Babysitting

Austin and I had to go to a church function in the afternoon today and couldn't bring Naomi, so we hired our first babysitter! It's actually cheating really since we hired one of Naomi's daycare teachers who Naomi absolutely loves (she asks for her at dinner time). It just so happens that she lives less than 3 minutes away from us. Naomi was actually so happy to see her that she didn't cry, much less whine, when Austin and I left. She simply gave us a kiss, said "bye bye" and continued to color. When we got home, she was completely happy, had a great afternoon with not a single tear shed. Hmmm guess we'll be taking more advantage of this whole babysitting thing.

Running a rat race....and probably coming in last

My parents left after Christmas, and this is my first week back to work after the holidays. Since October, we've had one or both of my parents at home while Austin and I work. Naomi was still in daycare save a few days here and there, and my parents pretty much spoiled all of us by having dinner ready when we came home. And to top it off, my dad walked the dogs so we didn't even have to worry about them!

Now, I feel like I'm constantly on the go, trying to get from one point in the day to the next without a chance to breathe. And to make matters worse, Austin has been super busy at work, so with the exception of yesterday, we've had dinner every night without him. Tonight he didn't even make it home before Naomi's bedtime.

My daily schedule goes something like this:

4:30am - wake up

5:30am - go to work

5:50am - arrive at work

4:15pm - leave work, run to catch train at the WTC

4:40pm - arrive at Hoboken - run to catch NJ Transit train

5:15pm - arrive in Lyndhurst, run to car

5:30pm - arrive at Naomi's daycare

6:00pm - arrive at home, take care of dogs, deal with a fussy Naomi who's hungry and tired from daycare, prepare/reheat/cook dinner

6:30pm - feed Naomi dinner

7:20pm - Naomi's bathtime

7:30pm - pj's, storytime, milk, prayer time

8pm - Naomi's bedtime

8:00-8:30 relax

8:30pm - go downstairs, clean up dinner

9:00pm - cook/prep dinner for next day

10pm - relax/get clothes ready for next day

11pm - go to bed and start all over again.

phew, even typing it makes me exhausted

Moving on up

Naomi moves up from the infant class to toddler class at daycare
today. She absolutely lives her infant room teachers and all of her
classmates, so it's a little sad to know he'll be in a somewhat
unfamiliar environment. Other than the people, the biggest change is
that she will nap on a cot rather than a crib. The daycare center
teachers assure me that the kids never has a hard time transitioning
to a cot, but I just envision all the kids napping while Naomi jumps
up and just starts walking around on her own, taking advantage of her
new freedom!!

The daycare that keeps on giving....

It took Naomi exactly one month to catch a virus from daycare. Well actually, to be fair, I think she caught the "perpetual runny nose" on her second day of daycare. But this Saturday, Naomi woke up with a slight fever, a ridiculously gross drippy nose, and a heavy phlegmy chest cough. She's been incredibly moody, and extremely tired. She even took two naps yesterday. She also hasn't been eating very much, it's been about 3 days now since she's had a real meal, but our doctor said as long as she's drinking liquids she should be ok. Thankfully Austin and I had already taken tomorrow off since daycare is closed due to Columbus Day, and we decided to make it a family day. Unfortunately it looks like we'll be stuck at home for the most part, like we have been all weekend, but at least Naomi will get some much needed rest, and we'll all be able to spend time together. I'm glad she's getting sick now rather than right before our vacation next week!

Day care day 1

On Monday, Naomi had her first official day as a full time daycare kid. When she first got to the center with Austin, she definitely knew something was up; she clung to Austin's leg and her Grover doll and for a few minutes refused to even lift her head up to look around. She slowly got up and eventually was up and playing with toys before Austin left. Though she did shed a few tears when he got up to go, this was expected, and was no where near as bad as the tears we experienced her first time at daycare back in December. Her daycare teachers said she did great, after their morning walk at 10, she didn't shed another tear, not even when she was put down for a nap, or when she woke up in a strange new place. When I got there in the afternoon to pick her up, she scrambled over to me and gave me a hug. As we were leaving she walked out with her backpack, lambie blankie and izzy doll in tow, waved bye bye to everyone and blew flying kisses to all her teachers. The kid definitely won everyone over.

When we got home, ah-ma was waiting eagerly for us, and Naomi was so incredibly happy to see her grandma, lilo, stitch, and all her toys. For the new few hours before bed time she was all over the house, dancing, chatting (it was almost as if she was telling us all about her day in her own secret language), laughing, and shrieking with joy. I think she was happy to be home. =)

My mom and I kept pointing out how she seemed so much older than when we had seen her before daycare. Is it possible my little baby grew so much in just a few hours away from home?

Happily things went smoothly and she seemed to enjoy her day at daycare. It's definitely more exhausting to have her out of the house though, between earlier wake up times, extra driving/commute times, packing her snacks, clothes etc...definitely makes me realize how spoiled we've been with my mom here taking care of us.

dressed and ready for day care.

clingy at daycare

excited to be home!!

Daycare day 1 recap

Thank God she's only going 2 days this week. That's all I really need to say. I know that when she finally does go full time it'll get easier as she gets used to it, and this sporadic use of daycare is probably not the easiest thing on her, but man was she a mess when I saw her.
She did nap better than last time which was great (two naps of about an hour each).
She did not eat well though, she only had about half of her bottles during the day. And apparently cried on and off throughout the day. (her eyes were puffy when I finally got to her).
Once I picked her up, she was happy, but as soon as we got to the car, when I tried to put her in her seat, she threw a fit and didn't want me to put her down. She kept arching her back and trying to get out of the car seat...it took me around 5 mins to get her in. Normally not that difficult.
Thankfully once she was in, she calmed down, and we drove home. By the time we got home, she was all smiles and my happy baby was back.
Lilo and Stitch greeted us at the door, and that set Naomi off in a round of giggles.
Lilo left us a little extra gift with a big puddle of pee on the floor. Sigh. love that dog though.
Austin worked til after midnight, so I spent the night taking care of naomi, cleaning up dog pee, cleaning all of naomi's bottles and getting her milk ready for daycare. etc etc. rough long night, after a rough long day at work.
One thing I do love about Naomi going to daycare is that I get to pick out her outfits for the day. Something I don't get to do normally when I'm at work. Each evening Naomi and I go through her closet and lay out her clothes for Austin to dress N in the next morning.

Here's the outfit from yesterday. I need to find a job where I can just dress babies for a living.