it's in the works and it's something that I'm really excited about!  I'm hoping to let you all in on my project in the next month or so :)

So there are my goals for 2012!  Did you set any New Year's resolutions or goals?  Care to share?