Things really have gone relatively well though, especially considering Andy does the majority of the heavy lifting when he is in town. When he is gone, I realize all of these kid-related chores are not nearly as big of a deal as I make them out to be when he is doing them. Not to minimize what he constantly provides because it is A LOT but it is doable. You just have to be more organized and committed to being places on time’ish and such. It has been really nice that most people are out of the office this week so if I don’t make it into the office until oh you know, 9:35 am, it’s okay. I make up for it by the late nights I have been putting in anyway. Enough about that.
Do I indulge in a long, solo lunch? Drink wine? Go see The Help? Read? NAP!
I honestly don’t know what to do as it has been so long since I had a block of time like this.
Whatever it is I end up doing, it is going to be good! 
I stopped by the office of our daycare on Wednesday to make a copy of Eloise’s updated immunization card for their records. In the two minute conversation I had with the director, she totally made my day. She said one of the teachers in the baby room commented that Eloise is the baby they all way to play with most.
Now I am sure it is the director’s job to tell each and every parent in the baby room the same thing, but regardless, it made me happy. When you are away from your child for so many hours a day, it is good to not only know they are well cared for, but that those caring for them are genuinely happy to be doing so. I think a baby would pick up on it if that was not the case.
Life is moving so incredibly fast right now, we barely keep the balls in the air on a normal week. The pace is almost not sustainable and I keep telling myself (and Andy) that if we can just make it to Thanksgiving, maybe the end of the year, things have to slow down. I do really believe what I am saying, but it probably won’t slow down to the nice slow pace I have in my mind. Those days of reading Twilight after work, like I did when I was pregnant with Belén and could not muster up energy for anything else, are long gone.
And then we were home.
At home is where it got ugly. In next hour and a half, we somehow managed to get from this engaging conversation and singing to, “Belén, I have asked you five times, if you do not put your shopping cart back in the room by the count of three, you are going to have timeout.”
Timeout is usually enough to motivate her to do the requested action but not without a huge pout, perhaps throwing something down on the ground (which will get her timeout anyway) or even a fit. Meanwhile I tried to figure out where I was going to put Eloise while I administered a timeout.
By the time Andy arrived home, Eloise generally needed to nurse again and the first words out of my mouth were, “can you please entertain your older daughter?” in a desperate-sounding tone.
“Leesh you better get up if you want to make it to work by 8.”
I look up to see the digital clock projecting 6:40am on ceiling. I roll over, lay in bed for 2 more minutes before getting up and taking a shower.
Meanwhile Andy makes Belén’s lunch, gets her sheet and other stuff ready for school, feeds the pets and solves world hunger.
Pitter-patter, pitter-patter, pitter-patter, pitter-patter, pitter-patter, pitter-patter.
Belén must be up.
“MOMMY…MOOOOMMMMY…Where are you?”
“In the closet sweetie.”
“Mommy!”
“Back here.”
“Hi Mommy.”
“Hi Belén.”
“Mommy, what is this?”
“I don’t know sweetie, some sort of plastic thing.’’
“Mommy, what is this?”
“I don’t know, maybe daddy knows.”
This time around I successfully did the drop off even though that is now transitioning to Andy. (It is more emotional turmoil than I choose to deal with before going into the office and it doesn’t bother Andy as much.) Since things are going well, I wanted to share a few things I did differently with the transition this time which I believe helped it to proceed a lot more smoothly:
First and foremost, I think I knew what to expect since this is the second time. The old adage, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”
Second, my maternity leave was so wonderful and I never spent any time doing things I didn’t absolutely want to be doing. I didn’t waste a single day doing what I thought was expected of me or what someone else wanted me to be doing, but instead only spent my time how I wanted to which was mostly just hanging out with Eloise. Selfish…maybe, but I didn’t care.
Third, no work during maternity leave. I had 2600 emails and didn’t read any of them until my last week of maternity leave.
Today I returned to the working world. Before I say anything more, a huge thanks to everyone who wrote comments, sent emails, texted me, wrote tweets, visited me in my cube and called me offering your support on this difficult day. While a few of them did lead to me shedding some tears, I wholeheartedly [...]
Today one of my best friends Sage came to visit with her two kids. We hung out for awhile and then I went and picked up Belén from school early so she could play with Sage’s daughter, Maite. Soon after another friend, Sarah, stopped by and we packed up all four kids to walk to Sarah’s child care provider to pick up her son. Once we had returned to our house we had five children under the age of five, walking, toddling, crawling, swinging (Eloise) and playing.
Our attempts at conversation were incredibly disjoint and interrupted. It was truly a juggling match where each of the moms attempted to appease their own children as well as any other child near them in need of something.
With three highly ambitious girls turned women turned moms corralling active young children, toddlers and babies, it didn’t take long to find the humor and amazement in the current scene.
“Would you ever have believed ten years ago that we would be sitting here with all of these children running around?”
The answer, a collective NO.
Believe it or not, today was the first full day I have been home alone with both of my girls. Usually I am home with Eloise while Belén is still in daycare. While it is so nice have the special alone time with Eloise like I did with Belén when she was a baby, I have to admit I do feel guilty sending Belén to be taken care of by others when I am at home. It’s my Super Mom desire to be able to do it all…have a tranquil day with Eloise while also keeping a two-year old entertained…not possible.
