“So, I did it. I left Dash home with Dad and Grammie and I headed back to the Good Life for a weekend with my college girlfriends. I knew that leaving him overnight would be hard on me. What I didn’t expect was how much fun that I’d have.”

Ditching the Kid

“I took my eye off Dash, seated in my lap, and turned towards the baseball game. In that split second, he reached out and grabbed the ponytail of the woman in front of us. I noticed immediately, but the damage was done. She shot us the dirtiest look that clearly read, “Keep your kid under control, lady.”

…

Being a Conscientious Parent

Since Google Reader is shutting down as of the first of July, I’ve moved over to Bloglovin. Follow the link and don’t miss a post!

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“When he graduated law school….I was shocked at how reliant I was on him to complete chores. And when I was supposed to step up and assume some of those chores, I was really uninterested. So uninterested.”

http://herviewfromhome.com/splitting-duties/

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Take Your Baby to Work Day

I’ve got spring fever and I’m talking about it (and daydreaming about mint skinnies and lavender blazers) over on Her View from Home today!

Check it out!

Dusting Off the Pastels for Spring

Being a Working Mom

I had six weeks maternity leave that went by so quickly. Just when I thought that Dash and I were figuring each other out, I felt like I had to start all over again as we tried to get out of the door each morning and get through the day on limited sleep. I think I mentioned in a previous post that my first day of work was terrible. I cried the whole drive to and from daycare and every time someone walked into my office. The next day was better and by the next week, it felt like I had never left. It really helped that I kept up with emails while on maternity leave so I wasn’t overwhelmed with six weeks of work waiting for me upon my return. My transition from working girl to working mom hasn’t been without its hiccups, but I feel like I’m back in the game. Sure, the bags under my eyes are darker, my hair is always pulled up and I might have spit-up or food on my cardigan, but I’m getting the job done and hustling out the door to retrieve my kid from daycare.

Breastfeeding

This deserves more than just a paragraph, so I promise to do a post devoted to EBF as a working mom. I have an office at work, but not a door, so I have to use our keypad entry server room to pump. I feel like every time I place my “do not disturb” sign on the door, it’s as if a red light starts flashing that alerts everyone that I’m not working. Never mind that I rarely take a lunch and only pump three times a day for about ten minutes. Like I said, returning to work has had its hiccups. Pumping is not the greatest, but I’ve been doing it enough to keep Dash fed the whole time he’s at daycare. It hasn’t been easy, but I’m proud of myself for making it work.

Milestones

The changes between three and six months have been amazing. At three months, Dash was still pretty squishy. As of six months, he was rolling all over the place and sitting on his own. Tummy time went from being torture to being a ton of fun. Smiles were more commonplace and deep belly baby laughs fill our home. We’ve gone from the bucket car seat to a convertible car seat. We said goodbye to my Saturn and hello to a black sparkly Jeep. We’ve celebrated his first Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s.

Sibling Love

Dash LOVES his animals. His face lights up whenever Manny or one of the cats walk by. I wish I could say that the animals felt the same way about him. They try to avoid the little hands that grab fistfuls of hair. Once Dash learns to be gentle, I’m sure he’ll have three very best friends. For now, they stay just out of reach, unless Dash has help from mom or dad.

Getting Out of the House

RP and I are still pushing our luck and taking Dash with us everywhere. Now that Dash is in a convertible car seat, things aren’t quite as easy. We are missing the days of lugging a sleepy baby in a bucket car seat and letting him peacefully sleep while we ate at a restaurant. Now, we’re dodging grabby little hands and trying to keep him entertained (and upright) in a high chair. Thankfully he’s pretty easy going. I’m still figuring out how to do both drop-off and pick-up from daycare and our evening routine and squeeze in time to go to the gym. I feel good about myself if I walk the dog and get the mail. Little victories.

All in all, these past six months have been the best adventure of my life. I’m amazed at all of the things that Dash and I are learning together. I love watching him experience things for the first time. I love contorting my face and making silly noises to get a sweet, gummy grin. I love holding him, rocking him and snuggling him. The love that I feel for him really surprised me, in the best possible way. I can’t wait for our next six months of adventure but, I do wish time would slow down a little.

I’m just a few days away from this little guy going mobile. I know it would be unfair to just knock him over every time he got up on all fours, so the crawling thing is really going to happen. I hope the animals are ready, I know that I’m not. Pray for us!

In between the wonderful family time, we were able to squeeze in visits with some of RP and my very best friends.

I didn’t do a great job of taking pictures because we were so busy passing babies around, laughing and catching up.

There are some times when I’m a little lonely and lament that many of my good friends live thousands of miles away from me. I get jealous of their dinner dates or pictures of their kids growing up together. I feel like Mindy Kaling and that everyone is hanging out without me. But, every now and again, we get together and it feels like we never were apart. I get to squeal over their little ones that I have loved from the moment I knew their moms were pregnant, I get to snuggle babies that are smaller than Dash was when he was born and I get to enjoy a glass of wine and reconnect with my girls. Sure, we’re still talking about boys, but the little ones in our lives wear diapers and the reason they haven’t called is because we’re still working on how to say “Mama.”

So, now I’m counting down to the weddings that will get a few of us back together in the spring!

We made a trip back to Nebraska for Grandma Ellen’s funeral at the end of September. We were all sad to be back together so soon for a sad reason, but we enjoyed being with family. Dash got to spend time at the farm and at the pond.

The Nationals made it to the postseason, so we went to our first playoff game!

Right after the baseball game, we headed down to Hotsprings, VA. Dash did fantastic on his first road trip and we enjoyed the Homestead while RP was attending a conference.

From Hotsprings, we continued to Lexington, KY to celebrate the marriage of two of our favorites!

RP’s mom and her best friend made a road trip out to see Dash (and us). We loved having them visit and sharing our love of ethnic food with them. We ate a different style of food every night. They were very brave and adventurous!

We had Dash’s three month pictures taken (by the ah-mazing Tracie of LuLoPrints.com).

We dressed our boys up for Halloween – Dash as a tiger and Manny as a bee. Dash enjoyed being a tiger significantly more than Manny enjoyed being a bee.

Another wedding! So fun to celebrate such wonderful friends!

We stayed in DC for Friendsgiving and had a wonderful day full of fantastic food, football and great friends.

Dash and I flew solo down to Atlanta. I had to work, so my mom met us in Atlanta to watch the little dude while I was at my conference. She is a great photographer and got some super pictures of Dash while she was babysitting.

We had our annual Christmas party and enjoyed hosting our friends for the eighth straight year!

Whew! There’s our fall in review. Just in time to officially kick off winter.

I’ve posted today, but I’m over at Her View from Home sharing an election night dinner plan.

Her View from Home was started by my sorority sister, Leslie, and two of her friends and they have graciously asked me to be a feature writer. I was absolutely honored and today is my debut! Head on over to Her View from Home and check out my Nixon’s Chicken recipe and all of the wonderful posts from other HVFH writers.

Election Night Dinner: http://herviewfromhome.com/election-night-dinner/

xo, Chaaron