Random Wonderings

Days that seemed crazy when I was on maternity leave now pale in comparison to the average day that I work now. Prior to September 4th, it was only the rare day each month that I had appointments or obligations that took me out of the house at specific times and that had to be worked around. Those first two weeks back to work were a reminder that nothing is ever really what it seems and served as a BIG reminder that my mat leave days were actually quite calm.

One thing I will say for them though, as crazed as I felt during those two weeks, I'm happy that they also served as a great lesson to Obie that staying home with kids (alone and with only you to entertain them) is not as slack a job as it sounds. When I was still in school after we had Arora it wasn't uncommon for him to be the 'baby-sitter' while I was in classes and before he had to go to work. But at the time Rory was either baby enough still that she was sleeping most of the time, or she was old enough that Obie loved to pack her along with him when he had to do go out of the house.

With one child it's easy enough to throw some clothes on them grab a diaper and toss them into the car seat and go. With two, invariably it ends up that while you're dealing with one of them, the other is do something that he/she shouldn't be. Then when you're getting the second one ready to go, the first strips their clothes off or spills, spits or in some other way dirties themselves. It's just one of those things that if you can't count on anything else, you can count on that.

After two weeks with me having to be at work by 3pm (and not getting home until 11pm or so) Obie was once again appreciative of the fact that you don't just have to feed them, change the diapers when needed and otherwise just leave them to fend for themselves. I can only imagine how he would have coped if I'd gone back to work six months ago, or even three months ago.

Fortunately, now that my retraining is complete I'm only working part-time hours and, though very few people understand why I'd do it, I'm working evenings so I don't have to be to work until 7pm most nights. For me it's nearly an ideal situation, but working and wanting to be able to stay home all the time with the kids are contradictory desires, so getting to be home with them all day and only having to miss bedtime each day is the compromise. I get mornings :) and therefore the only one arguing about having to get out of bed is me!! (hehehe, jokes on Obie there, but I won't tell him if you won't!)

Now that I am down to part-time hours, last week I decided that it was time to consider some regular activities for Arora. I'm still thinking about gymnastics (I started when I was three, so why not her too) but considering that she'd been bugging me about dance classes for weeks, maybe even months, I finally took her over to the dance studio to register her on Friday afternoon. Saturday she and I went to the dance store and bought her all the stuff she needed: you know, body suit, tights, shoes, etc, etc.

Well she had her first class on Monday afternoon. It's one class a week, each lesson is 45 minutes and not even 10minutes after the first class ended she started asking when she got to go to dance class again. Everyday this week, at least 20 times a day the inevitable question has come. "Is it time to go to dance class again?" It's cute but the repetition is already getting on my nerves. So now I'm thinking a gymnastics or maybe swimming class that breaks up the week may be a good thing.... we'll have to see.

Zack is... amazing, and annoying and a thousand other things that I can't even think on how to explain. His first birthday is in 10 days and every time I think about it I can't imagine where the year has gone. He's so big- he's probably 23 or maybe even 25lbs already (Arora didn't get to that weight until she was almost two), he already eats most solids as he's got several teeth and doesn't have the patience to wait for us to feed him, he's walking and even doing a 'baby-run' thing (I won't really call it running but it's much faster than just a normal walk) and he's starting to try and talk a bit. He's starting to say things like "ba-ba" which is bottle, and "obn" which is supposed to be open I think. He'll say "mum, mum, mum" when he's wanting me and "da, da, da" for Obie and even "ro, ro, ro" for Arora. It's so cute, and it's almost enough to make me cry. My baby boy isn't really a baby anymore.

I suppose that's the end of my ramblings today. I could go on but I save us both the time and just say "Till next time! Bye!"