Lazy Sunday Lunch

Someone just couldn't keep her eyes open after a busy morning in the nursery :)

Fall Family Fun

Keep On Keeping On

This is what was written on my cake at my farewell party at work a few weeks ago. It sums up life right now. We just keep moving. October is historically a busy month for us. It happens every year. Then throw in leaving my job, adding in a few regular babysitting gigs, day trips, overnight guests, parties and still working a few hours at my old job here and there and it gets a little crazy. Oh and I decided to rearrange our living room last night just for fun too. (If you ask my college roomies, they'll tell you I clean, straighten and rearrange to relieve tension and anxiety.)

But really life is good. Carina slept all night last night and even gave me a chance to work out and eat breakfast this morning before she woke up. Then we went into work for a couple hours this morning and she was a little angel the entire time. She's napping peacefully now. I'm about to go read (The Hunger Games trilogy, according to Entertainment Weekly they're the new Twilight. I guess I'm just a fad reader.)

On a side note, I just wanted to brag that I noticed Carina's 9th tooth today. Nine teeth in just 4 months! I'm impressed.

Reunion

This weekend Peter's college friends had a mini reunion in Annapolis. We met up at a park so the kids could play for a few hours and then ended the day at Applebee's. Since our last reunion (in 2005!) we have had a small population explosion from 1 kid to 5 and if the other two couples who couldn't make it had been there, it would have been 8 kids! Crazy. Thanks for the fun day everybody. Oh and interesting fact I just realized - between the 14 of us there we share 11 names. Three adults/kids had duplicate names.

My Fairy Princess

Carina's Day with Goppie Goppie

My parents spent the weekend and watched Carina for us so we could go to NYC sans baby. Actually it was mostly Mom who babysat. Dad had to work and couldn't get here till Carina's bath time Saturday night. Mom let Carina practice going up and down the stairs. Everybody had fun! (Oh and if you couldn't tell... Carina is calling Mom and Dad "Goppie Goppie" for now). Thanks Goppie Goppie!

NYC Saturday

Peter and I headed to NYC this past Saturday to visit our friends Ted and Becca. We had such a great time! We met up with our friends and they found us free parking. Then we stopped at Lush before lunch at Dallas BBQ. We had our picture taken with Cookie Monster and Elmo (for Carina), stopped at M&M world for a souvenir for Mom and browsed the Hershey store too. Took a stroll around Central Park (the weather was gorgeous!) and then stopped at FAO Schwarz to pick up a lemur for Carina. Got some Starbucks at one of Trump's buildings and ended the day at Pepe Giallo for dinner (we went there last time we visited and I just LOVE that place). Can't wait to do it again!

Aunt June's 80th Birthday Party

The "Weather" Post

Week one of being a stay-at-home-mom is officially under my belt. It was a dirty tsunami wave of emotions and debris that I (naively) did not see coming. At my lowest point I called Peter (and then my Mom to have the same conversation) and said if staying home with one child is like this, I don't want to have another. End of story.

And on a good day like today I look back on those feelings and think "Wow - it wasn't THAT bad!". There were just certain days this week that happened to be a perfect storm (and yes, I suppose that is my 2nd weather metaphor of this post - blame my Dad for watching so much Weather channel) of not-so-stellar circumstances. The weather for one (no seriously... I didn't even mean to throw another weather reference in here). It was ugly and gloomy for way too many days in a row. It was too wet and cold for Carina and I to get out and take a walk. I was also without my car for the better part of the week because we had it painted (side note: it looks better than awesome). So I was stuck in the house all week. Then one particularly tough day Carina decided to nap for less then an hour. This was also a day that I happened to be babysitting AND a day Peter would get home late.

"It's almost bed time!" a friend commented on my Facebook post, lamenting my woes of the day and I thought "Amen!". Peter and I had 2 hours of relaxation and then as soon as our heads hit the pillow, Carina started crying. She would not stop until she was in bed with us. That lasted till 3 am and then I couldn't take the eye gouging and kicking any more so I moved her back to her crib where she slept mostly peacefully till morning. I should mention that she has had a cough for the past 2.5 weeks that has kept her from sleeping really well - it isn't like her to sleep so poorly.

BUT that was the worst of it. We made it thorough the night. The sun was out the next day. I got my car back. Carina napped 2.5 hours. And Peter was home in the evening to give me a hand. What a difference! Now I don't mean to be a complainer and maybe this week wouldn't have been so hard if I wasn't adjusting my entire life and mindset to staying home instead of working. It definitely gave me perspective and now I can see that there will be hard days but the good days far outweigh those.

Today, for exmple, has been a fantastic day! Carina and I went grocery shopping. I baked pumpkin cookies. I did laundry. Carina has already been napping for 90 minutes (I even left her in her crib awake and after 20 minutes of talking to herself, she fell asleep on her own!). I'm hoping to visit a couple friends this afternoon and my Mom is coming tonight. Oh and the weather is awesome.

I think much of my anxiety boils down to my need to feel useful. On crazy days that I can't control, I can't get out of the house to run errands or even find time to clean up around the house. Then I feel like I'm not contributing to the household. Silly? Probably. Anyway, I better wrap this up before someone decides to wake up early. I think we're all going to be ok!