Day in the life of becoming a Cavanaugh ...MOM!: 1 week left...

Well, here we are with 1 week left until I got back to work. I have been emotional about it to say the least. I get the feeling from Jason that he isn't entirely sympathetic as he has been working almost this whole time, but...I've been home all day every day with Allison-Rae and am not quite sure how next week will go. Allie will start "school" on Monday at Nancy Pease's house (in home day care) and I will start Tuesday back to the office. Already I have found myself not really crying, more like tears randomly streaming down my face. I left Allie at my Mom's for a few hours yesterday so I could go to a baby shower and leaving there was hard for me. I knew she would be fine with my Mom, she would be fine anywhere, but it was me walking out a door without her that made my heart sink. I'll have to do it day after day for just about the rest of her life, but still - the first few times (okay first many many times) are going to be tough...to say the least.
Now, to play catch up - I have pictures below of Allison's first St. Patricks Day, around the house, and some other fun times that I just couldn't help but take [more] pictures of her just laying around.
What is Allie up to now? For over a week now she has been sleeping from about 7-8pm-4-5am!!! She got her first fever of over 99, but under 100 this past Thursday. Turned out to be nothing significant, but it happened to be the day that Jason left for Lake of the Woods with all the boys for a long weekend trip. Jason had been working far away the entire week before so it was as though he had been gone all week already, but being alone in the house knowing that no one would be home soon to help had me pretty worked up. A few texts, phone calls and facebook posts later had me feeling a little bit better. The best medicine for us both though was me holding her in my arms to put her to sleep...and then letting her sleep there for a few more hours! We eventually both went down for the night and had a very exciting weekend. Friday we went to play time at Amma, shopping at Bellies to Babies and Target then home. Saturday we had Avital Coleman's second birthday party where she got lots of love and snuggles from everyone (especially her wardrobe coordinator Allison P - soon to be Wald!!!). From there we stopped over at Niki and Chrisitians house where she received more love and snuggles from all. By the time we got home, I realized that I had not given her the opportunity to nap for more than a half hour at a time since that morning...and was sure we were in for a long evening. 5-6oz of a bottle later and she was sound asleep for the night by 8pm! Sunday we got up early and hung out before going to Grammy's house where she got to play all day! I went to Jill Weber's baby shower where I'm sure people were sick of hearing me blab about Allie the whole time. What can I say, she has been my world for the past 12 weeks and I am officially "that Mom"!
Anyway, the sitting up is getting stronger, the aahhhhs and eeuuus and getting clearer and the smiles are so close to becoming a laugh! I love my little Allie-Rae to the moon and back and have gotten to the other side of the hurdle where I once felt unsure of that little squeaky thing in my house to now not being able to imagine a moment of my day without her.
Yep, crying now - gotta load pictures to distract myself.