Mid-March Reflection

First off.. wishing everyone a Happy (safe) St.Patty's Day. I've never been much for green beer. The sight of it just turned me off. Nevertheless I'm sure plenty of people will be enjoying it today.

This month has been full of change for our little family. We are adjusting quite well. Mama is loving working 3 days/week. Brendan has adjusted well to going to Montessori for the mornings I am gone. We had a few tears at drop off for a couple of days. He is quite excited to ride the bus after school with his auntie who he so fondly calls "TiTi". The hubby has been pitching in more around the house to account for the fact that I am gone more.

Days off are spent playing with building blocks, going to the park, walking along the beach and visiting Daddy at work among other things. This week we went to the zoo with some friends. B's favourites were the gorillas, the horses and the camel. But our days off have not been all fun and games. Lately I have been noticing that B gets really really cranky if he isn't being constantly entertained. That's not to say he can't entertain himself, because he can, I just need to give him the activity like...open the building blocks and he will play. This has become somewhat exhausting for me and I feel like he just isn't getting enough stimulation being home with me unless we go outside or do activities we don't normally do. I'm not quite sure how to remedy this... hmmm

Happy March!

This month is one of big change for us around here. Firstly, I will be starting a new job tomorrow. It is only part-time which is perfect so I can still spend time with my little man. Not to mention it is in the my field and I will get to do some great things for some pretty great pay too. The job kind of landed in my lap through some of the volunteer work I do. It is only a year long contract which is great since I plan on going back to school this Fall if everything pans out. This also means that our plans for baby #2 are sadly put on hold for another few months to ensure I can finish up my contract. I also don't think I could manage full-time grad school, a part-time job and a new baby. School, job and Brendan are going to be more than enough come Fall.

This job has also meant that I have had to find care for Brendan. Last year he went to a home daycare for a few months and it didn't work out. This time around we are sending him to a Montessori for 3 mornings/week and having my sister pick him up, feed him lunch and put him down for his nap at home. I feel really comfortable with our choice. Expensive it is but he will be well looked after. The school also aligns very well with our own parenting philosophies such as...

- eating nutritious food - the kids only eat fruits and veggies for snack and drink water which means no sugar laden foods

- getting out in nature - they play outside every morning

- learning through play

- arts and crafts

- teaching manners

Things I particularly like are that on the child's birthday, the parents are asked to donate a book to the classroom. They ask that the books are nature books or stories about real life experiences. The parents can also send a plant with the child's name on it and the name of the plant so that they may take part in nurturing it and watching it grow. The class also sponsors a child in a third world country. Many of the philosophies are very similar to Waldorf principles. Unfortunately for us, we live nowhere near a Waldorf school but I think this environment will be just fine for us.

Brendan has gotten to do two one hour visits to the classroom and has seemed to enjoy his time there from what the teachers tell me except for the initial me leaving part. I'm sure things will get better.

Perhaps I'll find out this month whether or not I have been accepted to the program for this Fall.

Working Gal

I feel as though I have been absent for a little while in the blogging world. This week was my first week in a summer job with an organization I've worked for in the past and was it ever exhausting! Unfortunately, my new position involves an hour commute to work. Luckily I am against traffic both ways which is nice and it is somewhat relaxing to have that time to myself to gather my thoughts and clear my head. Although I do not love my job in this department as I did the previous department I worked in the summer before Brendan was born, I am happy to be back in the same organization, greatful for the experience in my field and have been applying for some year-long contract positions within the building. Last week I had two interviews (my boss has been more than accomodating giving me time off work in the first week to interview for other positions). Both interviews went well and sound fairly promising but competition is fierce and in this economy I really consider myself lucky to have even secured a summer position. So many of the people I know are without work right now or as young professionals entering into the workforce do not have much experience in their field and therefore cannot find any employment in the field in which they had hoped to work.

As far as smooth transitioning, this week did not go as I had hoped. I found when I got home from work I was so exhausted that on the two nights where I usually have cake decorating, I couldn't get organized enough to make it to the class and all I really wanted to do was spend the 2 hours I could with Brendan after not seeing him all day. Note daily schedule below...

