Life Lately

Well I'm three weeks into working full time, at least full time in the office.  In a lot of ways it's much easier than being home with Noah all day.  I can go to the bathroom when I want and without a small human hanging on my leg.  I can eat lunch approximately when I want to (unless I'm called into a lunch meeting which happened multiple times this week).  I have a to do list and for the most part I'm the only one determining whether or not it gets done in a timely matter.  How much I accomplish isn't dictated by Noah, it's dictated by myself with the occasional input from my boss.  I realize as I'm writing this I have a pretty autonomous job and that it wouldn't be this way at every job, but for me I do pretty much decide what I spend my time on.  Oh and I can walk to get coffee when I need a break.  And I can work out on my lunch break.  And I can leave in the morning without putting much thought into what is packed in my purse.  As long as I have my keys and my money I should be fine till five o'clock.

On the flip side it's tricky trying to squeeze the rest of my to do list into a few hours after work.  And that doesn't even include the fact that I'd like to spend time with Noah enjoying him and doing things that are enjoyable for him instead of just running a million errands.  That and I still want time with Spencer.  Thank goodness for babies that go to bed at 7:30 pm.  I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do when Noah wants to stay up till 9!!  I feel like we are adjusting pretty well though.  I try to throw in a load of laundry whenever I think about it, especially on the weekends.  We'll fold it while watching a show on netflix or amazon prime after Noah's sleeping.  We've been getting groceries on Sunday afternoons which makes for a fun little outing with Noah, and I just try and do a little picking up every night before going to bed.  Plus, Kathryn keeps the house pretty clean throughout the day anyway!  So it's really just mine and Spencer's messes we are cleaning up at night, not Noah's piles of toys.

So it might still be too early to tell, but I think this is going to work for us.  At least for the immediate future.  Noah gets to be Kathryn's little buddy for the summer and when she has PhD stuff Gigi and Pops get him, so seriously it doesn't get much better than that :).  And I get to use my brain and interact with adults and make some money and carry a purse and when I get home at the end of the day I'm excited to see Noah and hang out with him and Spencer instead of being worn down from being alone with Noah all day and wanting a break from him.

Also one other thing!! They switched our schedule to 9 hours monday through thursday with a half day on Friday!! I think it's going to be pretty awesome once I figure out how I'm ever going to cook dinner after that long of a day.  I'll get to have lunch with Noah every Friday and then spend the afternoon hanging out with him and hopefully still get to take trips to the zoo and the splashpad with other moms.  And plus it gives me a little down time when he's napping - like right now :).  I prayed during the process of thinking about coming to work that it would be really clear whether or not I was supposed to be working again in the office and so far all signs are pointing to yes.  Peace of mind is a wonderful thing.

Two Days In

So far so good.

I left for work at 7:30 am on Monday morning.  Noah didn't cry.  I didn't cry.  Kathryn wasn't crying when I got home at 5.  Noah was laughing when I got home and grinning from ear to ear.  Work is already so crazy I barely have time to look at what time it is, let alone think about missing Noah.  They know I already know how to do things, so they just starting spewing things on me left and right which is mostly okay.  I hate being bored.  And I like accomplishing concrete tasks. 

I didn't eat lunch until almost 3 pm this afternoon but that was mostly because I decided to try running at lunch and by the time I threw my hair up in a pony tail and got dressed again my hour lunch break was up.  By the time I was actually hungry and had a break in what I was working on it was somehow 3 pm.  And then it was somehow 4:45 pm and I had only gotten through one main thing on my to do list in between trips to HR to make sure I'm signed up for benefits and trips from IT to make sure my computer was set up right (they asked me if my laptop had been out on a rig ummm no but I do have a one year old and a dog and I don't make a habit of dusting my laptop) and random stops in the hallway to say hi to people I haven't seen in a year.

Tomorrow is this little man's birthday.  How did that happen?!  He's crazy.  And we love him.

And just in case you're worried the stove was pulled out and unplugged by Spencer, not by Noah.  And now it is plugged in and working again and Noah is not standing on it, he's sleeping.  Goodness what kind of parents do you think we are?! :)

We're Back!!!

