Gobble Gobble

If I don't see or talk to you before Thursday, I hope everyone has a very happy Thanksgiving. I am very excited that the holiday season has now started. It is wonderful to be able to share this season with my daughter. Of course she doesn't really know what is going on, but it still makes everything more magical to have her around. She already has lots of christmas outfits ready to go and I'm shopping for christmas presents although I know I probably shouldn't. It isn't like she will know one way or the other. But since she doesn't really have any toys yet and she is starting to get interested in them, I need to stock up.

I've also started on the Baby Einstein DVDs. Although I didn't want her watching TV (they say that children under 2 should not watch tv), she absolutely loves tv. Since she is trying to watch whatever I watch, I decided to put something on that is geared towards her. I put in my first Baby Einstein DVD (Thank you to Lina and Linzy who got me Baby Einstein gifts!). Christina loved it! It is the lullaby DVD and boy oh boy did it put her to sleep. Worked like a charm, lol.

Overall things have been going very well for our little family. Since I've started back at work, Christina has gotten into the habit of taking naps. And, the last couple of days she has been sleeping pretty well at night. I'm not going to get my hopes up on that one though, I know how it can change any day now. But, overall my little girl is very happy and so am I.

Now I don't know how well you remember CC when she was first born, but it is amazing how much she has changed. Her skin is no longer darker and olive toned like her Daddy's, but it is fair like mine. Her hair is thinning :-( but of course it is suppose to, and it will grow back. Her eyes have actually stayed the same and are the same color as mine.

The other day at the doctor's office I got to weigh her. She is now 11 pounds 4 ounces. She gained TWO WHOLE POUNDS in like three weeks, lol! That girl definitely loves her food like her Dad. She is getting so chunky now and it is so weird to look at a picture of her skinny little arms and legs compared to the chunky one's she has now. I am so relieved that she is no longer having weight gain issues and she is eating plenty and staying happy. Yay for Christina.


Take a look at some of the new pictures I've taken of her:












My Mom and I have this great system going. Every day that she can't be with Christina, I will take a picture and text message it to her. In return, whenever I am at work and my mom is watching CC, my mom will take a picture of her and send it to me. This is awesome because we both get to see her when we are missing her. I finally took all of those saved up pictures and put them on my computer, here are some of them:











Lastly, in honor of the family holiday's coming up, here are new family pictures. I hope to get many more over the next couple of months (because I'm still missing pictures with quite a few KEY people, ahem, I'm talking to YOU, lol)

Chunky Monkey

Look at what a chunkette my little girl has become:



So, do you think she's a happy baby or what? :-)

And yes Danielle, that is one of the outfits you got her! Thanks again!!

First week back at work

Monday - "Ok"
Getting ready and out of the house was difficult. Leaving Christina while she was still sleeping was really difficult. Work itself was fine, but at the end of the day I was racing home to get to my little girl. That night I was up late getting organized for the next day.

Tuesday - "Bad"
Christina woke up at 2am and would not go back to sleep. I was close to tears thinking about going to work because I needed some sleep at least. I ended up going into work late. Thank goodness I have the flexibility with work to do that. But, I was in tears all the way to work thinking about how I didn't want to leave Christina. In fact, all day at work I kept thinking about how I could work it out so that I didn't have to leave her. Even Nik was brainstorming because he didn't want me to have to leave her either.

Wednesday - "Really Bad"
Although I wasn't in the office, this was the hardest day. I was suppose to be working from home, but since Christina refuses to nap for me, that proved much more difficult than I had anticipated. I was really stressed out. I couldn't seem to keep CC happy, I couldn't get her to sleep, and essentially she just wanted to be in my arms all day. I found it extremly difficult to feed myself, let alone get any work done. I was so disappointed at myself because my mom had done such a great job with her on Monday and Tuesday. I didn't understand why she could get Christina to nap and why she could keep her in a great mood. I tried so hard and yet she was unhappy and wide awake most of the day. I cried all day because while I tried to work and take care of my daughter at the same time, I found that I failed at both.

Thursday - "Good"
Christina was in a good mood when I left for work. At work, I had lots of meetings and was able to get back into the swing of things. I felt more comfortable leaving Christina since I had done it a couple of days already (and since I wasn't doing a very good job when I was with her anyway). I was able to focus more on work and it felt good to be appreciated and valued at work again. I still rushed out of work at the end of the day, but on the way home I blasted the radio and sang my heart out. It was good to come home and snuggle my little girl.

Friday - "Much Better"
I worked from home again. I'm not a glutton for punishment or anything, but I didn't have a choice. The arrangement I had worked out (while I was still pregnant), included me working from home two days a week for the first few weeks. So, I had to give it another shot. And wouldn't you know, it worked out just fine! There were a couple of small factors that played into a much better day: before Nik left for work he set up my work laptop on our wireless network so that I could work from a more convenient spot in the house and miraculously I was able to get Christina down for a couple of naps.

Now I'm getting ready to start another week of this. I'm sure it will be much easier the second time around, although I'm still not looking forward to being up all night with Christina and then going into work first thing in the morning. But hey, at least I will be home two days a week and now I don't have to stress out about that. I can actually look forward to those days.