DONE!

I DID IT!!!!

I finished all of my Christmas shopping with a week to spare :) Of course I still have to address and mail our Christmas cards, make some gifts (I have the materials), wrap everything, and bake delicious treats. But at least I'm done with the shopping part. YIPPIE!

My plan of shopping after Teagan went to bed was tough! I almost had a meltdown Wednesday night. I kept on fighting and didn't let the tears get the better part of me.

I'm making a couple of gifts. The JoAnns by me is a busy one, esp for waiting to get fabric cut. So I bought my fabric through their online website last Saturday. I had an email Wednesday that some of the material is not in stock but they'll ship the ones that were. Ugh! It took you 3 days to tell me this?

I bought my photo Christmas cards though Walmart's website. They have the best card prices so I couldn't resist. I chose their ship to store option. Walmart's ship to home option requires a signature. I work, so I'm not available to sign when packages get delivered. I found this out the hard way a couple of years ago. I had to drive 50 minutes one way to the UPS distribution center and pick up my photos. Never again would I ship to my home. So...Wednesday I had a voicemail my photo cards were ready. Fine. I really wanted to shop at Target that night but chose Walmart so I could pick up my cards. I got to the photo counter at 8:15pm. Their photo hours are till 9pm. My Walmart combined their photo counter and layaway counter. I asked for my photos. The girl replies she's not a photo person and the photo people left at 6:30. I hate the "I can't help you" typical Walmart employee attitude. I told her I had a voicemail they were ready. She half a$$ looked and said she didn't see them and there's nothing she can do. I cannot afford to come back. My shopping schedule is tight as is. Duplicate store runs are not an option. Angry Kim came out.  For those who know me (well besides my husband), angry Kim rarely comes out. It takes a lot to push my buttons. I was not leaving till I had my cards!!! Long story short - 2 workers, 1 manager and 45 minutes later they found my cards which were 3 feet in front of me the whole time.

I tried to buy some fabric in their fabric section to make up for the JoAnns mishap. Could I find a price or someone to cut my fabric? Nope.

I then wanted to get a video game which was locked in a case. Could I find someone to unlock it? Nope.

I spent 1 hour, 37 minutes there and got barely anything I wanted.

Target wouldn't have treated me this way. I hate Walmart and I vow to never shop there again. Their low prices are not worth it. I'm done with you Walmart.

I almost cried. When I get angry I usually end up in tears. Stupid female hormones. I pulled myself together, came home and treated myself to a shake.

I took Thursday off from shopping. I was wiped out. I knocked out the rest of my shopping Friday night and Saturday morning (today). I even took a trip to JoAnns. But all is well now and I'm done!!!!

JoAnn's and Walmart will be receiving letters from me this year and they won't be holiday greetings.

Cuteday Tuesday

I have two very cute stories to share. They may be a little too much info, so I apologize in advance. But I can't resist not sharing them.

Story 1:
After work one evening, Teagan and I went into my closet so I could change out of my work clothes. I put on a sweatshirt. My sweatpants were on my bed so started to walk out of the closet. I asked Teagan to come with me. She looked at me then back into the closet then she looked at me again. She ran over to a chest I have in my closet and pulled off a pair of PJ pants. She ran them over to me to give me them. She saw I didn't have any pants on and made sure to give me some. How cute is that?

Story 2: (I'm still chuckling....bahahaha).
While playing on the floor in the family room, Miss Tea noticed the buttons on my jeans. I was wearing a pair of jeans that had a built in belt with buttons on the side. Teagan played with the buttons and got them unbuttoned. She then ran away but quickly came back. She pulled on my leg to follow her. So I did. She took me into the bathroom and patted the lid of the toilet. Baby girl knows that unbuttoned pants and the toilet go together. I laughed so hard.

I don't have pictures from these stories but here is Teagan playing on a computer like mom! And a double cat hug.

Christmas Shopping Attack Plan

I have finished shopping for 4 people (3 are 1 years olds - they're so easy). I have 22 to go. Its 2 weeks till Christmas with only 1 weekend left. Fail.

