So this is a little late, but I still wanted to share:
September 7th was Conrad's 11 month birthday - I can't believe our little munchkin is almost a year old!! In less than a month, we'll be celebrating his first birthday!
Dear Conrad,
You are a little tornado! You love to "talk" (you've learned to say "all done" now and still are "dada"-ing like there's no tomorrow). And boy do you explore everything. We've now had to put safety latches on the drawers and cabinets, and make good use of the baby gates because you are crawling and furniture walking up a storm.
You are pretty much on a no-baby-food diet (unless it's the pouches) and only like to eat if you are feeding yourself. Some new favorites are eggs, peas, yogurt, and waffles. And then there's the good ol' favorites like sweet potatoes, bananas, rice chex, and pasta. You are loving your sippy-cup more and more every day and we are starting to think about slowly weaning you off your beloved bottle. I'm scared.
Believe it or not, you've been sleeping from 7:30 to 7:00am lately! However, you have had a cold for the past two weeks and that could be why you are so sleepy. And you are SUPER CLINGY around me. Grandma says that sometimes babies get separation anxiety when they are about to reach a milestone like walking so I'm praying that's it and that you're not spoiled (because, bad mommy, I pick you up when you cry for me).
You LOVE snuggling and our favorite routine is when you wake up you come into bed with us with your bottle and we cuddle and play before we have to go to work. Those are the best and most precious moments of our days.
While we are excited for what the future holds for you and for your first birthday party, it's all come so fast and makes me sad. Don't grow up too quick, my litte boo-boo!
Love,
Mommy
So, as many working mothers can I'm sure relate, going back to work and deciding on a daycare is the most difficult thing you can do. Some are fortunate to have family watch their little ones (like my sister!), some are able to afford in-home nannies (lucky!), and the rest of us have to do tons of research, interviews (although this is done with nannies too), and visits. Then there's the endless mind-games you play with yourself: is this the right fit? is he in the right environment? is he being well cared for and loved? Mom guilt goes on overload at this point.
We were fortunate to find an in-home daycare right on our street; Miss Farzaneh lives about 10 houses down from us and just happened to finish sitting for a family that moved away. Which meant that Conrad was the only baby and got her undivided attention! With his feeding issues, weird napping (aka, NO naps) schedule, and general fussiness, this was perfect. She is like another grandmother for him! He's completely spoiled because I'm sure all she did was hold him all day. However, now that he's older, this just does not fly. He constantly whines to be held at all times and freaks out when you put him down. We have a regular little prince on our hands!
While the undivided attention has been good, I'm starting to think that he'll need to be around other kids soon. And while she has lots of toys and interactive things for him, I'm always worried about whether or not he's being stimulated enough. She doesn't speak English very well (she's from Iran) and so I'm not sure how much learning there is going on. I know that at a year old, there's no big rush to "learn" anything crazy but it would be nice to know that they are reading books, singing songs, and other educational things once in while.
There are a couple different daycares, both in home and not, that I've looked into. The issue is that they are more expensive (daycare in the DC Metro area is RIDICULOUSLY expensive) and not as convenient. And who knows if they'll actually be better?
Maybe I'll just quit my job and stay home. We'll be poor and have to live in a one bedroom shack, but I would be home with Conrad. What's a mom to do? I mean, who wouldn't want to be with this little guy all day?
This past weekend was soooo nice because we were in town with no plans! This is a rare occasion in the Mc household so we took every advantage of it - did a lot of cleaning and organizing and even went to the local Reston Wine Festival with some good friends. And since Sean was going out on Saturday night, he agreed to be DD for us girls and babies during the day; and then my girlfriend and her son had a sleepover with Conrad and me! We had lots of girl talk and the boys had a fun time playing. Sunday was spent doing more cleaning and organizing and...FOOTBALL of course. Even though the Redskins weren't playing, Sean was holed away in his man cave watching all the other games. Fall has definitely arrived!
Things have been more than a little crazy in our house lately so blogging fell by the wayside for a hot second. But....I'm back! And I'm sure all my lovely 6 readers missed me dearly ;)
Work has been super crazy but I must say that the meal planning I mentioned recently as well as hiring a cleaning person IS AMAZING. Why didn't I suck it up and do this before!? Like I've been saying with all things motherhood-related, why didn't anyone tell me?! I swear, I'm going to make a list so this doesn't happen to other new working moms. Or maybe they did tell me and my stubborn self thought "stop telling me what to do!" I'm thinking it's unfortunately the latter. But now I realize all that well-meant advice might have actually had some sustenance behind it and I'm wishing I remembered it all.
There's so much pressure to be the best at everything (well, maybe this is pressure I put on myself) whether it's work, home, as a mom, wife, friend, or family member. I'd been feeling stretched a little thin and I'm learning to say "no" to things now - dinners out, projects at work, parties, etc. Someone once told me that it's ok to do this - glad I'm finally taking that advice as well.
Any other pieces of wisdom anyone can give me? I promise I'm listening now. :)