6am - Wake-up --> frantically get dressed, wash face, put make-up on, make the bed
6:30am - Brendan wakes up/gets dressed/eats breakfast
6:50am - Load up the car and drop Brendan off with my sister
7:05am - Leave for work/eat breakfast on the road
8:30am - Start work
4:45pm - Leave work
6pm - Arrive home exhausted
8pm - Brendan's bedtime
9pm - Ryan's bedtime (I usually spend that hour with him)
9-10pm- Get everyone ready and packed for the next day/shower/clean up

On Wednesday, our daycare provider gave us 2 weeks notice, saying that Brendan wasn't happy there because he couldn't interact very well with the other kids as he isn't walking or talking a lot and the other kids range from 2-5. Consequently he was proving to be a lot of work for her and she would prefer to watch only older kids.. so that SUCKED. But obviously I want the best for my son and for him to be in an environment where he is happy. Luckily my sister is not working and she said she would watch him for as long as we needed and Brendan is quite happy there. I think this will work out better for us anyway.

To top it all off.. I was sick as a dog from Mon-Thurs and now Ryan has gotten sick. We're spending our long weekend recovering. We also had a nice visit with my brother and his girlfriend last night.

Hopefully next week will be better.. much better if I get good news from one of the positions I am hoping to get!

Brendan at 10 months

Brendan has been doing wonderfully lately. I realized I hadn't done a post about him in awhile.

Here are his most recent developments:

--> He discovered his feet this month and loves to put them in his mouth
--> He pulls himself up to sitting from laying down

--> No crawling yet but does an "olympic" roll to get to anything he wishes
--> He rocks back and forth on all fours constantly

--> Loves to play in his playpen - a godsent for me considering I do not have to worry about his safety in my incredibly non-baby-proof house when I have to do something
-->He still has no teeth. Not even one! But gums little pieces of food and loves to sit and eat dinner with us. I think we'll all be happy when some finally cut through.

--> New loves... blueberries!, mango, cucumber, papaya, organic cheddar cheese, cheerios
--> Sleeping longer at night. He slept all the way through until 6am last night. Might have been because we are all sick with colds.

He went to the baby sitter's twice last week and apparently is well liked by all the other little kids and is a wonderful baby to look after. Napped perfectly for her. When we went to pick him up the first day he wasn't even happy to see me and continued playing with his toys when I called to him and then when I picked him up he reached his little arms out to Ryan! I guess I'll have to get used to it :)

Updates

Brendan is at his first day of daycare today :( I miss the little guy so much already. He seemed to like the other little boys and I'm sure he'll be fine and I'll enjoy the much needed time alone but he still seems so small.

Things have been pretty busy around these parts lately. Yesterday was my sister's birthday. We went over and had dinner with her. Here is a picture of my sister, my mom and I from last Easter (when I was pregnant with Brendan).

I am nearly done reading the book "Twilight". I decided that I had to read it due to all the hype over the book. I am still undecided on whether or not it has won me over. Regardless.. it has been nice to just sit and read for pleasure.

I ordered my seeds for my front porch container garden - unfortunately our yard will be nowhere near ready for a garden this year. I ordered from Johnny's. Dan from the Urban Veggie Garden Blog was particularly helpful in this aspect. I have no clue when it comes to importing seed from the US. I ordered three types of sunflower seeds (Buttercream, Firecracker and Strawberry Blond), tomato (Mariana and Green Zebra), cilantro, northern pickling cucumber, chamomile, calendula, and lavender (lady). I'm pretty excited!

In other news, our washing machine kicked the can. We got one load out of it. Couldn't it have atleast worked until I found a job???..I guess we will be buying a new washing machine very soon. I've been applying for jobs like crazy. I should really get back to it!

All settled in. Kinda.

So we finally made the big move last weekend. The new place is really starting to feel like home, each day that passes and the more we get more unpacked. Yesterday I re-potted my hibiscus and a few other plants that survived the move - tough plants - and planted some herbs again.

On Wednesday, Brendan and I went to visit a potential home daycare around the corner. The lady looks after all boys and therefore caters almost all of her activities to things that little boys like to do which is pretty neat. Brendan seemed to enjoy the other boys and I felt pretty comfortable with the sitter as we chatted and I toured around her home. We will likely be starting him a few days a week to ease him into the full-time before I head to work. I have very mixed feelings about being away from him. On the one hand, I am really happy he is so easy-going and becoming more independent but on the other I sometimes miss the dependence (mostly the cuddles which are getting fewer and fewer).

Tonight Ryan and I are going up to Peterborough to celebrate mine and my dear friend and former roommate's birthday which we used to do together all the time in university but haven't in a couple years. My sister is watching Brendan for the evening. It will also be nice to actually go out somewhere without Brendan. Usually when we go out with friends one of us is watching the baby.

I have been meaning to post some pictures and will just as soon as I locate the camera which is still packed in one of these boxes!