Oh dear me, I've missed 2 Wordless Wednesdays. In my defense, the last week and a half has been SUPER busy! I/we have been consumed by my return to week, a visit from Gramma and G'pa Bashaw, and Miri's first day at her new "school" (daycare) yesterday. So I'll try to give a fairly brief synopsis of what's new around here!
First of all, my return to work has been good so far. It is always a little challenging to try to process as much information as is thrown at you when starting a brand new job, so at times, I've been feeling a little overwhelmed. The documentation at my new job is not quite as user-friendly as it was at Illinois Masonic, but I'm slowly mastering it. The good thing is that the patient care skill set of course remains the same! My new co-workers and boss are all very nice and helpful in getting me up to speed. It is hard being away from Miri, but working only 2.5 days a week is definitely not so bad, and I'm SO BUSY from the moment I walk in until the moment I leave that I don't have too much time to "actively" miss her.
Miri's first day at Willow Creek (the daycare) went as well as could be expected. In some ways, leaving her at daycare yesterday was worse than the first time we left her at Little Green Tree House. She had ZERO stranger or separation anxiety at 3.5 months when she started daycare in Chicago. Now, she's definitely got both separation and stranger anxieties. Even when I'm home alone with her these days, she starts screaming bloody murder if I walk out of her eyesight. So you can imagine the tears and wailing that Jason and I faced when we plunked her down in a strange place, with strange people, and walked out. Jason said he was surprised at how "tough" I was, but it was all a show. I knew it would be harder on Miriam if I displayed my own distress in front of her. We could hear her bawling all the way down the hall and up until we walked out of the actual building. It was heartbreaking. I admit to shedding some tears in the car on my way to work. But we all made it through the day no worse for the wear, ultimately. I guess she was kind of 'cranky' in the AM; the teachers thought she was probably just overstimulated with all the noise and commotion. During her period of wakefulness in the afternoon, evidently many of the other babies were sleeping so it was much quieter, and they said she was really happy playing during that time. And she did manage a 2 hour nap, so that was a nice surprise. She was playing super happily with a toy when I arrived and didn't even notice me at first. But when she saw me... that little beautiful face just LIT UP, and she started bouncing excitedly on her butt and just looked so incredibly happy to see her mommy. We reunited with lots of kisses and hugs! I think this will be the best part of daycare for me. :)
Gramma and G'pa Bashaw's visit honestly deserves a post in and of itself! Hopefully Jason or I can get to a more in-depth post about that soon. A brief synopsis is that we all had so much fun! Jason and I so enjoyed seeing Miriam playing and laughing with her grandparents, and I know they loved it every bit as much, of course! We did lots of fun things and Miri had many new experiences for Gramma and G'pa to take part in with her, including her first finger food (banana puffs, which she loves feeding herself), first time on an outdoor swing, and first time on a motorcycle (ha ha, not a real one... just a spring-mounted toy at the park, sillies!). A great time was had by all. I'll share just a few of the many pictures.
We all had a great visit, and Miri, J, and I all look forward to our next visit with Gramma and G'pa (also known as "Mom and Dad" or "Bonnie and Dick") this summer.
I also just have to report that I was spoiled rotten for my first Mother's Day. Miriam and her daddy gave me fabulous beach/summer-themed gifts, in anticipation of all the fun stuff we'll be doing together this summer! They gave me a really cute canvas Land's End beach bag. It is HUGE! Jason recognized that as a mom, I now have to carry towels and gear for three people, so the size of the bag is a definite upgrade from my old little beach bag that just barely contained my own beach things. Inside the beach bag was a new water-resistant beach/picnic blanket that I've been wanting for awhile, an adorable non-rash-guard swimsuit for Miri to wear to her indoor swim lessons (which is really a gift for me because I get the biggest kick out of dressing her up in adorable things!), and the best part... this amazing photo book w/ pictures from the secret beach-themed photo shoot that Jason and Miri had while I was gone for a few hours the weekend prior. The pictures are amazingly adorable, so of course I must share just a few...
Just being a mother to Miriam is of course the best Mother's Day gift I could ever hope to receive. I also felt very blessed to get to spend the day with my own amazing mom and with my great mother-in-law.
Some important developmental milestones for Miriam have also been occurring! She is now using rolling as a bona fide means of locomotion! We call her our little roly-poly. She now waves hi and bye pretty consistently. And she is getting closer to crawling by the day. She can easily get herself from sitting onto all 4s but can't quite figure out where to go from there. I'm sure she'll get it down soon, and then Jason and I will REALLY be busy! YIKES!
Okay, Miriam's up from her nap now and this is getting difficult to write with her on my lap and constantly trying to press the keyboard! We're off for a walk now before the storms hit this afternoon!
