Days 33-35 Europe with no kids--WHAT???

Practicing taking a bottle one day before our trip...

I sit here writing a post that I'd planned to write earlier in the week, but left my adapter and couldn't use my computer until now, so for those of you who have sent me emails asking where in the world I am and asking where is my blog, I am in Europe, trying to stay true to living my best life!  My husband and I came to Europe for a few days and decided to leave the girls with friends of ours! We've left the older girls with friends before, but never the baby.  

So hard to say goodbye...

She just turned ten months old and the thought of leaving her made me feel sick.  I have 100% confidence in my girlfriend and her husband, but that still didn't stop the sinking feeling in my stomach– It was a feeling like no other.  You have this life that depends on you for everything, including food.  How do women do it?  How do we go back to work?  How do we take them to daycare?  How do we manage to wean them from breastfeeding?  How do we let them go off to summer camps?  How do we drop them for college?  How do we raise them only to let them leave to start their own families– and somehow manage to keep it all together...or do we keep it all together?

I have a girlfriend who recently took her last child/only daughter to college.  We had a long conversation a few days ago about how difficult is was and still is for her, although a few weeks have passed since her daughter left.  My theory is that mothers have the greatest difficulty letting go of their children because more often than not, mothers put their own lives on hold for the good of the children, for the good of the family....for the good of the world:)  All the while, we lose a little bit of who we are.  Parents lose a little bit of who they are.

Stay tuned for more on our trip to Europe!

How do I pour out my baby's milk?

Some mothers choose to stay home with their children, while others decide to return to work and still others manage to do both.  I'm not sure whose happier.  Many of those that stay home wish they had returned to work and many who return to work suffer from the guilt of leaving their children in someone else's care and many of us who do both are just worn out!

So I ask myself, why do I have this pit in my stomach for leaving my ten-month-old with trusted friends?  Is it the hormones, as I sit engorged with milk?  Is it a natural void a mother feels without her child or is it a feeling of guilt I've somehow created in my own mind?  I'm not sure, but what I will say is that this child of mine, whom I worried so much about...well, she's doing just fine. 

I've been gone two days and she's taking the bottle just fine.  She's ridden her first pony:) She has had her first trip to the movies.   She's eating crackers.  She drank from a sippy cup for the first time and she's even holding both the bottle and sippy cup, which she would NEVER do for me!

So what do I take from this?  As parents, it's okay to give kids our love, our joy, our money, our time– but healthy for them and for us to leave them sometimes.  All three of my girls are having a blast!  I hear that they are swimming now.  Thank God for great friends.  When our kids are with trusted friends and family, they do and learn things that they might not get from us and we get a little time to ourselves–time to relax, time to enjoy new things and places, time to focus and if we are lucky, we get a little time to write about our day!

What a beautiful place to relax and write!  Awesome hotel!

Think I can get my house to look like this?

I almost forgot, my baby girl also learned to catch a rolling ball!  Click to see how feisty she is when the ball is taken from her!  Every Gibson Girl has a little sass...

UPDATE!!  Shortly after I wrote this, she also said her sister's name for the first time!