Carrie got up this morning at 6:40AM and ate a banana and some applesauce. I gave her a quick sponge bath and dressed her for daycare. Once at daycare I stayed for a few minutes chatting with the teachers. Carrie sat down and ate some pancakes with syrup and pineapples. I sneaked out without her seeing me.

I went to pick her up at 12:15PM in order to go to Hamilton, OH for a visit with her Mom. She was asleep. I picked her up from her nap mat and carried her to the car. Once at home I put her on the sofa to finish her nap. She finally woke up at about 12:50PM. We loaded our cooler of refreshments into the car and hit the road.

She didn’t sleep at all on the way to Hamilton. She ate several Ritz crackers, drank some juice and played with her Elmo “boom box”. She eventually dropped the Elmo toy and became cranky. I started making animal sounds to amuse her. It worked She giggled every time I imitated an animal.

We arrived at BCCSB at 2:45.

Trina brought Carrie out from her visit with her Mom very close to 3PM. Trina reported to me that Carrie’s mom fed her baby food from a jar and one Gerber entrée. I don’t know if it was stage 3 or graduates. In any case, Carrie eats regular food now, so I would prefer that her mom not feed her baby food.

Carrie fell asleep after being in the car a few minutes. She slept all the way home. Kent had made loose-meat sandwiches (like sloppy joes) and French fries for dinner. Carrie ate a bun top from my plate and a few French fries. She played in the kitchen while I cleaned up. She got into the lazy susan cabinet and pulled out some plastic lids to play with. Later, she pulled open one of the large, deep drawers where I store miscellaneous kitchen things, like the microwave bacon tray, the microwave plate cover, veggie steamer basket. She spread many of these things all over the kitchen playing with each one. She didn’t start to show signs of sleepiness until about 9PM.

I gave her a bath and then we sat in the living room for a few minutes. She slowly drifted in and out of sleep. It was close to 10PM when I took her to her crib. She had a big smile on her face when I laid her down. She grabbed her blanket and rolled to her side to go to sleep.

I don’t really know how to say what I’m thinking right now. Carrie had a good evening, but she was up too late. I’ve been wondering whether it’s good for her to visit with her mom or dad until 8PM in Hamilton and then face a two-hour ride home. Now that I’ve done both back-to-back, I can definitely say that the 8PM ending time is best. This way she sleeps on the way home and goes directly to bed. The 5PM ending time results in staying up too late because she sleeps in the car from 5PM until 7PM.