I was a little nervous Monday morning because our (new) normal “schedule” was being thrown off on day one because my parents were returning from a trip to Santa Fe and my dad wasn’t available to watch the Bean. I had to be downtown at 8 for new employee orientation and was scheduled at my branch till 5, and Cameron worked 9-5, so we had some creative thinking to do. We got a friend of mine to come and watch her from 8:30 till 1 (which was so awesome of her and great because I hadn’t seen her in a few years) and then our neighbor came over for the remainder of the day. It ended up going off without a hitch, Bean was a saint, and everything was great. The next day I brought her to my dad’s as scheduled and we were off to the races. She had a great week adapting to spending the majority of her days with Papi, napped and ate like normal, and it seems like my dad is really enjoying taking her to the park and spending time with her. I worked all week, which will not be normal in the future since I am only part-time, but the managers wanted me to get all of my training out of the way so I could get on the teller line as soon as possible. As it happened, not much has changed since I left the bank last year, so I was done with my training by Tuesday with the exception of a few call-ins I have to do over the next month. I spent Wednesday and most of Thursday shadowing the other tellers, and on Thursday afternoon they gave me my own drawer and I was completely up and running for all of Friday. Next week my part-time schedule will start, which is nice because it will mostly just be Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
And all this without tears. From anybody! Wee!
In other news, this little girl started standing up on her own. Start your engines.
My bitty Bean is 10 months old!
What a month for the Bean. I feel like she has developed so much in the last few weeks, especially in becoming mobile. She still isn’t crawling, but that doesn’t stop her at all. She gets around! I have to be careful where I leave her because she could get into trouble. She is standing, not quite on her own unsupported, but very close. She knows how to take steps with help and she is starting to pull up on things. (Just while I was writing this, she stood up on her own on the side of a foot stool) Climbing out of the tub seems to be her favorite project right now.
Aside from getting going, she is chattering up a storm. No actual words yet, though we get “dada,” “mama,” and “baba” parroted back at us over and over and over when she feels like it. We sometimes get what we think are “hey/hi” and “wow/woah/oh”. She also hums, shouts, screams, and shrills like a bird at all times. She even whispers “dadoo” whenever you pick her up. As pleasant a baby as she is, she is definitely not shy about telling you when she is unhappy, be it vocally or physically. If she is done drinking her bottle, she will shove it out of her face. If she is done with the attention, she will shove you out of her face. We went through a screaming phase not too long ago, but it seems to have ended now thank goodness…or maybe I should say, it has ended for the time being.
Eating and sleeping have been about the same. We are still trying to get her to hold her own bottle, especially since she’ll be with Papi during the day soon and it would definitely be easier on him if she could drink her own bottle. We’re getting there. Mostly if I hand the bottle to her she wants to investigate it, turn it upside down, shake it, play with the nipple…she definitely knows how it works but for whatever reason just won’t take the final step of lifting it up. We had some success with a bottle that had handles on the bottom, but nothing concrete yet. She still gobbles up just about everything I give her for meals. Her favorites right now are ravioli, mandarin oranges, blueberries, and graham crackers. Oh, and she has four teeth now!
So, in lieu of another detailed monthly update, I thought I’d do a Day in the Life of A Bean…with approximated times, of course. A girl hates to be predictable.
6:30-7:30ish – wake up. Diaper change, breakfast, playtime, bottle
8:30-9:30ish – nap (mom’s time for an uninterrupted cup of coffee, breakfast, laundry, straighten up, etc)
11ish – wake up. diaper change, get dressed. If we have errands to run this is when I do them. If not, we watch a nature show or go for a walk, go to the park, etc
12:00-1:00ish – Lunch. More playtime/tv
2:00-3:00ish – another bottle, then nap.
4:00-5:00ish – wake up. Dinner.
6:00-6:30ish – evening walk
7:00-8:00 playtime, or sitting outside if the weather is nice, generally just family time
8:00 – bath time
8:30 – get out of the bath, quiet time in her room, bedtime routine. Lotion, pajamas, quiet music, last bottle
9:00 (hopefully) bed time
It’s hard to believe I am within two months of celebrating my little girl’s first birthday! I am thinking owl theme, she seems to love owls. Think that also might be her Halloween costume too. In the meantime, every day I am watching this bright girl learn more , test her boundaries (and mine) and become a little person. It’s so exciting!