Bret and I tried to shop last weekend with Teagan in a big shopping area. Fail. It's hard to browse with a little girl that doesn't sit. I need to know exactly what to buy and get in and out. But I don't know what to buy.

I tried shopping online yesterday while Teagan napped. Fail. Shipping prices, shipping dates after Christmas, slow internet, website error messages, not being able to see the product in person really frustrated me.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. Time is running out.

This is my plan:
Teagan goes to bed between 7:30 & 8. I will sneak out every night after she's in bed this week and shop. I'll only get about an hour until the stores close. So only one store a night. That means I won't be able to workout, clean, or hang out with my hubby either. It's only temporary. I can do it. I can do it. I can do it. I hope.

Pray for parking spots and short lines for me!

You know you're a ftwm when....you schedule your work tasks and then you schedule your mom tasks.

Will I Ever Sleep Again?

As a mother of a newborn, I considered sleep a luxury. It was a treat to sleep. Our sweet girl did not adjust well to daycare the first month and work up every 45 minutes. Yep. You read that correct. 45 minutes. I nursed Tea too so no coffee for me. I remember one night I got 3 hours of sleep and had so much energy! I definitely could not function on 3 hours of sleep now. Its funny how your body adjusts.

With great advice from our pediatrician, Teagan started sleeping through the night at about 4 months. However, the occasional cold or teething would keep her up at night. 

Now as a toddler she sleeps a solid 10-11 hours a night without a peep. Me? Well I still do not sleep continuously. 

I worry more and more about my little girl the older she gets. When I worry I cannot sleep. I have to tell my mind to shut up and stop thinking. I fall asleep well but I usually wake up in the middle of the night and lay there for a hour. And then I wake back up before my alarm goes off. Of course I just lay there till it does.  I never knew I could worry so much about someone. 

Do parents every stop worrying? I know my father doesn't. He's so cute. I usually get some sort of safety device every Christmas and I'm almost 30. I think he still gets nervous when I walk with scissors. 

I worry about my daughter's happiness. As a toddler she gets frustrated and upset. I know this is common for her age, but I want her to be happy. I worry about how the choices I make affect her. Is me working the best for her specific personality? Is she happy at daycare? Is our parenting style helping her? 

I would like to think my worrying will decrease as she gets older, but then I think about her being a teenager. And I know I'll worry more. 

Ahhh, a joy of parenthood: worrying. 

You know you're a ftwm when....you worry fulltime. 

Minivan Momma

Remember how my car's satellite radio was busted? I took it too the dealer about a month ago and they had to order a part. My husband worked from home on one of my off Fridays so it was easy for me to drop off my car. I had no idea what I would do when the part came in. Then it came to me. Our good friends the Ws live near me and work at the same company I do. I politely asked with a lot of pretty pleases if they could drive me to work one day. They're wonderful and accepted!!! Thank you G and L!!!

On Monday the car went to the shop. The part ordered didn't fix my radio and they gave me a rental.......a minivan! It was a Dodge caravan. I'm not going to lie. I liked it.  I just need Teagan to play soccer so I can be a soccer mom, then my mom transformation will be complete. 

Teagan liked it too! One evening she really wanted to go into the garage. I had no clue why. I finally took her out there and she just wanted to touch the minivan. She giggled when she did. It had ambient blue lighting above the track that ran down the center of the van's ceiling. That was pretty cool to a toddler. She loved to point and show me it. While driving, she would kick her little legs. I think she liked the extra leg room. 

My car ended up being in the shop 4 days. This cracked me up. Four days to fix a radio. They ordered a different part each day. The fourth part on the last day was the winner. 

So I drove the mini van for 3 days. 

Pros:

-Automatic doors. Enough said. 

-Space!

-It sat up high. So easy to put Teagan in her carseat. No bending over for me.

-It was clean! with new car smell. No spilled cheerios.

-It had satellite radio. 

Cons:

-Extra blind spots

-Poor gas mileage

-It's a minivan

Overall verdict: I would not be against getting a minivan when we have more kids. Anything to make my life easier. 

