Refocusing on what's important

This has been a long and stressful week for Austin and I, and I feel like I've spent most of the week feeling burdened with all that I have to do at a certain point in time.

This has also been a week of really bad news. A friend of mine was diagnosed with leukemia, a co-worker had a stroke at the airport, a friend's mom was having heart pain and rushed to the ICU, Austin's co-worker's babysitter had a heart attack.....seriously, compared to all of this news, my little issues are really just that...little.

Both Austin and I are in tip top health, Naomi is a happy, cheerful and beautiful child. We have everything in the world to be thankful for and unfortunately I allow myself to forget all of this and get lost in the moment of what I need to do to be improving things and getting things done.

So here's to a great year of not complaining about all the things we have to do, and to instead, cherishing all the little miracles we do have in our lives.

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

18 month check up

Naomi went in for her 18 month check up today. All things checked out fine, and she got her 18 mth immunizations as well as her boosters for the h1n1 and flu vaccines.

Here are her stats:

weight 21.5lbs (12%)

height 30 3/4 (20%)

head: don't have the measurement, but it was 85%

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!!

Let it snow!!!

On New Year's Eve it snowed early in the morning. While it wasn't a ton of snow, it was enough that Austin had to shovel the driveway, and enough for Naomi to get outside and play in the snow for the first time this year.

She was a little tentative walking in the slippery mush, but quickly learned that it was a lot of fun, and even threw herself into the piles of snow that Austin was shoveling.

We had a sled that my boss gave me that his kids used when they were babies, and it was perfect for Naomi. We ran around our yard a couple of times and she loved it! Even though I hate the cold, I kinda hope it snows again really soon!!!

≈

At least she knows my name...

So if you ask Naomi what her name is, most likely she'll respond, "Ella" or she'll ignore you, or she'll just laugh.
But recently she started calling me Amy instead of Mommy. At least she knows my name right?

Milestones good and bad

Happy New Year's. We've had a great holiday season with family and friends in town. It was a great Christmas with my parents and both brother's as well as Austin's sister staying with us! The last time my whole family was here was last Thanksgiving, so it was nice to have everyone here. Naomi loved having so much family in our house and constantly was asking for ah-ma, dodo, gu-gu, fish and sris. It was definitely sad when everyone left and we had a quiet and empty house on Tuesday evening. Every once in awhile, Naomi says someone's name and asks where they are (her exact words: "Ah-ma...go??" with her shoulders and arms shrugged).
It has been so nice to have a week off during the holidays, and as usual I'm amazed by how much Naomi learns every day.
- She tells us when she's gone "poo poo"
-She's starting to recognize letters of the alphabet, and asks for her "AB..(pause) C" book all the time.
- She can count to 4 but knows numbers up to 9 (after 4 it chaos is the only type of order)
- Her back molars are coming in...probably the reason for the couple weeks of bad sleep which have thankfully passed
- She walks around pretending to make and serve coffee
- She knows how to get into the pantry, find the dog treats, get Lilo and Stitch to go to their crates and give them one treat each, then walk back to the pantry and put the treats away
- She still loves to dance, but now is constantly singing while she's playing. incredibly cute.
- She's learned to use my iPhone...she knows how to unlock it with the slider, and navigate to either elmo or ni hao kailan videos, or one of the two games that i have on the phone for her. I thought it was a fluke when I found her watching an elmo video with my phone which i mistakingly left within her reach...until i saw her navigate over and over again this week.
- She's learned that her toys are hers and now says, "MINE" if you have something she wants.
- She's learned to hit, mainly out of frustration, but she swats at whoever is near her
- She has learned NOT to share, and will hit or push kids if she doesn't want them near her toys
- She's noticing what she is wearing and has a STRONG opinion about what shoes she's wearing (she is my daughter afterall) She also loves to wear her new winter boots that Ah-ma gave her, all around the house. I kept laughing at her and thinking she was weird...until Austin caught me wearing my new boots around the house after a trip to woodbury commons. sigh i guess she really does get it from me.
- She's learned to throw temper trantrums and cry when she doesn't get her way, which then causes her to have time outs.

There are so many more developments that I've noticed in Naomi this week, too many of which I can list, and some that are just simply escaping me. It's been a great week and I'm already feeling sad that I'll be going back to work on Monday. At least it's a short day since I need to leave work early to take naomi for her 18 month pediatrician checkup.