Thursday, February 23, 2012

6 Month Letter to Amelia

Happy half birthday, sweet girl! I can't believe it's been half a year since you came into our lives. It seems like the time has flown by but stood still at the same time. I feel like I have known you forever, but you change and teach me something new every day.


So much has changed in the past six months. When we went to the hospital the night you were born, it was the tail end of summer. The nights had just a hint of chill to them, but it was still warm outside. We've seen you grow through fall and winter (the most mild winter we've seen in years), and now I can't wait to share spring with you. Going for walks, playing outside...I think you're going to love it :)

The past month or so has brought the biggest round of changes in your little life. You've rolled from your belly to your back (exciting even though you did it first for Grammy and wouldn't do it for us!). You started eating cereal at 4 1/2 months, and then veggies at 5 1/2 months. And you love to eat! So far you have loved sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, peas, and apples - everything you've tried! You also do a funny flipping thing with your tongue where you turn it sideways all the time. Silly girl :)

You're on your way to sitting up by yourself and you lunge at everything in your reach, including the cat. This past Saturday you spent your first night in your big girl crib and slept all night! I was so proud of you. You're such a happy girl when you wake up - definitely not something you get from Mommy!

You love to snuggle with blankies (and worry your mama when you smoosh them up against your face). You love tickles from Daddy. You also love eating your feet, whether they're covered by socks or not. Looking in the mirror and at pictures of your cousins and friend Kendall makes you giggle. You still have a mighty temper for someone so small, and you want to be entertained all the time. Because of this we found out you LOVED riding in your baby carrier at the grocery store this month. You smiled and laughed and talked the whole time.

I'm starting to understand those moms who told me I'd miss these early days. Soon you'll be crawling and getting teeth and starting to talk... I hope you'll still let your mama snuggle you before bed, because I'm not ready to give up my munckin snuggles just yet. I love you, sweetie, and can't wait to watch you grow in the coming months.

Love,
Mom

Friday, February 17, 2012

It's my life...

*cue Bon Jovi synthesizer music per the title of this post*

My bloggy friend Emily over at The Many Thoughts of a Reader has been hosting a series of "day in the life" posts from her friends, so I was inspired to share my fascinating day with all of you. Hold on to your hats, kids. My days are thrilling (cue sarcasm font).

5:30am - My alarm goes off. My brain fires off a silent round of expletives and I hit the snooze button. Particularly if Amelia has chosen to wake me up at some ungodly hour prior to this, as was the case at 4am nearly every day this week.

5:40 - After my alarm goes off again, I resign myself to dragging my butt out of bed. I pry my eyes open and put eyedrops in them because I have insanely dry eyes. *note to self - check on the cost of that Restasis Rx the eye doc wrote me a month ago. Whoops.*

5:45-6:20 - Shower, makeup, hair, etc. in an effort to make myself look presentable. Find something to wear to work (these days the only requirement is that the clothes match, and even that is a little iffy). Clothes are inevitably wrinkled from sitting in the laundry basket for a week, so I take them downstairs and throw them in the dryer. Who needs an iron?

6:30ish - Gather some snacks and lunch for myself, get out Amelia's clothes if I haven't already, get her reflux medicine and other odds and ends necessary to start the day. By now she is usually stirring. Luckily she is more of a morning person than her mommy and is typically happy when she wakes up, like the other morning when she got her feet out of her jammies.
Good morning, Mom!

6:45 - We wake up Daddy and go downstairs, change her diaper, clothes, etc. because we are used to using the Pack n Play changing table as opposed to the one in her room which serves the primary purpose of being a cat bed. That will be changing soon.

I make a mad dash around the house collecting coffee, bags for the sitter, work, etc. while Daddy hangs out with Amelia and they watch SportsCenter. Oh, and somewhere in there I pull my clothes out of the dryer and put them on.

