Typing As Fast as I Can

I suck at posting to my blog. Maybe that's because I feel like I have very little time anymore! Why didn't someone tell me that being a mom and working at the same time would be exhausting and ridiculously time consuming!

Fast update while Max naps!

Max:

• His stomach issues seem to be under control a lot more. He rarely spits up. It's nice.
• He's now eating rice and oatmeal cereals, peas, green beans, pears, and applesauce. I think we are going to try carrots tonight. He refuses nothing. He gobbles it up. It's hilarious. He cries when it's all gone.
• Still trying to work on sitting up on his own. Still struggling with it.
• Wearing size 12-18 month summer clothes. Good thing for stuff we got as gifts and garage sales.
• He sleeps from 8:30 to 7 now. Super nice. I wish he'd sleep from 10 to 9 for the weekends. :P
• Still not talking much. I want him to say more. I'm hoping he won't be behind. He doesn't make the usual baby sounds, just screeches a lot. I know he can hear me though. He turns when I say his name.
• We've been working on 10 animal flashcards at least twice a day. Current animals: Dog, Cat, Bird, Lion, Pig, Horse, Duck, Monkey, Cow, and Mouse. We say each word twice and then make the animal noise 4 times. His favorite part is, of course, the noises.

Me:

• I get my iPhone is just a little over a week. I'm SUPER excited! It's my early 30th birthday present.
• Speaking of birthdays...I've decided to have a giant cookout at my house for my 30th, on my 30th since it's a Saturday. So mark your calendars now. :) Invitations forthcoming.
• I've been struggling with pumping. My milk seems like it's starting to dry up. I refuse to quit. I'm hoping to hold out the 10 more days of school and then go back to breastfeeding exclusively for a while. Then we're going to try formula again in July I think.
• I hate work right now. My kids suck. I got a death threat last week. And had two parents yell at me. Jerks. I just want this year to end.
• Next year's schedule looks awesome though! I'm not teaching 7th grade- thank GOD- and will be picking up the Creative Writing elective. I'm also still teaching the gifted kids.

Kendall:

• He's been working on the Great Wall of Erdahl and we have the first half complete. I'm so glad he can do these kinds of things.
• Also been super awesome about packing my lunches in the morning and getting Max off to daycare. I think he likes having that time with him in the morning.
• Going to a conference at the end of July in Orlando. I'm heading with him for the 4 days and will be hanging out with Max at the resort. It looks super nice and I think Kendall is looking forward to me going this year. It used to be in Chicago (I was actually going to go to see Viki!) but the conference people decided to change it up.
• Driving around in the Bird Turdmobile. Since we've been hauling all this dirt in, the birds have been finding more worms. And shitting all over his car since it's in the drive while we store various tools in the garage. LOL! He's really tired of it. And calls his card the above-mentioned name.

Gotta go! Ciao!

Crazy, Crazy Busy

I feel like starting back to work has made me lose track of everything! My house feels like it's a mess, laundry hasn't been put away in weeks, and barely washed. Even Max hasn't had very many pictures taken! I try to take a couple of shots a week, but sometimes I don't feel like I get them.

The weather has been screwy too. We had several glorious days of summer weather, a total tease, and then we've had crappy rain and dampness all week. Today looks like it has the potential to be better, but it's cold, so that ruins it.

Some quick updates on life:

Max:

• He has now completely mastered the art of rolling over from his back to his stomach. He does it all the time. At daycare, he does it so much, they have had to put a wedge in his crib so he can't do it. Since he can't roll back over to his back, he gets mad and cries.
• He is drooling like crazy. No teeth yet. But teething has definitely begun. He loves chewing on things.
• His hand-eye coordination is getting really good. He grabs for small objects and is starting to choose the toys that he prefers when given a pile to pick from.
• He loves his Grover that he sleeps with. We lay Grover next to him and many times catch him hugging him while sleeping. Way cute. I have a picture I'll try to get up.
• He is now eating Rice and Oatmeal cereals. He gobbles it up. He's also taking an interest in our table food. Last night at Red Robin, he grabbed a french fry out of my basket and had it in his mouth before I even noticed. LOL! We obviously grabbed it away. I think we will start baby food in a few weeks.
• He now responds to his name most of the time and is starting to reach for us to hold him. It makes me feel good when I go pick him up from daycare.