We had a really good trip.  Most of the time we were glad Noah was with us.  He was really happy and smiley and looked around wide eyed at everything when we were hiking and plus I mean he looked adorable in his rain coat.  He didn't really want to sit through nice dinners with wine though.  Lesson number 1 learned: leave the nice dinners out for when you can handle a baby sitter.  Self catering cottages where you can cook your own dinner with your baby crawling around instead of throwing food across the table and knocking over your wine glasses or reaching for the knives make for a much more relaxing environment for everyone.

Just a few more of my favorite pictures from the trip.

Noah in the Glenariff forest.

Looking for fish with dad.

Standing precariously by a waterfall.

And well this was my attempt at taking an artistic picture but Noah was so active this was the best I could do :).  It was an old school post office drop box at the Bushmills' distillery.  Noah wasn't allowed to go on the actual tour because of the alcohol fumes so I watched him crawl around outside while Spencer learned all about whiskey.

So I go back to work Monday.  I'm not sure what to expect and it's just making me feel anxious.  I want it to be here so I can tackle it and figure out how to make it work instead of having to think about how things might go without really knowing what it will be like.  I've been running errands this week trying to simplify life.  Just little things like buying a drying rack for clothes so I don't have our lululemon drying on the dining room chairs for a week before I have time to put them away.  I gave away two giant bags of books and I have three more still to give away, one to Spencer's mom and two to the church library.  I decided that thinking I would reread all my RUF books was really rather pretentious.  Who am I kidding.  On vacation I read the Happiness Project  and The Book Thief and even with that light reading I still had to reread things after keeping Noah from touching the wood burning stove or changing the controls on the washer/dryer combo in the cottage kitchen.

Also I bought milk for Noah.  Real milk.  And I felt nostalgic for maybe the first time, like really nostalgic, like oh no he's not a baby any more!!  Which in most respects is totally okay with me but at the same time it's just odd to think almost a year has passed since he was born.  He's almost walking, he says momma and dadda (mostly only when he wants more food or wants to be held), he gives us hugs and clings to us when he doesn't want to go to bed or doesn't want us to leave.  He has an opinion about what food he wants and he totally knows that it's not okay to drop food off his high chair for Blitzy when he doesn't want it and does it anyway.

He is also fearless.  With new people and with new experiences which I think is amazing and also a bit overwhelming.  He's going to be the kid with a million bumps and bruises.  He climbed up on some kid furniture at the gym yesterday and promptly fell off it and got a big bruise.  I'd say they weren't watching him but he does the same thing all the time at home! And who am I kidding I don't watch him 24-7.  I let him crawl in the next room and explore and I keep cooking dinner or folding laundry or looking at facebook and texting.  Which by the way, I keep seeing these things about putting down your phone and for the most part I totally agree.  I wish I were on facebook less and involved in what's right in front of me instead but at the same time being a stay at home mom is LONELY.  And being able to text your friends and comment on their cute baby pictures makes the day go by much more pleasantly and makes you feel more human.

Wow this is a random post.  Let's see I've also been trying to go through all the piles of random junk we have and throw stuff away!!  I cleaned the medicine cabinet baskets out this morning.  I went through an end table we never use yesterday.  I cleaned out the car.  I'm planning to find a jewelry box today so our dresser isn't so out of control.  Basically I'm taking one thing from that Happiness Project book and trying to declutter so when I'm stressed about balancing work and Noah and still enjoying life I won't be staring at a pile of trash we never bothered to actually throw away.

I just tried to make cookies for community group and the oven wouldn't preheat.  Lame.  This happened once before but I can't remember how to reset it.

Okay I'm off to cross some more things off my de clutter list.  If only I could knock out my work clothes shopping with Noah but I think that'll have to wait for Saturday when Spencer can have Noah for a bit and I can try to find some office appropriate clothing.  Not buying business casual for almost two years has done a number on what I have to wear to work on Monday.

Go to Ireland.  Just do it.  It is so beautiful.  Even in the gloomy rain.