Worky worky

Well, I knew these ten weeks would fly by.  I went back to work yesterday, leaving Baby Clare with Thom John for a couple of days.  ClareBird starts daycare on Monday - and boy, are the teachers excited.  Each day this week, a different teacher has asked me when Baby Clare starts.  It's a relief to know that she'll be looked after by people who are already so enthusiatic about it.  But that doesn't really make being apart from her much easier. 

However, I picked a good week to come back to work - a bunch of people in my group were either on vacation or travelling, so it was pretty quiet.  I checked e-mails, chatted with the people, and even started a couple of new projects.  It was good to keep my brain busy so I didn't end up harassing Thom John all day long with telephone calls.  I was able to keep my mind off of what I was missing with my girl - the naps, the bottles, the walks in the stroller, the tummy time, and yes, even the diaper bombs and the fits of fussiness :-)

Here are some snaps from our last few days of maternity leave:

On a long walk with Pepper:

 Tired dog:

Napping in my arms - I should have been doing something productive (laundry! vacuuming!!), but it was just so darn nice to cuddle with Clare:

Monday morning should be interesting - getting the kids ready and out the door in a timely fashion for a week of daycare - sheets, towels, extra clothes, water gear for Sean, bottles for Clare... and a partridge in a pear tree.  We'll get it all, it'll just be an adjustment.  But it's the weekend now - hooray!

This day last year...

...the weather was cool and kind of rainy. I was done with work and school and didn't have to be back for months. The house was spotless, the freezer was stocked, the dog had been on dozens of walks, and we were waiting.

It was APRIL 30!! It was the date that had been ingrained in our heads for months as THE DAY that our Sooy Baby would arrive! It was THE DATE that I had uttered over and over to family, friends, and total strangers in response to the question - "when are you due?"

We were waiting, as shown in this post from last year: April 30, 2009. Yes, we were waiting, but we had no idea what we were in for!

And today, April 30, 2010, it was warm and sunny. And as I walked you home from daycare, I looked down at your bare feet swinging in the stroller and your long, chubby fingers pinching your goldfish crackers(whole grain!), I thought about how - on this day last year we had no idea what a sweet, silly, handsome, smart, and all-around good baby (in our humble and totally unbiased opinion) you would be!

Rewind!

These are my favorite "Winnie pictures" from the past six months - having these photos in one post will really save time when I need my Sean fix at work...

You wouldn't like me when I'm angry...

I'm an angry lady these days.

I get mad at every single frickin' red light I hit on the one road that takes me from my house to the train station. I get mad at the other drivers on that one road who are in my way. I get mad at all the people on the train who are sitting, breathing, rustling newspapers, or yapping on their cell phones. I get mad at the conductor because he doesn't drive the train fast enough. And it goes on from there.

I googled "pregnant + anger" and found over 7 million websites that say this is perfectly normal - it's just hormones. Well, that's nice. What the frick do I do about it? Some suggestions include exercise (duh), hypnotherapy (?), deep breathing (yup), eating (okay, I suggested that one), thinking of something happy like puppies (yay!), and avoiding things that aggravate me (hahahahahahahaha).

BUT, I think I'm exaggerating (at least I hope I am). As quickly as I get mad, I'm fine again. Just fine, thank you. In fact, I'm great! How are you doing? Plus, I feel better having read that my angry times don't impact the baby at all. Now I can stop imagining that the baby will come out gnashing tiny, pointy teeth and shooting lasers out of little red eyes.

I think Thom John is handling my moods pretty well - right dear? RIGHT, DEAR? :-) He gives me hugs and feeds me snacks and I'm happy girl again. If only I could bring him to work to help me through the frustrating process of typing my stupid 12-character password to log on to my computer. Aaargh!