Working It or Just Making It Work?

Wahoo – I actually posted on my personal blog twice this past week! Today I’m over at CT Working Moms talking about Working It or Making It Work.

It’s Friday at 11am. My office phone rings and I see daycare on the Caller ID. My first thought – Oh crap, I’m going to have to leave work. My second thought – Maybe they haven’t noticed her dripping nose and the green stuff oozing out of her eyes, maybe she just fell and bumped her head. Yeah, that would be better . . . But nope, she’s sick and I already knew that. I sent her anyway, because if I kept her home every time she had a cold, I probably wouldn’t have a job. So I pack up my personal things and the work I’ll do from home once everyone is asleep, call the doctor for an appointment, alert my bosses (do one last thing they ask) and call it a day.

This is one of those situations that makes me really pissed off to be a working mom . . . finish reading here.

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17 :: November

11-16-13 S with Gma Sue last day

After over six months, it finally got too cold in New England for my Floridian mother and she fled back south. My father left a few weeks early as planned, but my mom stayed around to help us with a few busy weeks. It’s been so great having her here. Even as we were pulling away from the airport, M was yelling that she needed Grandma. But today went just fine and M seems to understand that Grandma has gone back to Florida. Plus, it’s just another reason to get super excited for Christmas. PS – I think we’re going to put our tree up next weekend (before Thanksgiving!!!).

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12 :: November

11-8-13 M and S

I’ve been doing a horrible job keeping the personal blog up to date and when I go to update it, I realize I’ve also been doing a horrible job taking photos of these little girls. I snapped this one yesterday. There’s still a decent amount to hitting, kicking, pushing etc. going on when S touches one of M’s toys. We’re working on that. Nothing serious and I can tell that she’s just doing it to see how we’ll react because she’s usually looking right at us when she does it. We’ll get there. We’re seeing more love and interaction between the two of them, so that’s really great! I hope they’ll be friends. I always wanted a sister. S is back to sleeping through the night after a quite long rough patch. She still gets up sooooo early – 4:45am anyone? Yikes! The days are getting shorter and the temps are getting colder – winter is well on it’s way and we’re already looking forward to Christmas around here.

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No Stuffed Animals Are Safe

Now that I’ve got the regular thing going over at CTWorkingmoms.com, I’m really slacking on my personal blog.  Really these things shouldn’t overlap. The personal blog is more about milestones and funny family stories, but none-the-less it suffers. There are only so many waking hours in the day. I resolve to do better. I resolve to take and post more photos. Starting tomorrow :) For today, I’m over there blogging again about why no stuffed animals are safe in my house . . . won’t you click on over?

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The Morning Rush

Today, over at CT Working Moms, I ask for help figuring out how to hurry with “hurrying” my three year old.

“Children think not of what is past, nor what is to come, but enjoy the present time, which few of us do.”– Jean de La Bruyère

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S Stands!

S is now pulling up to standing. She’s just over 9 months old. We haven’t yet found her standing in her crib but we’re still planning to lower it down this weekend.

10-29-13 S pulls up

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Happy Halloween

What a fun Halloween. The holidays are just getting cooler and cooler as M is getting older and more into them! We carved a pumpkin, we handed out candy and we trick or treated!

10-27-13 Pumpkin Carving 1

10-31-13 Girls

10-31-13 Costumes

10-31-13 S with Iz

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Bigger Kids, Bigger Problems

Have you ever heard the old saying – “bigger kids, bigger problems?” It might seem pessimistic to think things with my kids will only get worse as they get older, but instead I try to keep this saying in mind to calm me when I’m worrying about something with one of my two small kids. Yes, whatever is going on is hard, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s not that big. And while it usually does settle me down about whatever it is I’m stressing out about, it also usually breaks my heart to imagine the things that they could face when they’re older. If the little things are tough, the big things are bound to really test you as a parent.

For instance, my daughter started a new school in September. Some might call it non-traditional (it’s Montessori). Now, I went to Montessori preschool and my mom is a retired Montessori preschool teacher, so luckily I know what my three year old is talking about when she comes home telling us that today she folded the laundry and had a lesson on the binomial cube. But my heart broke when I asked her what friends she sat with at lunch during those first few days and she answered, “no one.”

Read the rest over here at CTWorkingMoms.com.
I’m over there every Monday!

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9 Months Old

S is already 9 months old! Slow down on the growing up, will you kiddo? But please, please, go back to sleeping through the night. You’ve been doing it for so long, you must be a pro – please, make a come back.

10-25-13 S 9 months 1

 

16 lbs, 9 oz (50th percentile)
27 1/4 inches (45th percentile)

The rough sleeping started just before we went to New Hampshire several weeks ago (first weekend in October). My mom has taken her to the doctor two or three times for us since then, as we were sure she must have an ear infection or something. Please, something, anything that we can throw some medicine at and make it go away. On top of rough bedtimes and rough nights, we’re having really early mornings – like between 4:30-5am. Oh and did I mention R is *this close* to being ready to turn in his doctoral thesis –  *this close*. So, while I am so so so so so lucky to have my parents here (I think my mom must be a saint), it’s been tough parenting without my spouse for the most part for several weeks. And then when you add such fragmented sleep – this mama is absolutely exhausted. The doctor thinks this is probably just an age thing and that it’s time for some tough love at bedtime. Last night when she woke up around 8:30pm, I let her cry and she put her self back to sleep and tonight she seems to be down – so maybe the tiny little bit of “sleep training” I did worked – we’ll see!

10-25-13 S 9 Months 2

During the day, she’s an absolute joy. She’s pretty easy going, which is good because she starts daycare in a few short weeks. She’ll be so sad to see Grandpa go back to Florida, but we’ve been able to convince Grandma to stay a few more weeks until mid-November.  S crawls everywhere now, and pretty fast. She’s really into trying to tip over the dog’s water bowl and tried to crawl into the dog crate today. She’s pulled herself up to standing a few times. All of a sudden she seems really interested in finger foods, and I imagine we’ll start trying more of those very soon.

10-25-13 S 9 months 3

She’s still on breast milk, but had recently cut back to only two small bottles a day, so I was able to donate another 50 ounces to someone. But now she seems to be back to wanting to drink more. We’ll see how well I can keep it with her at daycare. I can’t say enough great stuff about this baby – she’s just amazing!

Here are her sister’s stats for 6 months old.

 

Posted in Babies, Birthdays, Miss S., Motherhood | 1 Comment

Monday Momfession

Today I’m over at CTWorkingMoms.com again. This week, I’m confessing: I hide in the bathroom. I’m really excited to say that I will now be a regular contributing blogger. Thank you to Michelle and the other moms for the opportunity!

Posted in Blogging, Motherhood | 2 Comments