It's sooooo nice to have my little car back though. It's a sedan and can zip around. I now realize how little it is, but I still love it. I missed satellite radio so much. Its been 4 months since it first went out. I love the channel "Kids Place Live." The songs and skits make me laugh. They sometimes play good parenthood songs. I first started playing it for Tea but now I find myself listening to it even after I drop her off at daycare. For those that also listen "There's a carp in the tub...". Ahaha. 

You know you're a ftwm when...your have discussions about the awesomeness of minivans with your coworkers. 

I'm Here

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. December is a busy month and this week was extra challenging. I'm here with lots to blog about. I'm just trying to find the time. Standby...

Cuteday Tuesday

Don't you love how kids can turn anything into a game? Here is Miss Teagan being very cute standing on a box after running errands.

I'm the king of the world!

Heavy Weight Lifter

Daycare Sterotype

I came across a comment on another blog recently. The commenter had a view that mothers should not work and that daycares do not love children.

As hard as it is sometimes, I try to respect that people can have different opinions then me. I'm fine with the commenter believing mothers should not work. Obviously, I don't share her opinion. But what sparked my attention is the statement that daycares do not love children. There are many stereotypes about daycares that aren't fully true. I will address some here.

(1) Stereotype: Daycares do not love children
Most people google over children. When out in public strangers will smile, talk, or even play games like peek-a-boo with my daughter. I myself light up when I see a little kid doing something cute. People love babies and little kids. How could you not? And daycare workers especially do. They choose their profession and I doubt its because of the pay. People choose to work in early child care development because they care! With my daycare, the owner treats the kids as if they were her own. The workers are always asking Teagan for hugs and kisses, and tell her kind words. I found this stereotype to be ridiculous.
Fact: Daycares LOVE children

(2) Stereotype: Anytime your child is sick is because of daycare
Illness can spread in daycare, just like work, or any facility where people are in close contact to each other. No doubt that some of Teagan's colds came from daycare. But just because she's sick doesn't mean that evil daycare did it every time. She got her first cold at 7 weeks old while I was on maternity leave and stayed inside the house. Children come in a lot of contact of people and germs at daycare, at home when people visit, at the grocery store, at parks, at friends/realtives houses, etc. I know stay at home kids that get sick too.  To make the comment to a working parent that their child became sick at daycare is not fair. We carry some degree of guilt for working. To say our choices are making our kids sick is bothersome. Why do people feel they need to blame how the child got sick? Does it matter? You never hear someone saying to a stay at home mom that their child is sick because they're not exposed enough.
Fact: Kids get sick from ANYWHERE.

(3) Stereotype: All bad behavior is learn from daycare
I have heard people say whenever my daughter shows a negative behavior that she has learned it from daycare. Again, the blame game is played. I ask once more, why? Did you have a hidden camera at the daycare to know this? Children are sponges. They pick up on everything. My daughter one day found a Q-tip and put it in her ear. I have never Q-tip-ed her ears. She must have seen me or her daddy do it ourselves. Adults can have outbursts or show anger or sadness. Our little sponges pick up on this. Who knows where a child learns something. Instead of blaming, lets think of something constructive together to solve the problem.
Fact: Kids are always watching and learning and imitating EVERYWHERE.


You know you're a ftwm when....a sick day when your kid is sick is nothing like a sick day when you are sick (instead of pjs and laying on the couch, you get crabby baby - fun!).

Working Woman

I work in a male dominated profession. For the most part it is great! It can work in my favor. However, I occasionally get extra attention for being a young female.

For instance, as I was walking into work today I took the stairs near the elevator. A male I have never seen before, saw me and asked "Is it safe to ride in this elevator?" I wish I was more witty and said a funny response. I just said no. Is this really the best line you could come up with to talk to me?  A "hello" or "how are you" would do better. I guess my bright pink plaid tote and black high healed boots makes me look knowledgeable on elevators. His comment made me chuckle. I am flattered that he wished to talk to me anyways.

