So, we're nearing the end of week 2 of back to work and I think we're doing OK and getting into a routine. I wake up at 5:30. Luckily, I don't need a lot of time to get ready in the morning. In fact, I could be ready to go to the moon in 30 minutes. So I'm ready no later than 6:00. I get my coffee and Grace's bottle ready and then I get her up. I swear she is the happiest baby I have ever seen in the morning. Sometimes I hear her through the baby monitor talking to her baby doll. It's the sweetest little sound. After I get her dressed and ready we have our coffee and bottle together and then we have time to play before I bring her up to Auntie Kate's.
Grace has been doing so well at Auntie Kate's. She doesn't cry when I bring her up. She adores her cousins and man, do they adore her back. My niece Meghan thinks that she is a third mother to Grace. Meghan is almost 6. The night before I went back to work, Meghan asked me if I would be providing them with some instructions so they would know how to best take care of Grace. I told her I had written some things down and she said good, I like to have it in writing. I told her I would be up at 7:30 the next morning. We came up at 7:25 (because I am always early) and Meghan met me at the stairs and said, I thought you were coming at 7:30? It's 7:25. I said we came up a little early so I could tell them a few things. Was that OK? She said oh it's fine, I just expected you at 7:30. She cracks me up. The other night when we were leaving Meghan said see you tomorrow at 7:25 Gracie cause your mom is always early in case she has to tell us stuff. Jacob tells me every morning that Gracie is going to be a super great girl that day and then he reports back to me what she did all day when I get home. They are such great cousins and they crack her up.
In the evening she's really happy to see me. We have bath time, books, a little play time and a bottle. I really love the little schedule we have worked out. I still get to spend some good time with her and she knows she will start and end her day with mommy. Now the weekend is still a bit of a challenge for her. I think she's afraid that if she lets me out of her sight I'll leave so just about every minute of the day she needs to be either sitting with me or within arms reach of me. If I walk across the room or god forbid out of the room she looses her mind. So we spent a lot of time snuggling and playing. In all honesty, I would much rather have this scenario than to have a child who wants nothing to do with me. She just needs more time to realize that when I leave I will always come back. I tell her that every morning when I leave and soon enough she will come to believe that. Until then she just needs my constant love and reassurance and she certainly has that. Plus, who wouldn't want to spend their entire weekend playing with my gorgeous girl?
This week we got a great gift from Gracie's friend Enatu, who came home a few months before she did, and her mom. It was a gift set of Princess and the Frog hair care products from a company called Carol's Daughter. They make African American hair care products. We love the products. They make her hair so soft and fluffy.
We've been going to church and Grace is pretty well behaved except she blows raspberries through the entire homily. She's done this two weeks in a row and it's always in the homily and always when there's dead silence. And no matter what I do, she just won't stop. Well, I guess like mother like daughter. I apparently would wait until it was quiet to ask my mother if the boring church was over yet. We Flaherty women are classy gals.
Grace is doing so well. She has one tooth that is popping through. It's just starting to show and it looks so cute. She is rolling over all the time now and she can get from her belly to her knees to sitting up. She is also getting up on all fours and is rocking back and forth so I think she'll be crawling any time now. She loves to play patty cake and she loves to be sung to. Her favorite thing to do is to untie mommy's shoes. That can keep her busy for a long time. She is sweet and giggly and cuddly and I just adore her. I can't wait to get home each night to her. I consider myself the luckiest mommy around.
