Monkey Toes October 26, 2007

There will be more halloween photos to come but here is one to get you started =)

Greg left for Asia again on Wed. he’s gone for two weeks and then home for a few weeks and then gone again. It’s hard on everyone when he leaves but on the up side we are racking up some serious frequent flyer miles!

Last night I went to see Spamalot with some girls from work. I LOVE Montey Python and was SO excited to get to go see this show. Greg’s parents took care of Fiona , which means they had her ALL day. I couldn’t decide whether to come home after work or not and then realized that it would very hard to leave if I came home. So I dropped Fiona off with them in the morning and they had her all day, then took her home and put her to bed in her crib . It was a long day and I did my best to not talk about her all night (or eee-gads…cry) and to my relief everything went really well. She had no problem with Grandma putting her to bed with out me. It certainly helps that she is used to the grandma’s putting her to sleep…the true test will be the day we have a “babysitter” stay with her. But for now it works and I had a great time out with the girls, something I haven’t done in a very long time. I highly recommend that show if you are a Holy Grail fan…it was FABULOUS!!!

Winter Stew October 16, 2007

The last couple of days I’ve been having a “feeling sorry for yourself” sort of week. I get these waves of feeling like things should be starting to come back together more for me now and they still aren’t.

I should be working out on a regular basis now and I’m not. I can’t even figure out how to do it unless I get up at 5 a.m. in the morning -  which might not be so bad if she was sleeping through the night…but right now every extra bit is very precious. We have the jogger but with work I already feel like I don’t spend enough time with Fi, to take out a hour in either the morning or the night and stick her in the stroller instead of holding her or playing with her seems wrong. So I can run with her on my days off…but the rest of the week we only have a couple of hours together at best.

Greg should be taking care of her more but we’re not there yet and even if we were he’s traveling every couple of weeks for weeks at a time and then it takes him a week at home to get back into the swing of things. (let me add here that he has been trying really hard…it has been a big learning curve and fiona – true to form – is challenging)  I’m sure a lot of new parents feel this way at times but I just feel like I’m the one shouldering all of the planning, running, waking, taking, watching and there’s never a moment for me to get to do what I want unless I plan it around her sleeping-which keeps me of course house bound…

There are a lot of perks to going back to work for sure… it gives me mental time to myself that you don’t get at home…but it doesn’t give me physical time for myself…it doesn’t give me time to do things that I want to do because my time away is still someone else’s time and my time at home is so limited that it’s all Fiona’s. This is a balance I have yet to figure out.

Being a working mom has also landing me in a social situation that I’m new to. I still see all my single friends or friends with grown kids at work, and they are always planning things to go do…but I can’t do those things because I have a baby at home. I don’t meet a lot of moms with babies our age because…well…i’m at work, and I can’t have play groups or go to music class or the gym or the park. So people who are in our current situation and we could do things with I don’t meet, and people that I know we can’t go do things with. I thought being a stay home mom was somewhat of an isolating situation…but I’m learning that being a working mom is too.

It’s getting better and I have to remember that. And it will continue to get  better and change as she gets older, I have to remember that. And he’s getting better and she’s getting better with him so I have to acknowledge that and not ruin it by opening my big mouth – it’s a process and it’s processing…I can’t make it go any faster….I just have days. Everyone has them and we are all shouldering different things….this is just mine at the moment. 

Feeling sorry for myself when really I’m the only one who can change the way it is. Maybe we have to stew a bit before we can get the energy to take matters into our own hands and do whatever it is that we need to do. I will get there I just need to simmer a bit longer.

8 months October 16, 2007

All right so this is a little late…we are really 8 months and 6 days…life is busy right now and suddenly keeping up on the blog is getting difficult!

I can’t believe we are already at 8 months…the first 4 months really crawled along but now time is going by so fast. Fiona is really working hard on getting ready to walk. She can pull herself up on everything and then hand-over-hand herself around. The other day she perfected the skill of being able to bend over and pick things off the ground while hanging on with one hand….a very difficult skill indeed…and so she stood there picking up her toy and dropping it and picking it up again over and over! She is finally starting to get the hang of being able to sit down from a standing position….this is also a very important skill because she gets herself stuck in all sorts of places standing and there’s no way out unless she can get down and crawl or “call” (read scream) for an adult to come and rescue her!

Last week while I was cleaning the kitchen and I had the dishwasher open and when i looked down she had managed to hoist herself up onto the door and was inside the dishwasher! oh my oh my.

We’re up to three meals a day and she loves to eat her cheerios and peas all by herself….although at least half of them land her lap and zoe has learned to love cheerios and peas as well!

Night time sleep seems to be getting better although i’m sure i just jinxed myself. she has been getting up only once or twice a night for the last couple of weeks and it’s a very welcome change! her nap schedule has also been all across the board…some days she’s right on schedule but others she takes just one really long nap and then either a really late cat nap or no more nap at all. I can’t believe she is already going to one nap a day but then she went to two naps a day a few month early so who knows?

All is good though…still no teeth…next doctors appointment is next month. Greg leaves for Asia again next week for two weeks…is home for a couple weeks and then leaves again for two more weeks. We looked at his travel schedule for the year and he is traveling about 4 months out of the year….. we knew that would be the case with this job but it still doesn’t make it any easier! I just hope he’s home for the big milestones!

I looked through Greg’s baby book just this morning and man! Fiona is the spitting image of him at this age….I’ll have to scan a photo in to show you…it will be interesting to see if that remains the case in the coming years!

Sit Up Little Girl! October 1, 2007

Little one is taking off…..she is in her first of many hay-days! It seems that learning to crawl is the spring board for many other things. She is constantly pulling herself up to stand on anything (anyone) she can get her little hands on – and yesterday she took the big brave step of letting go of her little standing-play table and grab onto the couch….where she realized she could then hand-over-hand her way down to me. She didn’t quite make it all the way…but the thought has occurred to her that it’s possible…which means it’s only a matter of time. And finally last night for the first time she sat herself up all the way! I didn’t know if she would ever get this. She’s been “kickstanding” it forever….since she’ s been so mobile she hasn’t really seemed to mind that she couldn’t sit herself up because she would just lean for a bit and then take off crawling again anyway….but last night it all came together. She was so proud of herself!

Her uncle Alan walked when he was 8 months and 4 days old….I don’t know if she’ll break that record (she has 2 weeks to do it in =) but I’ll be surprised if she isn’t walking in the next few months.

Her other list of tricks? Well I’ve been trying to capture them on film but when she sees the camera coming it’s like getting a clear shot of Yeti. She can say dadadadadadadada, she can give raspberries, she do the thing where you run a finger over your lips to make a “motor boat” sound, and if you hold your hand up and pat her mouth she knows to make a noise. And of course, there is the every popular trick of eating cat and dog food. Ellie suggested I put her food in their bowls to see if she still finds it equally as appetizing….I may have to try!

Greg comes home tonight from another long trip. We can’t wait to see him!