I went back to work on Tuesday, November 8th. All-in-all, I have to admit it hasn't been that bad. The days leading up to my first day back were rough, because every time I thought about leaving Andrew all day made me sick and I would just cry and cry. The morning of, I got up extra early so that I would have plenty of time to get myself ready and I was hoping I could get up early enough so that I wouldn't have to see him awake before I left. Andrew decided to wake up about 20 minutes before I left and that made it extra hard for me. He was smiling and happy and I just sat and held him and cried. I was dreading the day ahead, but it was time to hand him back off to Todd and get on the road. I continued to cry the whole way to school but finally was able to pull it together once I got there. As soon as I got in my classroom there was so much for me to do that it took my mind off the fact I was leaving Andrew and I was actually back at school. Everyone at school was so sweet and it made coming back much easier. I caved when I got to school and emailed Holly to see how Andrew was doing at daycare, and everything was going great. There was no question that he would be fine, but still it was good to hear he adjusted well to being with someone new. The school day went by so fast, that before I knew it, it was time to go pick up Andrew, I was so excited to see him! We are now definitely in a routine with me working and Andrew going to daycare and it's really working out great. I am enjoying school as I have a pretty good group of kids and I really like the other teachers I work with. Andrew is doing fantastic at daycare and Holly is so wonderful with him. Todd and I are so happy with the way everything has fallen into place and love when the work day ends and we can spend the evening playing with Andrew. 
I was only back to school 2 and a half weeks when it was time for Thanksgiving break. We started out the week with the 2nd annual Cook/Bond/Buffington/Lepovsky/Alex and Tim Thanksgiving dinner. We had a great time this year stuffing our faces and having a lot of laughs. It was so much fun having the babies there this year and have the feeling next year we won't be sitting around enjoying ourselves, but chasing after Andrew and Matthew! We went to Pittsburgh the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and had a really nice time with Todd's family. We had Thanksgiving dinner at Todd's Aunt Jodi's and pretty much all of Todd's family was there. Andrew was certainly the center of attention and everyone loved taking turns holding him and getting him to laugh and smile. We had such a delicious dinner and certainly overindulged ourselves.
We came back home on Saturday, and had my family over for dinner that night. Everyone was still here from Connecticut so we had dinner then enjoyed a fire in our fire pit out back. It was uncharacteristically warm for November so we really enjoyed spending time outside, roasting marshmallows, enjoying a few adult beverages, and listening to Christmas music.
The next day we drove out to a Christmas tree farm north of Baltimore to cut down our Christmas tree. It was a beautiful day and seemed weird to cut down a tree in such warm weather. Andrew was so good and was perfectly content being held and walking around with us to find the perfect tree.
Andrew will turn 5 months tomorrow and he's getting bigger by the day! He's still eating rice cereal in his milk and we're hopeful to start homemade baby food soon. He has such a personality on him and really seems to be happy all the time. He is starting to do the "swim", where he lays on his stomach and moves his arms and legs around. He wants to crawl so badly and I really thing we'll be seeing that in the very near future. Still no teeth, but I'm sure those are only a matter of time as well. He loves playing with toys and likes anything with music or blinking lights.
