The BIG day :(

Well, the Big day has come and gone, and I survived!....Barely. What am I talking about you ask? Work....or the first day back to work specifically.
Mat leave is over, a year gone by in an instant and the reality that comes with a working family life has creeped or should I say blown its way in.
Anxiety, sadness, anger and happiness all blended into a heaping pile of mixed emotions, ever so rapidly twisting and turning into the stress storm of life. Yup that explains it!

So I'll spare you of the roller coaster up and down details of my first day back and sum it all up to a few short blabbers.
1) The day went by fast and was not nearly as bad as how I imagined it to be.
2) People seem to completely under estimate me, leaving me feeling as though I have to prove myself again and show everyone that I am valuable. It sucks starting over!
3) Hearing Mac shreek in delight when I got home from work was awesome and makes me so happy that she was happy to see me.

My final thought/ observation is this...When I was pregnant and quite obviously completely ignorant to a baby's sleep patterns, I dreamed about my mat leave being full of lazy sleep in mornings with a hot cup of coffee, a paper, and a smiling baby. Of course reality is that over the past year of my mat leave, Mac didn't once sleep in and just the small act of a shower would involve some serious time scheduling, toys and the occasional rendition of old MacDonald had a farm sung through the shower curtain.

So after all of these super early crazy mornings, why on the day that I actually want her to wake up early so that I could get extra snuggles before I leave for work, does she decide to sleep in? I actually had to wake her up! What gives??

Sound the Alarms! A New Cry is Here...

So Mac has developed the official worst sounding cry an 11 month old girl can possibly make.

Basically we have been doing some sleep training with her since Mac still wanted to wake up to nurse 1-3 times a night. We have tried several methods and nothing has worked. Well guess what, Mama needs some sleep. Seriously though.. I mean I really really really need some Z's asap.

One particular sleep method has really helped to my surprise! Although there is one side effect that I have grown not too fond of.  The modified version of the CIO method has worked for us for the most part but a new problem has arisen from this method. A new heart wrenching cry has emerged and it sucks big time.

Hmm, how to explain? Well I would compare it to 2 things combined. First off, imagine the sound of a regular baby making the Waaaaaahhh sound. Now turn up the volume about 3 times over. Now think of a car alarm....how it goes soft to loud progressively and then switches up 2 mins later to short weee ooos weee ooooos, then back to a long drawn oout soft to loud weeeeeeeeooooooooooooooo. That's it! That's the cry... It happens only when nap and bed time occur and through the night.  This new cry is a drastic difference from my soft whimper I have grown used to hearing.

I hate this new cry though and I am lost as to how to stop it.. It can't be ignored because well frankly, can you ignore a car alarm for too long? Doubtful! hair will be pulled, teeth will be grinded and in reality, I can't just let her cry for any longer than a 5 minute span without caving!

I just wish I had my little soft whimper back!

Vanishing Words

Am I the only one who has, since the birth of their child, lost about 95% of their vocabulary? For some reason I am having a serious case of the brain farts!  Since Mac is almost 11 old months now, I would say my condition has not improved in the slightest. Mind you this all could indeed be related to the past 10 months of broken sleep combined with a general lack of a well rounded-non baby related conversation.

On several occasions I have noticed myself completely forgetting common everyday words like "toast" (yup.. I mean the cooked version of bread) and "calculator" ("Hey babe, Whats the name of that thing you add things on?!"). Combine the loss of vocabulary with the occasional time I have forgotten what I was saying mid- sentence, and I am prity sure you can see the smoke start blowing out of my ears! Tell me I am not the only one in this situation!!

The past week Mac has actually slept the entire night so I am hoping that with a few more nights of glorious snooze time, I will have my words flowing back into my noggin for keeps!

Toilet Diva

My daughter Mac is almost 11 months old now! She is an early walker and has already become quite speedy tottling around the house. She loves to get into things she knows she is not supposed to. A new discovery for her this week... The Toilet. Arghh! First of all, I remember back when I was a teenager and used to babysit the kids on my street, seeing the occasional babylock on the toilet. I always thought how ridiculous it was that they would have to lock the toilet from their toddler. I mean seriously people, isn't that a bit excessive? Can't you just shut the door to the bathroom? Or  give your child a toy? Heres a thought, just teach your tot not to touch the toilet!
Well, I am now officially eating my words! Mac has every fab toy there is on the market right now and no toy is as fun as "the can". Flushing the toilet, throwing stuff into the toilet, opening and shutting the toilet, splashing amongst the water, oh and heck.. why not try licking the toilet! Why????   Just this morning as I was in the shower Mac had grabbed a book, 2 rubber ducks and a plastic frog and threw everyone into "the pool" for a swim! Hmm.. I wonder if you can buy a baby sanitizer specifically geared for toilet toys?

At this point even if I rushed out and bought the toilet lock for our seat, I know she will crack the code, so to speak and open it.

Oh, and who do I have to thank for teaching little one about the "magic" of the toilet? You guessed it... Daddy.  Thanks Babe!