My all time favorite male work comment came one day while I was waiting to order food at our cafeteria. A young guy behind me asked "Do you work here?" Ahahaha. I should have said "Nope. I just come here for the food." You know, work cafeteria food is fantastic and anyone would pay top dollar for it.

You know you're a ftwm when...you have the ability to shut out all noise around you at work (a mom trait of selective hearing) to where you don't even notice when coworkers mention your name to pull you into a conversation.

Cuteday Tuesday

Teagan was in love with a foam bathmat we picked up while shopping. She laid on it in the shopping cart. Besides giving us a good laugh, many fellow shoppers smiled at her too.

Case of the Mondays

Instead of having zero motivation to go to work this morning, I think I had negative motivation. That's less then zero. I enjoyed spending 5 days with my husband and daughter and was not ready to go back.

My commute was very light. Did I not get the memo that we had Monday off too? Not so lucky. My work was open. I found after a couple of hours at work, I was back to myself. I think my motivation level became positive. This surprised me. I thought my whole day would drag on but it turned out pretty good.

So my real delima for the day is, to put up a Christmas tree with a toddler or not? I usually put it in the corner of my family that has now been taken over by stuffed animals, blocks, and a little riding car. Could Teagan adapt to having her toys moved for a month? Would my ornaments be left alone?

You know you're a ftwm when...you don't want to drive when your coworkers go out to lunch for embarrassment of the spilled Cheerios in your backseat.

Happy Thankgsgiving

Hi Everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. I sure did! This year we are visiting my side of the family who lives out of state. We drove 9 hours with a 16 month old and survived.  Our secret is that we drove after work so she slept most of the way. Any other parents have advice for road trips with toddlers or small children?

I have found myself to becoming paranoid about family visits. Each year it gets harder and harder to live so far from my family. I get so excited about an upcoming visit but when it finally comes, I spend the whole trip worrying about how much time I have left that I can't fully enjoy the time I do have. I know that sounds a little crazy and I'm aware I do this but I can't stop it. We came up a month ago for just a weekend visit. I kept waking up the last night since I was so sad about leaving. I'm acting like an old lady set in her ways. Anyone else live far from their families?

We're so lucky to live near my husband's side of the family. It is helpful with having a baby. However, my mom is worried she's going to be "grandma far away" and my children won't know her. I worry about this too and make sure to show Teagan pictures and tell photos of her distant relatives.

There is one benefit to have one side near and one side far for holiday plans. When both families are close, you have to run around visiting everyone in one day. Bret and I just to spend all day in one spot. With both families far, you have to travel to two or more places. Traveling with kids to one place is enough for us.

We can never live in a place where everyone will be happy, including us. This is a hard fact to accept.   Add kids into the equation and people are even more sad.

We are thankful to be close with our families. We are thankful that they love us dearly and want to spend time with us and that we want to spend time with too. I am so BLESSED to have these people in my life.

I hope this blog didn't come off too whiny. I just wanted to state the facts and note the additional layer of complexity I have in my life.

You know you're a ftwm when....you need organization skills in both your personal and professional life.

Cuteday Tuesday

Eating Handy Snacks for the first time.
She licked off the cheese and ate zero cracker sticks.

Teagan likes to be wrapped up in a blanket.
One morning last week she wanted to be wrapped up
after we got her ready to go outside.

Sunday Rambles

While out at Target this weekend, I decided to take Teagan down the toy aisles to get a feeling for what she wanted for Christmas. I showed her two different dolls. The girl owns none. Teagan put up her hands and waved no. Her daddy then showed her a toy helicopter and she got very excited. We both found this amusing. We'll see what Santa brings her.

I have a two day work week this week. As Bret said:  its a Monday/Friday only week. :) Knowing I only have to work two days made my Sunday better. Sometimes, I get sad on Sundays since I have to leave my baby girl the next day.

I'm only working 8 hour days this week. Also, my team is going out to lunch on Monday and we're having a potluck on Tuesday. Perfect bonus to my short week. Mmm. What is it about eating out or potlucks at work that makes me look forward to go into work?

Have a great week everyone!

