Taking care of my 6 month old niece is one of my biggest obstacles.  So, one of the things we try to do is HS after she leaves at night.  The only problem with that, I still have to do dinner.  By the time we're done with dinner, the kids are sometimes too tired to work, and some nights I just dont want too because I'm tired (or very stressed because she can be a very demanding baby).

I do love her, and I know in my heart she is best off here with me.  For one thing, my brother and his GF couldn't afford daycare (and they are not great around here anyway).  And if they found a sitter priced like me, how would we know baby is happy and thriving?

She wants to be held a lot, and has a fit when you are not right next to her.  Mostly I don't mind, but I feel like she takes the time I could and should be giving to my own kids.  So, I strap her on and do what I can.  She is a heavy big baby, and I'm small.  So when holding her a lot, I end up just doing a lot of sitting (or my back will hurt for days).  I primaraly raised my kids with Attachment Parrenting, and do use some of it with her.  But, since her parents don't AP, when she gets a little upset, she goes straight to screaming bloody murder.  No little wimper... straight to piercing scream.  After all, that's what she has to do to get picked up at home.  I know the seperation anxiety should ease up in a few months.  She should also be able to play better by herself (or with my younger DS) soon.  Hopefully when she starts to crawl.  So far, she doesn't seem close to crawling.  I'm thinking maybe another 2 months.  I may be wrong.  I hope I am.  I hope she will be crawling soon.  Maybe then, I can babyproof our area, and she can play around us while we work on some school.  Heck, I'd like to be able to go potty again without her crying LOL.

I need to find some other solutions.  So far, our best solution is doing HS at night and some on weekends if we need, is mostly working.

On another note, we are doing some reading this week on Thanksgiving.  I will probably start our unit study (thanks Amanda Bennett!) on Monday after Thanksgiving.  I wanted to give us extra time to work on it since there will be days that we don't get as much (if any) done.  *blush* I spent way too much money buying supplies for them to make some real nice notebooks while we learn.

-Shannan