Grooves
We seem to be constantly falling in and out of them, and it feels like we've been "out" of our groove for quite some time now. I will say though, that I think we are turning a corner this week and finding our "new" groove.
Merrill's transition from infant to mobile baby/*almost* toddler certainly threw us off for a bit along with the acquisition of her bottom teeth. I think all the developmental and physical changes were just taking their toll on her making her need a little more mommy time and making sleeping a little more difficult. Add in the natural habit of babies to change their schedules/routines/habits every time you think you have them figured out, and well we were just due for a little chaos as we worked to get back in the groove.
And of course, we aren't just dealing with one little person here, but two! Millie has been working hard on her own developmental milestones -- using the potty and sleeping more independently. Ultimately, I think we pushed a little too hard too soon on the sleeping and now that we've pulled back a bit and are (willingly) giving her a little more help in this area again things are going better for everyone. She's even demonstrating some great independent sleeping when I'm not here. AND She is doing great on the potty :).
Wait, what? When I'm not here? When is THAT?! Oh yeah, not to be outdone by my daughters in the realm of creating chaos, I started a job at the beginning of March. It wasn't really a planned thing, but something that kind of fell in my lap at the right time. The way it all came about just gave me one of those "meant to be" feelings that I couldn't ignore. I have been getting job postings from "hotjobs" and "monster.com" since we moved here, but I almost never look at them anymore because the jobs are rarely relevant. But, one day in February I decided to look at one and there was actually a listing that looked interesting. Scott and I went out the weekend before Valentine's Day to talk about whether or not this was something I wanted to pursue and what that would mean for our family.
We had been talking about maybe sending Millie to preschool soon, but knew that we would need more income in order to do that, so that was one "pro" to getting a job. The job was listed as a full or part-time position, so it looked like there would be the possibility of me "easing" back into the work-force -- also a "pro." The details in the listing suggested that the position was one that would give me some really good experience in a clinic setting with a variety of populations to serve -- "pro." Some questions we had to ask ourselves, how did we think this would impact the girls, and did we think we would be having another child soon (I didn't want to re-enter the workforce and then turn around and leave it again because of having another child...). We agreed that we thought the girls would be able to handle the change, that Millie would benefit from and probably really enjoy school, and that a third child isn't in the plan right now. Everything seemed to be lining up. What we didn't know is who would be taking care of Merrill and (on some level) if I was really ready to leave the girls. We agreed that I would send in my resume and we'd just see what happened.
Well, I sent in my resume and about a week and a half later I had a job offer -- one DEFINITE benefit to working in my field, jobs never seem to be hard to find -- so, we went for it. The original plan was for me to take over the part-time caseload of a woman who was leaving (her husband just graduated from FBI school! How crazy is that?! I think I actually asked her if she was going to have to go undercover ;) ). The plan was to start VERY part-time -- Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3-6 pm. Not bad at all. The plan was to then gradually build my time and eventually go full-time. All of that is still the plan, it just wasn't quite as gradual as I originally thought it would be. My first couple of weeks were just observation and training and by the time March 22 came along when I was taking over the caseload and actually doing therapy, my hours were already up to Monday through Thursday 12-6 pm! The idea now is that I will build my caseload and look at going full time in June.
Adding in hours that quickly meant we had to scramble to figure out daycare for the girls. My mom had been watching them for the 2 day-a-week afternoons, but we needed to find something more permanent. We had been talking to my sister about the possibility of her becoming our nantie, and now was the time to see if she was really serious about that. Lucky for us she was! As of today (April 1), Lauren is part-time at her job at Maritz and a part-time nantie (auntie/nanny) for the girls! Just for the sake of simplicity, she isn't going to actually start until Monday.
My mom had the girls for four afternoons this week and I think we all started to find our groove with all of this newness. The girls and I have a pretty good morning routine down, my mom has the afternoon down (including naps!) and Scott has the evenings covered. There are of course a few things that I'd like to see happen more often (like workouts for Scott and me and "grown-up" time for just the two of us), but I have faith that as we continue to find this new groove those things will fall into place too. I'm hoping we have a smooth transition from my mom to my sister next week. Lauren has been coming at lunch/nap time everyday, so I think that will help. She has done an awesome job getting Merrill to sleep! I must say that leaving your child to go to work isn't any easier at 8 months than it is at 8 weeks, but leaving them with family instead of a stranger or at a center absolutely does make a difference and we are so blessed to have family here who can do that for us.
It has taken me about three days to write this ... apparently computer time hasn't quite found its way back in the picture yet :). But that's the general picture of our life these days -- happily searching for our groove!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Chuck
Scott and I had a rare night out last Saturday where we got to go to dinner AND see a concert! We've been out a couple of times since Merrill was born, but all of our outings are pretty short and just involve dinner someplace close by. We've almost always been home by the girls' bedtime. But Scott got tickets to see Chuck Berry -- something he had been wanting to do for a long time -- so we decided to go for it. Lauren and Jason came over to watch the girls and we were off!
We had a great night: Thai food with no little hands grabbing at our plates or little feet itching to get moving again; a nice walk through the "loop" where Scott and I got to hold hands; frozen yogurt without having to share all topped off by the concert (oh, and a chocolate martini for me :) ). I was anxious about leaving the girls for bedtime, but I knew we needed to at least try. I will confess I texted my sister frequently throughout the evening, but I did not text during dinner or during Chuck -- the opening act was another story ;).
We really enjoyed seeing Chuck Berry -- 83 years old and still rocking. He apparently lives very close to the Pageant where he was playing. He typically plays once a month or so at Blueberry Hill but those shows are always on a Wednesday night so we were excited to see he was playing at the Pageant on a Saturday night! I have a feeling this will end up being one of his last shows. Much of his family was in the audience and his grandson played on-stage with him for the first time. His son and daughter were also a part of the band which was pretty neat to see. It was a short concert -- Chuck only played for an hour, but that was expected. He sounded great, but his memory was a little off -- forgetting lines here and there and mixing up song once. But all of that was easy to overlook knowing we were watching a legend.
