Question for you parents: Now that you have offspring, do you cry your face off all the time? At everything even remotely heart-warming?
It's my second week back to work, and I can't help but think: "How do people do this? This whole "working" thing? This whole getting dressed in the morning thing?"
Don't get me wrong: staying at home with Cole was a TON of work. He is active and busy and we always did a lot with our days. But I was able to stay in my PJs if I wanted to. And I didn't have to brush my hair (okay—let's be honest: I still don't brush my hair. Seriously. I just found a mini dreadlock while combing through my hair with my fingers at my desk. Sigh.)
But seriously, functioning at work is a whole new realm of motherhood. Not only do you need to get yourself ready in the morning, you need to get your child ready. You need to feed yourself, and your child. You need to brush your teeth AND his teeth. And all of this needs to happen in an incredibly short amount of time (unless you're willing to wake up at 3am). Oh wait. Apparently I am willing to wake up at 3am, because Cole still wakes up every couple of hours throughout the night. He didn't listen to my "you need to sleep cuz Mommy has to go back to work" speech. Oh well. At least we get more "snuggle" time, right? I'm trying to be optimistic here people...
Sleep is for suckers. You're all suckers. Ha!
Anyway, once you finally get your frazzled self to work, you then need to convince people at work that you're awake and that you can be a functioning member of the team. You need to convince them that you have ideas, and that you are intelligent.
"Aren't you glad I came back from mat leave? This tired and haggard version of my former self?" I should put a wide-eyed picture of myself on my desk just to remind everyone how eager and awake I used to look.
*sigh*
Can someone just pay me to smile and do a Queen wave? I do a really good queen wave. I'm also an incredible hugger.
In all honesty, I am excited to be back to work (I'm mostly writing this because I THINK my boss reads my blog). But it's nice to feel creatively challenged again, and tap into that pre-mommy mindset (the one I mentioned earlier...about being intelligent, and having ideas?) I'm still working on it...
;)
Tell me, how did you find your transition back to work?
If this white screen were a piece of paper, it would have wet wrinkly puddles of tears on it. I don't feel like there are any words to describe how this past year has made me feel. My life is forever changed, and in the best way possible. My baby boy turns one today, and my heart just keeps exploding with fireworks. Every time he smiles, every time his mischievous eyes twinkle. Even in the wee hours of the night, when I'm sleep deprived and cranky, I have nothing but love in my heart for this little human. In fact, I sometimes feel like I need to distract my brain because if I think about how much I love him too often I'd go crazy. And get nothing accomplished. And I already feel like I get nothing accomplished, so...that would be a bad thing. It truly is incredible how much love you can have for another person.
When he gets excited he whistles! He's been doing this since he was about 5 months old. He sucks the air in very quickly due to his excitement, and then...he's whistling. It's hilarious and adorable.
His favourite things to play with are: the remote, his Dad's belt, and the tape measurer.
When he was younger, he had a "Papa" voice reserved for my Dad, and my Dad alone. It was somewhat fear based, and his eyes would well up with tears and then he'd start "talking" in a deep voice. Presumably trying to resemble my Dad's voice
He gives kisses. For a few months now, Cole has been very good at giving you "kisses." They're always french (open mouth style) and he particularly likes to kiss you when you're behind something (like the stairs railing). I call them jail bird kisses.
He likes to stroke my mole. Yep. That's right. I have a small raised mole on my chest and when he's nursing he likes to reach up and touch the mole. He pets it. It's his friend. His safety blanket. His little "mommy button." It's pretty funny. I like to sing to him "moley-moley-moley." Okay, it's less of a song and more of a bad Mike Meyers impression.
He HATES having his face wiped. And won't wear a bib. Therefore meals are always very messy.
Whenever you give him a new object to explore, he likes to flip it over and see what's underneath. He's very inquisitive.
He's a squatter. His favourite position when he's playing on the floor, or taking a brief "rest" from running around is to squat really low to the ground. My little yogi.
He laughs. A lot. At pretty much anything. ESPECIALLY when he's tired. His tired laughs are the best.
He likes to dance. When he wants to dance, he'll pull you over to the TV and motion you to pick him up. Once in your arms bopping around, he's quite content. This is one of the only times he'll stay still long enough to get a good snuggle.
Since he was a newborn, we've been reading him "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." At the end of the book there is a picture of a butterfly, and I always make the book "fly" into him for a kiss. He always kisses the butterfly. Always.
Okay, I could go on and on and on, but you probably don't really care. To be fair, I warned you that I was going to do some Mom bragging / nostalga-ing.
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