You know you're a ftwm when...your neighbor comes over and says "Whoa, your house is clean." Yes this actually happened. It is shocking when my house is clean.

I Challenge You

Since I've started my blog, I've been overwhelmed by all the positive feedback people having been giving me.

I have always felt like I'm doing something wrong by being a working mom. That's partially due to comments made by others. I didn't realize how many people are supportive of me until now.

I started thinking. It's very easy to think negatively and to judge. It's harder to think of something positive about someone. I'm not quite sure why this is. People (friends, family, and strangers) are quick to say harsh things more than to give a compliment.

So I challenge you. If you know of a momma that is pushing herself for the best of her family (even stay at home moms, they have a hard job too!), tell her you support her. It is truly wonderful to hear that you're doing a good job. One compliment can take off weeks of stress. Then after you're done doing that, tell your mom how much you appreciate all she did for you.

Being a mom is the most challenging and rewarding job. We give lots of love and support, and ask for nothing in return. But when we're told a small thanks, our hearts melt.

To my mom: I love you more than I tell you. You have always been my biggest supporter and have given me a wonderful life. Thank you for everything, even those ugly spandex cuffed pink corduroy pants. You're my role model and my friend. I'm thankful to have you in my life.


You know you're a ftwm when... you call your mom for advice more than ever.

Cuteday Tuesday

Warning: Highly Cute.

Making pucker faces while eating PB and J.

Operation Cleaning Army: Complete

The real reason I had kids was to have my own little cleaning army.

... Just joking.

Teagan is an anti-cleaner. She's more of a mess maker then a put away-er.

Last Sunday the best thing ever happened. Teagan wanted to vacuum my floors! As I was vacuuming, she came over, and demanded I hand over the vacuum. I was not even allowed to help her.






You know you're a ftwm when... you wear too many hats and it's nice when some else picks up the cleaner hat :)

A Happy Relaxed Mom

Yes, it does happen. I can be happy and relaxed :) A three day event free weekend will do this. Its been months since we had no plans and I loved it! My house is cleaned, some errands were completed, and lots of family time was had. As we were out driving today, I turned to my husband and smiled. I realized I what a great mood I was in. Can I have a three day weekend every week?

I didn't get my satellite radio in my car fixed on Friday. The dealer needs to order a part. Lame. Hubby worked from home last Friday so it was easy for me to drop off my car. I'm not sure what we'll do when the part comes in. We both  need our cars to drive to work. I wish car service departments were open on weekends or evenings.

I did buy a new frame. It was part of a set so I had to buy the whole set again. They changed some of the frames so I added the extra pieces to my current collection. 3 months later my wall no longer is half finished.

I do not recommend the Command wall hanging strips. I originally used these to prevent lots of holes in my wall. But some of the frames fell, two broke (one I was able to glue back together), and my base board was damaged. I am now using normal wall hooks.

How my wall looked for the past few months

New "Laugh" frame

Bonus extra frames

You know you're a ftwm when ... you don't know how to handle being relaxed since it's not a common feeling.

Off Fridays

I work 9 hour days and take every other Friday off. I love my off Fridays. Due to circumstances I was not able to have an off Friday with Teagan at all in October. I'm rather enjoying our day off today. Any day I get to spend all day with Teagan is a great day!

Having a compressed work schedule is hard. It doesn't leave much time for me to do things like go out to lunch with my coworkers or run an errand after work. My mornings are rushed trying to get out the door so I can put 9 hours in. Sometimes my hubby does both drop off and pick up since I work longer. He doesn't mind, but I feel like I'm being selfish and burdening him. I wonder if this schedule is working, but then I have an off Friday and spending the day with my girl changes my mind.

I really try to focus on doing fun things with Teagan. We have gone to parks, petting zoos, children museums, fun farms, inflatable gyms, etc. I try to pretend I'm a stay at home mommy and chat with the other moms. I wonder if they can sense I'm a fake. :)

Its very easy to get caught up on using my off Fridays to get stuff done. Today will be a hybrid day. Half getting crap done. Half playing with Tea. My goal today was to get my satellite radio fixed in my car (requires a trip to the dealer) and to replace a picture frame that broke. Both of these things broke last summer! I have such little time that it has taken me over 3 months to fix them. Whew.