I LOVE that Chuck came out wearing a red sequin shirt and little white hat -- classic! :)
the young man to the left of Chuck is his grandson, the man to the right is his son.
A couple short clips from my phone:
Scott and I had a rare night out last Saturday where we got to go to dinner AND see a concert! We've been out a couple of times since Merrill was born, but all of our outings are pretty short and just involve dinner someplace close by. We've almost always been home by the girls' bedtime. But Scott got tickets to see Chuck Berry -- something he had been wanting to do for a long time -- so we decided to go for it. Lauren and Jason came over to watch the girls and we were off!
We had a great night: Thai food with no little hands grabbing at our plates or little feet itching to get moving again; a nice walk through the "loop" where Scott and I got to hold hands; frozen yogurt without having to share all topped off by the concert (oh, and a chocolate martini for me :) ). I was anxious about leaving the girls for bedtime, but I knew we needed to at least try. I will confess I texted my sister frequently throughout the evening, but I did not text during dinner or during Chuck -- the opening act was another story ;).
We really enjoyed seeing Chuck Berry -- 83 years old and still rocking. He apparently lives very close to the Pageant where he was playing. He typically plays once a month or so at Blueberry Hill but those shows are always on a Wednesday night so we were excited to see he was playing at the Pageant on a Saturday night! I have a feeling this will end up being one of his last shows. Much of his family was in the audience and his grandson played on-stage with him for the first time. His son and daughter were also a part of the band which was pretty neat to see. It was a short concert -- Chuck only played for an hour, but that was expected. He sounded great, but his memory was a little off -- forgetting lines here and there and mixing up song once. But all of that was easy to overlook knowing we were watching a legend.
I LOVE that Chuck came out wearing a red sequin shirt and little white hat -- classic! :)
the young man to the left of Chuck is his grandson, the man to the right is his son.
A couple short clips from my phone:
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Never a Dull Moment
A glimpse of our morning so far ... and it's not even 9:00 yet :).
Millie *reading* "Ten Apples Up On Top"
and this is what Merrill was doing while I was catching Millie reading on tape ...
I'm lucky she didn't fall when I turned the corner and saw her and gave a little yelp!! She only had a 30 second head start on me, but it was enough!
About five minutes after I started this post, Merrill crawled back over to the stairs. I was quick to follow this time! She proceeded to crawl up the entire flight of stairs (with me right behind her of course)! She was so proud when she got to the top and crawled right off to go play! I guess we're going to have to teach her how to go down now!
The girls decided to stay upstairs and play for awhile -- here's one of Millie's favorite activities, , one that it looks like Merrill is going to share someday :). When Millie was smaller we instituted the rule of no jumping on the bed -- jumping is for the floor -- but bouncing on knees was okay on the bed. She took to that rule fast. Bouncing is an outlet for her that she does at least once a day most days. Also, the last line is pretty funny. Poor Merrill has quite the reputation for explosive poops. A reputation she has rightfully earned!! I don't know what the future holds for us in terms of more children, but if we ever have another girl we aren't going to have any clothes to pass on to her ;) !
***Merrill is still in her jammies because she had not yet pooped. That's how bad it is, we don't put clothes on her if we don't have to until we know there is at least a chance they will be spared a massive poop!
A glimpse of our morning so far ... and it's not even 9:00 yet :).
Millie *reading* "Ten Apples Up On Top"
and this is what Merrill was doing while I was catching Millie reading on tape ...
I'm lucky she didn't fall when I turned the corner and saw her and gave a little yelp!! She only had a 30 second head start on me, but it was enough!
About five minutes after I started this post, Merrill crawled back over to the stairs. I was quick to follow this time! She proceeded to crawl up the entire flight of stairs (with me right behind her of course)! She was so proud when she got to the top and crawled right off to go play! I guess we're going to have to teach her how to go down now!
The girls decided to stay upstairs and play for awhile -- here's one of Millie's favorite activities, , one that it looks like Merrill is going to share someday :). When Millie was smaller we instituted the rule of no jumping on the bed -- jumping is for the floor -- but bouncing on knees was okay on the bed. She took to that rule fast. Bouncing is an outlet for her that she does at least once a day most days. Also, the last line is pretty funny. Poor Merrill has quite the reputation for explosive poops. A reputation she has rightfully earned!! I don't know what the future holds for us in terms of more children, but if we ever have another girl we aren't going to have any clothes to pass on to her ;) !
***Merrill is still in her jammies because she had not yet pooped. That's how bad it is, we don't put clothes on her if we don't have to until we know there is at least a chance they will be spared a massive poop!
Monday, March 15, 2010
Standing Around
Merrill's current favorite activity. She will stand up/pull up on ANYTHING. Fortunately, she is also getting better at getting back down from standing. She's starting to bend her knees more and intentionally go down on her bottom rather than just falling (sometimes bottom first, sometimes face first...). She's starting to cruise just a bit too ... oh and to attempt to climb stairs (She's made it up one step with just a hand on her tush for safety...). This girl is determined to keep up with her big sister!
in action:
Merrill's current favorite activity. She will stand up/pull up on ANYTHING. Fortunately, she is also getting better at getting back down from standing. She's starting to bend her knees more and intentionally go down on her bottom rather than just falling (sometimes bottom first, sometimes face first...). She's starting to cruise just a bit too ... oh and to attempt to climb stairs (She's made it up one step with just a hand on her tush for safety...). This girl is determined to keep up with her big sister!
in action:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)