After nearly 18 months, I rejoined the work force last month. I'm pretty sure pigs were flying the day I returned to work. That's a long time to be away and I'm sure people figured I was never going back. Sebastian was born on August 14, 2011 and between my maternity leave and my tumor, surgery and recovery, I didn't go back until January 22, 2013. I still have numbness, but it doesn't hurt or seem to be getting any worse, and sitting at home wasn't helping me heal any faster, so it was time to go back. Between adjusting to being a working mom and dealing with this brutal cold/flu season, I've been on blog hiatus.
My work days are long, 7:30-5:30 with every other Friday off. I wake up at 5 and get myself ready. When I'm just about done, Adam wakes up Seb and gets him ready while I make breakfast. I feel like I hit the ground running the second the clock hits 5:30 each evening. I pick up Seb, battle traffic, and head home for the sprint to the finish line. Once home I've got to clean up the dishes and bottle from school, make and eat dinner, clean up dinner, do more dishes, give Seb a bath, and put him to bed. I think I finally sit and take a deep breath around 8. The adjustment hasn't been too bad, I'm just exhausted by the end of the day, but the plus of being back at work is a paycheck every two weeks.
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| Home away from home |
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| Pay day!!! |
So, in the precious moments that aren't spent with my nose to the grindstone, we have been creating memories and experiencing life with an imaginative, determined, curious, and stubborn 18-month old.
Sebastian definitely takes after his mama in the sweet tooth department. We discovered he LOVES Girl Scout cookies. He acted like he was going to take a nice exploratory bite, and the next thing we know, he's practically eaten half the cookie in one bite.
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| Chocolate + Peanut Butter = More please! |
We've begun to wear our parental creative thinking caps more often and found out the aquarium at Rainforest Cafe provides a great distraction in the middle of a potentially boring shopping trip. Unfortunately it wasn't near meal time, so we didn't dine and enjoy the full experience, but plan to in the future now that we've got this trick up our sleeve.
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| Fishy friends |
My future iron chef remains fascinated with all things kitchen. He loves cooking and he is obsessed with the fridge. He can be playing in the living room, but if he hears the fridge door open, he makes a beeline to the kitchen. One of his favorite activities is removing all the condiments from the door, placing them inside the fridge, and then putting them back in the door. He's gotten quite good with his refrigerator version of Tetris.
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| Bonus points for stacked cheese containers? |
We've been working on learning to eat with a spoon. It's hard to relinquish control knowing the impending mess, but, to our surprise, he picked it up pretty quickly. The first night he got yogurt in his eye, but was determined to figure it out, and he did. I was so proud! Tonight Seb used a fork at dinner and even successfully stabbed a few pieces of chicken. Now I'm wondering when we should start introducing him to the concept of using a plate? We're also slowly working on drinking from a cup.
The best source of entertainment has been the park. Seb LOVES being outside. His daycare was closed on Monday and it was raining but that didn't stop him from bringing me 3 of his sweatshirts to let me know he wanted to go play outside. The playing in the sand and the swing are his favorite activities right now. He doesn't quite get the concept of a slide and he gets this look on his face, somewhere between terrified and uncertainty. Is it fun, or not? The jury's still out on that one.
I recently picked up a Paint with Water book for Seb since I want him to have creative opportunities and activities at home but dread the clean up from finger painting. I love his focus in this video and painting in the middle of the kitchen floor makes for easy clean up.
Sebastian's latest fascination is with storage bins. He can happily spend large amounts of time emptying and filling them with a treasured assortment of toys, before climbing in and playing. I wish I could read his little mind to know what's going on in there. I think he's got a puzzle piece, a horse, a train, a yellow cookie, and his xylophone in there with him. I love watching childhood imagination at work.
Seb hit 18-months on Valentine's Day. He's almost 23 pounds and 32 inches. His favorite color is yellow, he loves to dance, loves the ABC song, and can point to his ears, nose, head, tummy and toes. He loves bath time and is fascinated with watching the water swirl down the drain when we empty the tub. He scarfs down yogurt, peaches, pears, turkey meatballs, goldfish crackers and teddy grahams. He does not like pizza, cheese, or ice cream. He's had 4 ear infections this winter and all 4 of his molars grew in at the same time. Peek-a-boo remains a favorite game but hitting the red "End" button on my i-Phone comes in a close second.
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| The best Valentine I could ask for <3 |