Can I just start off this post with something I just overheard at my neighbor’s house? In the midst of some argument about something with his mother, my neighbor’s son said, “I’m tired of being broke. I need to grow weed.”
Right.
Anyway, what’s new! Lots. This last weekend we added two more states to the Bean’s map-o-places-I-been. Kansas and Missouri, so nothing super exciting, sorry Kansas and Missouri. We trucked off there last Thursday and stayed the weekend to go to a wedding and spend time with Cameron’s step-sister and her husband. Bean did pretty well all things considered, I mean, nobody loves being in the car for 9 hours, but she handled it better than I expected her to.
Back on the home front, fall is on the way! With the exception of today (with a high of like, 91), the temps are dipping down into the mid-70s and it’s been awesome. Cool at night, warm during the days, damn perfect. I put out my fall decor yesterday, and was super pleased (read: not pleased at all) to find that at some point between last Thanksgiving and yesterday, a mouse or some small rodent has taken up residence inside the tote where I keep the fall and Halloween decorations. I have no idea if it’s still in there or if it…starved to death…and I kind of abandoned the whole thing once I realized it was in there. Aside from the classic sign (droppings), it had clearly burrowed inside a hay bale and those fake spiderwebs and even ate the burlap wrapping off of my wedding bouquet, which I use as a centerpiece on our table every year. Anyway, I guess in the next few days I’ll don gloves and work up some courage and pull the whole thing outside and likely take the entire thing to the trash so I don’t have to go picking through it. Luckily it doesn’t seem that there was anything damaged, though I have yet to pull out the Halloween lights and see if those got chewed.
What else. Work! Yes, work. Cameron started his new job this morning as a personal banker. Yahoo! I know I mentioned a little while back that he left Starbucks some time ago, and had an interim job for a short while, but when he got interviewed and hired on the spot to work at the bank, it was too good of a position to pass up. I mean, who wouldn’t want to work banker’s hours when you have a family at home? So, it took a little while for them to let him come on board because you have to get background checked and all that, so he’s been home for the better part of three weeks now, and I know he’s glad to be back to work and getting back to a routine. (And I’m happy to have some income coming in soon.)
Also, I am going back to work too! Also at a bank! The same bank I used to work for in fact, though at a different location. It’s part time, more than likely 3 days a week plus the occasional Saturday morning. I thought it would be good for me to have a couple days a week when I could get out and talk to adults, plus make a little extra income to help cushion us (we really need to get back on track with our savings because unfortunately we got capital-F Fucked on our health insurance for the last two months)…and possibly help support my IKEA addiction. Anyway, I’m pretty excited. Bean will get to spend a few days a week with her Papi, and I know he’s pretty glad for that. I don’t start till the 22nd, but I’m excited.
I also decided over the weekend it was high time for me to get my body back in shape and be nicer to it. I’m definitely carrying around a considerable amount of weight that I don’t want to be hauling around, and it’s becoming more and more obvious at least to me. I’ve never been really good at sticking to (or figuring out) diets, but we are making an effort to eat more cleanly and really stick to our meal plans instead of eating out or eating badly. I also plan to start going to the complex gym a few days a week (since it’s, you know, free) and get back to doing Pilates when the baby is sleeping. I need to be better about drinking water which I know is a key factor in good health and I am unbelievably bad at it. What are your tricks for keeping in shape and feeling healthy?
So yeah, lots going on here lately. I’ve been spending a lot of time devoting energy toward making our house more of a home, which has meant a few purchases of furniture to help store things and display family items, things like that. I’ve always felt like our house(s) has(have) not really been homey, more just…functional. But I want to enjoy where I live, I want to feel comfortable here, and I want to take pride in showing it off to friends and family. I am making an effort to find better ways to keep things organized because I feel like it is ALWAYS getting cluttered in here, way more than it should for only two and a half people living here. But it’s getting there for sure.
One of our new setups in the living room…and the Bean trying to pull up on it.
Two Lattes and One Bean 