TGIF

Happy Friday! Another week on the books. Here's a little of what's been going on in our world.

1. The dog saga continutes. Our dog Sadie has still been experience extreme storm anxiety. We've tried everything under the sun, and this was still the scene we woke up to after one of the bad storms this month. Ugh. Looks like it's time to invest in a cage, although I doubt that will contain her.

2. We're in official party planning mode, and invites will go out this weekend. Sigh. As excited as I am, I'm also a little torn up about my baby turning one. Any suggestions for gifts is welcome. Norah loves to play and climb and explore, so I hope we find something up to her adventurous standards.

3. Babies first doll house. N is starting to really love playing with her Little People doll house and that is a big milestone for me. It's no secret I really wanted a girl (read about that here), and it's so exciting that she's getting older and starting to enjoy the girl stuff.

 4. White cabinets.

We're doing it. I've officially started getting quotes from local pros to paint our kitchen cabinets. While our cabinets are just a couple of years old, they just aren't what I want. Moving into a house that was brand new, was wonderful. Moving into a house where basically every single surface was a shade of brown, not so wonderful. We're slowly but surely getting there with painting walls and decorating, but these cabinets may just be out of my wheelhouse as far as projects I can take on. Our floors are dark, trim and molding bright white, and kitchen walls a light blue. I am hoping to achieve something close to one of these looks.

here

here

5. For once, we have a FREE weekend. Still plenty to do on the to-do list, but there's nowhere we have to be at any certain time. I'm so looking forward to just spending some QT with my people.

Happy Weekend Friends! Linking up with April today.

working from home, with a baby

Now that I'm about 4 months in to my work from home role, I thought I'd post about some things that have helped me figure out how to not only work from home, but do so while watching a baby. Norah was about 6 months old when I started, and she's now closing on on 11 months. I know as she grows and changes, my day will look a little differently, but these tips work for us for now.

source

Keep you work station available.

As much as I wanted to (and still may) deck out a desk area for myself in our office nook in the master bedroom, it just isn’t the smartest way for me to work. Our main floor living/dining/kitchen area is where we spend most of our time. It is much easier for me to bang out 30 minutes or an hour of work if I can just hop on my computer at the island and send emails while the baby plays, or work at the table while she eats. Dragging all her toys in our room, or all my work supplies downstairs 5 times a day was just too limiting.

Be realistic with your expectations. To your employer, and your self.

Be honest in regards to what you can do in a day. I spent weeks beating myself up because I would stress constantly about working an hour or two less than I had committed to. I finally talked with my employer about my need for flexibility while things are so crazy schedule wise in my household. Luckily for me she was very understanding, and appreciated my honesty. This also led me to enjoying my work more, since I wasn’t so stressed about it.

Don’t assume nap time is the best time to work.

While I do get some work done at this time, I also still need those 100% kid free moments to do things that are too dangerous or annoying to do while a keeping a baby busy. I also still enjoy using nap time to have a few silent minutes to myself to think, rest, plan for the day, etc. I also make sure to schedule my work hours around other activities that are important to me that we fit in, like library story time.

Know when your most motivated and productive time of the day is.

When I first started working from home, I was very relaxed about what I accomplished during the day, because I assumed I would finish up what I needed to after N went to bed. She’s lights out by 7:30, still leaving my plenty of time to work before my usual bed time of 10 or 11. What I didn’t take into account was that in that few hour span I also usually finished making and eating the “grown up” dinner if we didn’t get to it before, cleaning, chores, time with my husband, and sometimes time with friends too. My brain was so ragged and ready to relax by the time even half of these things are done, it just isn’t realistic for me to expect to get more than an hour (max) of work done in the evenings.

I am a morning person. I’m much better off waking up early to get a jump on my day than trying to squeeze a bunch of thing into the evening hours. If you’re a night owl, the opposite is true. Don’t expect to rise super early and work if you know you’re a 10 times snooze hitter.

Give yourself a break.

It's hard being two people at once. Be gracious to your mom self and your employee self, and know that your best is enough! 

What do you do to stay focussed and productive with little ones running around?

lately

Where does the time go? Does anyone else's life feel like it's going by at lightening speed?

