So long, farewell...

[from left: Alex (hidden), Burack, Sybelle, Sophie, Vienna, Oliver, Owen]

Today was our last mommy group session. And I'm sad. The group has been such a great source of support and I genuinely looked forward to our time together each week. In retrospect, it was a little like therapy actually. Since all the babies in the group are within a month or two of each other, everyone was basically going through similar experiences. And so every time Sophie came up against some developmental milestone-- like starting solids, teething, growth spurts, dropping naps, etc.-- another mom and baby would have gone through that already and would have tons of tips and recommendations to share about how to cope. And I never had to feel bad ranting about how exhausted or exasperated I am since there was always three other blurry, groggy moms nodding at me in solidarity, or a couple others looking on in sympathy because they remembered exactly how they felt when they were through that just a couple of weeks ago. We would talk about everything and anything about our babies in a way that only other moms of babies that age would be able to. I mean, generally, when people ask, "So how's Sophie?", I think the response they're expecting is more along the lines of "She's great!" as opposed to a 15-minute monologue on how Sophie's in effect slowly dropping her third nap and how that's moving her bedtime closer to 7.30 than 8.00, which sort of messes up her night feeding, and consequently wake-time as well... I don't want to bore people like that, but at mommy group, I can literally talk about Sophie all I want because everyone else there is talking about their babies too and learning from each other.

We'll definitely be staying in touch even though our session has officially ended; picnics, play dates, birthdays- we're already planning a few of those now that the weather's getting so much nicer. Although staying indoors isn't always such a bad idea. Like playing with The Parachute, which has been one of our favorite things to do at mommy group. I love how fascinated the babies always are when we start floating it above us- Sophie's always so calm and fixated on it, almost like she's mesmerized. And the parachute's such a popular thing that you can actually be a fan of it on Facebook!