Kendall

• Work has been hectic and many days he gets frustrated and feels behind. Sometimes he only gets a 20 minute lunch (instead of his scheduled hour) because his morning gets behind so badly. He's frustrated with the schedulers for not giving him the proper amounts of time.
• Only 2 more months until his contract runs out with the practice. Not much has been said about his buy-in except that they've been talking about it. This is only frustrating because Kendall will be losing out on money if they don't give him his buy-in in July. He already makes more than they pay him. We want that money! Not to mention the fact that partners get 6 weeks of vacation vs 2 weeks employed.
• Kendall loves me so much that he built me a wall. We're calling it the Great Wall of Erdahl. It's going to go around 2/3 of our house when it's all finished. He built the first portion last weekend around part of the deck and we will hopefully be buying plants this weekend for Mother's Day. I'm so excited. We even had a landscape design done for the front and back and are planning on doing much of it ourselves throughout the summer.

Me

• I am only 28 days away from an iPhone. SOOOOO excited! We went to Best Buy last night and were playing with them. I can't wait!
• It's only been three weeks since I started back and already I'm sick of working. Part of it is that this year's group of kids has gotten really obnoxious. I'm so glad that I was gone for 4 months. They just don't have any respect for rules or homework or...anything! And it's not just for me. They're this way for every teacher! I'm so looking forward to summer vacation! Only 23 more work days...
• TMI WARNING: I stopped taking my mini pill last month because I thought it was pointless. We barely have time for sex as it is and we want to start trying for baby #2 sometime this summer. So of course, I go off the pill and get my freaking period the next month. Grrrr....I was looking forward to going several more months without it. Oh well, at least this means my body will be ready when we are. Unfortunately, I think it has reduced my milk supply a little bit. I'm hoping to make it to the end off the school year and then possibly trying some formula once Max is on baby food. His stomach has been so good lately I just don't want to jinx it yet.
• I'm DYING for some Mexican food- yet another reason to try Max on formula. :)

Sorry for the lengthy absence and even lengthier post. I'll try to be better, but can't promise anything. Summer is just around the corner, hopefully it will be easier then.

Real Quick

So my first couple of days back have actually been pretty decent.  The kids were actually happy to see me (for the most part) and I haven't had to snap too many times.  Although I've busted out several "Really?"'s and one or two "Seriously?"'s.  The kids are working on a group project this week, so it gives me the opportunity to clean up from the absolute cluster f*ck my long term sub left me.

Not only was my room physically dirty (I had to wash down my desk from the rings of stickiness and food crumbs) but I'm also finding out that he didn't do ANYTHING I instructed him to do while I was gone.  One of things I asked him to do was bell work.  It's the same thing every day, just a new passage to read from a workbook.  The kids read the paragraphs, answer a couple of questions, trade-n-grade, and we discuss.  Takes all of 5 mins each day.  The questions are excellent practice for the state test.  He told the kids, and I quote, "These are a waste of time and the answers are in the back, so we're not going to do them."  WHAT!?!?!?!  He didn't complete a single one, so my kids are like 60 behind.  And they lost out on all of that practice.  *sigh*  

Max has been handling daycare to the best of his ability.  He's eating and sleeping, just not the same as he would at home.  It's kind of frustrating.  He didn't take a single nap from 3:30 on and went to bed early tonight.  Which sucks because it means less time with him.  I don't want them changing my baby, but in three days time, it's already started happening.  :(  I just keep telling myself that it's only for another 30 some days.  And then he's back home with me for the summer.

I could write a novel here about what's been happening in just three days time, but I don't have time.  I want to eat some cake before heading up to bed.  And relax a little.  And get Kendall to rub my back.  :)  Being a stay-at-home mom is sounding better and better all the time.  Too bad I don't have that choice.

First Day Back Anxiety

I officially start back to work tomorrow.  It's got me stressed.  I don't want to leave my little boy with strangers.  And after Friday's observations, I am worried about leaving him at this daycare.  (Long story, but one example was an unsupervised child on the floor for 5 minutes while the safety gate to the room was left open and no one was watching him.)  It's nothing like they first presented themselves to be.  I'm seriously going to look elsewhere for next year.  

They didn't even have a mattress for him on Friday for his crib!  I have made Kendall promise that he won't leave him if there is no mattress.  I have two people lined up to watch him if there isn't one.  *sigh*  I shouldn't be having to do this.  

Maybe I should have picked somewhere that was close to my work, and not my home.  Then I could pop in and visit with him more, like Karen does.  Always something to consider when looking for next year.

