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March 06, 2012

Becoming a Stay At Home Mom

For those who are not aware, I was fortunate to be able to resign my full-time job at the end of 2011 with plans to be done by end of February; however, my position has still not been filled.  So, for the month of March I will work three days per week which means I am now a part-time Stay At Home Mom!  I don't know how often I will blog in this much detail about our days together at home but since it's a new thing for me to spend so much time learning about my little girl I'd like to capture it for a little while.

So, last Friday was my first day at home.  I found a Toddler Storytime at the local library but when we got there I realized I had the date wrong so instead we just looked around.  It was Olivia's first real visit to the library!  Some highlights from our trip:
-Olivia enjoyed pulling the books off the shelves and watching Mommy hurry to put them back.
-She thought a lady there was our neighbor, hopped on her lap and hugged her (what a little greeter!).
-She pushed a chair from the toddler section all over the library, entertaining all the little old ladies who were visiting from the local assisted living home.

After nap we ran some errands and then she got to play with Daddy while I got the table ready for dinner.  Friday was a GREAT day!

Yesterday, Monday, was a bit rougher.  I had been sick with a sinus infection over the weekend so I really wasn't feeling great anyway and Olivia had some stomach issues on Sunday evening which led to her waking and having a hard time going back to sleep.  Then Daddy had to be up very early for his morning flight out so our day started out early and we were both tired.  After breakfast and some playtime I decided we should go get the car washed.  The inside of my car was DIS.GUST.ING and I figured Olivia would enjoy watching the car go through the wash.  WRONG!  Apparently, Daddy normally rides through the wash with the car and doesn't get the inside done so Olivia completely freaked out when we got out of the car and the car wash workers got in.  She screamed the entire time, even after they were done and we got back in the car.  Whew!  Who knew the car wash visit would be so traumatic?!  After that I just drove and drove til she calmed down.  I could then see she was totally exhausted so we went home, had lunch and Olivia took a very long nap.

That afternoon I decided we would to take a walk in the neighborhood with Buddy, our dog.  Olivia loves to walk Buddy!  Mark and I have done this several times so I thought it would be easy peasy!  WRONG!  I failed to recognize that the adult to child/animal ratio would be different and therefore, this would not be easy peasy at all.  Instead, I had the dog running one way and Olivia running the other which left me, being just one person, in a bit of a quandry.  After much begging, chasing and more begging I managed to get Buddy going in the right direction with Olivia over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes screaming.  Back to the house we went.

Once there we played some more.  Olivia got so wound up playing with Buddy that she vomited all over the rug.  I went to get a cloth to clean it up and she sat down beside me.  She noticed a stain on my shirt and disappeared.  She returned with a cloth and proceeded to try to get the stain out of my shirt like I was getting the stain out of the carpet.  What a cute reminder that our kids are sponges and notice everything we do!

Today I went back to work for my three days and while I think I appreciated not having a toddler attached to me a little more than usual I also missed my little girl more than usual.....two more days!