We have been having some awesome days lately. MLB All Star Game fun. Little outings around town during my days with N. Parties with neighbors. There's a lot of tough moments when you're taking care of a baby, but for each challenge (STILL not sleeping through the night) there's double the awesome (walking, exploring new things). I just know this season of life will fly by, so were trying to appreciate the ups along with the downs.

 

It's certainly snuck up on me, but we're just a couple of weeks away from our next round of vacations! Rhode Island, Boston, and Las Vegas, I'm coming for you!

All of us will be in Rhode Island, Will and I will be visiting friends in Boston, and Las Vegas will be a trip with my besties. If anyone has any recommendations of things to do, send them my way.

I'm spending tonight, and with our luck the next several nights, "sleep training". And by training, I mean a certain someone sleeping in her OWN room, ALONE. It's just time. Wish me luck!

Thursday Thoughts

+I really appreciate the fact that there are some tolerable cartoons on these days. A lot of them make me squirm, or are just plain annoying. We all enjoy Tickety Tock, Peter Rabbit, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Doc McStuffins. Honorable mention to Sophia the First and My Little Ponies. And no we do not watch all of this in one day.

+Is anyone else crazy excited about Prime Day on the 15th? I can't wait to see what kind of deals they have! Norah turns 1 next month, and I already have ideas for Christmas. Would love to just get some of that shopping out of the way now.

+My summer visitor (my sister) went home for a week or two and I am missing her like crazy. Not sure what I will do when the summer is over for good.

+Maybe it's teething, or the leap she's in, but Norah has been crazy clingy to me lately. I'm talking grasping on my clothes for dear life every time I have to put her down, and screaming bloody murder when I walk away even just two feet away. Please tell me this is a short, short phase? Currently she's pulling all the wipes out of the package, one by one, and I don't even care. You win some you lose some.

+#babyfever. That one pretty much explains itself.

+I feel so lucky to have the jobs that I do. The above mentioned point aside, I absolutely love being at home with N. I'm loving my Rodan+Fields business and the awesome women it's introducing me to. I love my part-time, from home job, my awesome boss there, and the fact that I'm able to keep my HR skills fresh. Just in case.

+Instagram has been cracking me up lately. How true is this?!

Happy Thursday! Linking up with Annie today.

tied score

Written last night, around 8:00pm…

I'm just going to say it. I kicked today's ass, and it feels good! Norah slept through the night last night, which is still few and far between, so that got the day started on a pretty awesome foot. Even if it was 6:00am when she woke up. #smallvictories.

All three of us were up and at 'em getting ready for the day pretty early, so I decided to take N for a morning walk before it got too hot out. It was still ridiculously humid, but not too uncomfortable. We saw some neighbors outside and had a quick chat before coming in for breakfast and the rest of the morning usuals. Like rubbing bananas all over our face and hair.

After her nap I was already feeling a little bored/stir crazy, so we headed to Recreation Outlet to play. This place is just a few minutes from our house, and while most of the things there are geared toward bigger kids, they do have baby swings and a few play houses and other things for little kids. I was most looking forward to the padded flooring and kid friendly atmosphere. It's great to let N rip around somewhere knowing a) I don't have to worry about her trashing the house and b) she isn't going to bust her head open on anything. Lots of blurry pics here but the iPhone on the go was all I had to capture our fun adventure. I REALLY need to just keep my good camera in my purse.

We came home for lunch and a nap, then headed out for some groceries. This child hates the carseat and grocery cart after about 6 minutes, but luckily both trips went smoothly. Then I still managed to clean the kitchen, clean the floors, make a healthy dinner, give N a bath, and put her to bed. Oh AND I snuck in 2.5 hours of work.

I think she's had enough pictures for the day.

But PRAISE THE LORD. That is all I can say. I'm crazy exhausted, but I feel like today was one of those days I imagined before I had kids. Fun, productive, a little crazy, and leaves you with a feeling of "this is the good stuff" when your head finally hits the pillow at night.

Written this morning at 9:30am…

Just as I finished the above paragraph Norah started screaming bloody murder. I try the letting her cry. The patting the back. All that crap. Doesn't work on this kid. I even gave laying in the crib with her a go. I escaped after a while, only to start the whole thing over again 30 minutes later. Sigh. I hope she sleeps through the night consistently before she's 27.

Yup, that's me in the crib.

Even though I still feel like I kicked yesterday's butt, yesterday night kicked mine. But that is parenthood, right?