I'll let you know how the day goes.  I'm really not worried about the kids at school.  I'll bark, they'll jump.  It's missing Max too much that I'm worried about!  :(

I've been taking Max to daycare all week and when we showed up on Tuesday they asked if they could do a craft project with him.

Today when I showed up, this was on the wall. It made me a feel a little better. It made me think that these kind of projects would be coming home once or twice a month and that they were things I could save for him when he was grown.

While I'm still not thrilled at the idea of taking him to daycare, I also met his primary caretaker today, Gail, and she held Max for an hour, just cuddling him and loving him. And he took to her and snuggled in when he started to get sleepy. I didn't even really feel jealous, which is good. She also has a son named Max who had stomach problems when he was a baby. She asked me lots of questions and made me feel like I was the expert on my kid. Even if she ignores everything I said when I'm not there, she at least made me feel like she wanted to know more about my child.

I have great friends. Thanks guys. :)

A Little Sad

Today starts my last week of maternity leave. I'm sad. I'm pretty sure as the week progresses I'll get more sad. But being said also makes me happy. I know, weird. But really, if you had asked me 8 weeks ago if I was ready to go back to work I would have shouted, "YES!" And that's why I'm happy to be sad. Because I finally feel like we have Max's stomach issues under control and I actually enjoy being at home with him.

More for documenting life (like Karen says) and less for your entertainment, I wanted to note a couple of things about Max and my feelings about going back to work. So I won't be offended if people don't read the rest of this. :)

I'm anxious for several reasons, including having enough breast milk, missing milestones, and the fear that Max will love the daycare people more than he loves me.

The breast milk issue stems from the fact that either I really suck at using my electric pump, or my boobs just don't like the pump. I have about 9 feedings frozen, and I'm hoping to get at least 3 or 4 more this week, but Max has to go for 38 days. We've been giving him cereal once a day and he seems to like it. But he doesn't eat enough of it to really satisfy his little belly. I'm hoping that by the end of this week I'll be able to give him half and half at each of the meals he'll get at daycare. That would significantly help.

The milestones is a big one for me because Max really seems to just be starting to "do things" and I don't want to miss them. For example, this weekend he almost rolled over from his back to his front. He was so close, and then he rolled back. Grrr. He's also starting to realize that if he leans forward far enough, he can sit up. When he's in his bouncy seat he spends more time lifting his head off the back and trying to lean forward than he does just relaxing. He also doesn't like to be cradled as much, unless he's really tired. He wants to try and sit up in your arms. When we carry him now, he likes to hold himself up and look around.

He smiles at pretty much any woman that talks to him (he's a total ladies man) and he laughs out loud and only God knows what sometimes. Sometimes I think there must be a ghost in the room because he'll be looking into space just laughing and smiling. He has the cutest little giggle sometimes, and at others big loud guffaws of laughter. He's also learning how to express his dissatisfaction in loud shouting bursts instead of just crying. His crying has also gotten more dramatic. He can now make his face turn beet red and does the whole I'm-crying-so-hard-I-can't-breath thing. It's almost funny. Almost.

I guess I'm just afraid that he'll roll over at daycare for the first time or sit up by himself and I'll have to hear the excited voice of the daycare worker telling me about it instead of witnessing it myself. It also leads me to the fear that next year he will take his first steps there, and I'll miss it. I've contemplated telling them to not tell me when he does these things and just pretend that all of his firsts conveniently occur at home. I'm not sure yet. I guess I'll have to make that decision this week.

Which closely leads into my fear that Max will love the daycare workers more than me. Don't get me wrong, I want him to like going there, because I don't have any other choice right now. With my job providing the health insurance, I can't quit. And I'm a little bitter about that to be honest. But that's a whole other post. I just don't want Max to prefer the people that take care of him all day over me. It's stupid, I know. My kid will always prefer me. Esp. because he's only going there for 38 days before he spends three more months at home with me, even more time to bond. But what about next year? When he goes there for 9 months?

We're going to stay at daycare for an hour each day this week. I'm sure that the director thinks I'm crazy and overprotective and neurotic. But I don't really care. Because I'm paying these people 155 bucks a week to oversee the safety of my child. And I want to feel comfortable with leaving him there. Hopefully after taking him there and doing a practice run on Friday where Kendall drops him off, I'll feel okay next Monday morning when I have to leave my baby with a stranger. Because right now, it's making me tear up, which just isn't good for my mascara.