7:00 - We're out the door. (Note that no one ate breakfast. No time!) Drop Amelia off at the sitter's, who luckily lives about one minute from our house.

7:15 - I begin my 45 min. commute to work. Blech. I drink my coffee while I drive. On Mondays my best friend and I commute at the same time so we talk on the phone and compare notes about what crazy things our children have done lately since our girls are only four days apart. (Yay for the Bluetooth hook up in my new vehicle!)
Hello there, Santa Fe!

8:00 - Arrive at work. Ok, who am I kidding. I rarely make it there at 8:00, but I am always at my desk by 8:10! Eat a granola bar for breakfast.

8:15-4:30 - Work. I do business-y type stuff at a state college. I don't love it by any means, but it's not a difficult job. I spend more time than I should online playing instead of working, but no one seems to notice or care.

I do get to interact with students on occasion which is by far my favorite part of my job as opposed to the statement mailing, invoice processing, etc. My background is in marketing, so this is not exactly my dream job. Which means I also spend part of my day hunting for jobs online.

4:40 - Headed home. I call the hubby to let him know I'm leaving and check on the munchkin, who gets picked up by Daddy because he works closer to home and usually gets off earlier than me. I often talk to my mom or a friend on the way home because the commute is uber boring and by this time I am struggling to keep my eyes open.

5:30ish - Get home if I didn't have any stops to make on the way, kisses for the munchkin and husband. He has already started dinner (remember eons ago when I told you I'm domestically challenged? Yeah, he's the cook.) and I run upstairs to change my clothes into "comfies" as we call them. Feed the cat, who is winding around my ankles incessantly meowing and begging for attention and food.

6:00 - Feed the munchkin some big girl food. This is a recent addition to our evening routine and she loves it.
Hey, give me more of those sweet potatoes!

6:30-7:00ish - Playtime with the munchkin on her mat or in the jumperoo. She needs to be entertained constantly so no activity lasts more than 5 minutes. Try to get her to roll over. Fail. She's far more interested in eating her feet.


Somewhere in there we cram dinner down our throats while we watch tv because we're "those people" who eat in front of the television - a bad habit I hope to break as Amelia gets older. I also usually slip in some Words With Friends time on my phone.

7:30 - The munchkin is reaching meltdown mode, so I put her in her jammies and feed her a bottle. (If it's bath night, that happens somewhere between dinner and now.) She gets her reflux medicine again as well as her antibiotic to keep the UTIs at bay. Sometimes we read a story, but lately all she wants to do is eat the books so that isn't going too well. We rock in the recliner until she is asleep.

8:00-8:15ish - Ideally Amelia is asleep and I carry her upstairs and put her down. If the planets align, she'll stay asleep until morning.

8:30-9:30 - Get in some tv watching with C and start gathering things for the next day. Wash bottles (I despise washing bottles. We fight over who is doing it almost every night!), do some laundry, etc. Inevitably Amelia lets out a little whine or cry somewhere in here and I stare daggars at the monitor willing her to go back to sleep. Usually it works.

9:30 - I get myself ready for bed (quietly - don't wake the baby!) while C stays downstairs watching tv.

10:00 - I'm in bed, playing some more WWF and usually have House Hunters on tv. Those people are picky!

10:30 - Lights out and my version of prayers - I silently thank God for the blessings in my life, including the biggest little blessing, my baby girl. I ask Him to watch over us, our families and friends, including my online friends who are mommies, pregnant, or trying for babies. I have to confess that I usually fall asleep in the midst of this. I've got a lot of people to pray for!

I also pray that Amelia doesn't wake up overnight... At some point my husband comes up to bed unless he falls asleep on the couch, but I am usually already asleep. 

There you have it - the jam-packed day of a working mommy!

"It's ok, so nice/Just another day in paradise/Well, there's no place that I'd rather be/Well, it's two hearts/And one dream/I wouldn't trade it for anything/And I ask the Lord every night/For just another day in paradise." ~Phil Vassar