My Scattered Life

It's been a while. For the past 10 months, I'd say that there has probably been too much "Scatterbrain" and not enough "Adventure." I kept wanting to write, but then I'd realize I have to put in a couple more hours of work, or the dishes (or laundry) would call my name, or sleep just wins over. Usually it was sleep. I really love sleep. Really, at the end of the day, with the return to work, my spare time was pretty limited. Playing with my son, or spending time with my husband came first. As it should!

Anyway, there was a little adventure. C's first birthday was exciting. It was also his first real Halloween. Last year, we had only been home from the hospital for about 48 hours.  We didn't even have time to carve a pumpkin! This year, there was a costume and trick-or-treating.  Then there was Christmas, followed by the winter that wouldn't end. Seriously. It sucked. Bad. Ugh, I get the no-sunshine-blues just thinking about it.  (Think happy thoughts, it's sunny today!)

Here are three highlights of my scatterbrained life over the past 10 months: 

1)  A 1st Birthday:  My last post was about the big party or little party dilemma. I DID have a party for my son's first birthday party. It was pretty relaxed, but fun. A little play-date with a yummy cake. Of course, then I decided we needed some decorations. I mean, really, what 1st birthday part doesn't have decorations. Before I knew it, we had a theme - construction - cute decorations ordered on line, tool belt treat bags, and construction hats. Despite going more overboard that I thought I would, it was still pretty relaxed, and Little C had a great day.

2)  Return to Work: I made it through my first school year as a teacher and mum. It was okay, but I still don't know if I've got the whole work-life balance figured out. Maybe I never will. It's really hard. I know, people said it would be, but I had no idea. Fellow parents, I salute you. Single mums and dads, I bow at your feet. Seriously, HOW do you do it? I feel like I'm always just trying to get through. We leave the house at 7:15am and get home around 5:30pm. Then it's supper, dishes, play, bath, usually some laundry, getting everything together for the next day, a little more work, and then about 3 seconds of relaxation before going to bed and doing it all over again. Housework is fit in wherever possible, and don't even get me started on meal planning and going for groceries. What's the secret?

3)  Sleep!: It took 19 months, but we finally figured out the whole sleep thing with Little C. This was life-changing. I should explain that for the first 3 months of his life, he wouldn't let us put him in a crib, playpen or anything at night. It was all sleep on the couch or chair holding this little bundle of joy. Eventually, we were able to move him to a playpen, then, in time, a crib, but getting him to go to sleep was torture. Seriously. I'm sure the books would give us different advice, but we just waited until he was ready. We weren't going to let him be miserable just so we could follow a routine. If he wasn't tired, we wouldn't try to put him to sleep. At some point this spring, we was finally ready though. So, we brushed off the old bedtime routine that had been tried many times before, and started putting him to bed at 8pm, after a bath, 3 books, a nightlight, window blinds open, and a playlist of soft music playing in the background. It worked! He goes to bed at 8pm every night and sleeps until about 7am. I feel like I'm living the dream.

I started this blog to help me get used to writing again, a skill that is important to my profession. I was off for over a year on maternity leave, and I found that I had a really hard time getting back some of the critical skills for my job - especially getting my thoughts out.  I enjoyed it, but it's not always easy to find the time. I found returning to work really difficult and with some other personal family stuff going on, this wasn't a priority. I probably won't post regularly, but I am going to try to share some adventures with my son and family.