You know you're a ftwm when...you value every minute with your child so much more.

Here is my missing frame. It said "Laugh" and should be in the center of my collage. Looks a little strange without it.


Here are some pictures from off Fridays past:

Cuteday Tuesday

I going to try to start a weekly posting on cute things my daughter does. It will be titled Cuteday Tuesday. Visit my site often so you don't miss out :)

Pigtails. Very cute. Enough said. 

One morning Teagan needed a bath due to an overnight bed wetting accident. Mommy and Daddy already took showers and used up all the hot water. Teagan normally takes baths at night so we didn't conserve the hot water. Poor girl had a cold but quick bath. While though she was curled into a ball in the tub, she still refused to get out. Afterwards, I wrapped her in a blanket and placed her in her highchair to eat breakfast. She loved it. Every time the blanket came unwrapped she insisted we rewrap her up, mummifying her arms. Too cute!

One of Teagan's favorite things to do is color. I should take a video of her saying "color." It's not quite right, but sounds very adorable. 

Parents As Teachers

http://www.parentsasteachers.org/

Have I mentioned Parents As Teachers yet?

A coworker highly recommended PAT to me last spring. Our family is now enrolled and love it. I'm surprised how few people know about it. Its a program where a trained parent educator comes to your home. They show you methods that you as the parent can use to teach your child various skills, from motoring to language to relating with others and so on. They assess the specific skills your child may need more attention on. Depending on where you live, the program is either fully funded or partially funded by your city.  Its for young children, those not in school yet.

The results are fantastic! This program has made Bret and I more confident in our parenting and our little girl is thriving. Our educator has even shown us things Teagan can do that we didn't even realize she could do.

If you're interested, find the PAT office near you from their website.

You know your a ftwm when...you use your commute time to mentally make todo lists.

TGIF?

I'm not quite sure I has was thankful for this Friday.

The whole work week was rough. There were many issues and frustration among my team. Our moral was down. Today it was thought that we needed to send someone on travel next Monday. Most of my teammates were not available.

That left me.

I am available but I don't want to travel. I just came back from a trip a week ago. I was hoping not to travel for the rest of the year. My little girl is sad when I'm gone and I am sad too. Did I mention I have traveled 8 times in the past 3 months? I am very burnt out on traveling. Only 2 of those trips were work related.

I said no. Eek. Is that allowed? I felt so strongly about not traveling that I said it. No. My stomach was is knots. I hate letting down my team. I rarely say no in my work life and personal life. But I truly did not want to travel.

Luckily it turned out the trip was not needed. Whew!

To top off my wonderful crummy day, I had a 1 hour and 40 minute commute home. There was an accident.  I know I should be thankful since the person in the accident clearly had a worse day than me, but I was still crabby. Traffic jams are annoying.

You know you're a ftwm when...some days you wish you were a stay at home mom.

Happy Halloween

Tractor ride to the pumpkin patch

Very Very Relieved!

I stayed up late last night researching what could be wrong with my SD card. I couldn't sleep. I was sad that I might have lost so many photos of our sweet Tea.

I found this morning that I did a back up in August! I would only lose the last 2.5 months of photos. Okay. That's a little easier to swallow.

I called a couple of computer repair stores today and they said I was out of luck since nothing recognized my card. I tried many card readers but they all acted like nothing was in the slot.

I found a company that pulls the chip out of damaged cards and recovers data, for a nice fee of $300.

Then tonight I figured it out! The interwebs (as my coworkers say) helped me out! The casing of my card was damaged. No idea how that happened. But as I looked closely one side was cracked. An article on eHow.com told me to use a part of a paperclip and some tape to repair it....and it work!!!!! After some jiggling, I got my camera to recognize the card. Some photos were gone, but they were ones I had already backed up. YAY! All of my photos are now safely backed up.

The hubby and I did some major backups tonight on all our data. I learned my lesson!

You know you're a ftwm when....hearing "no" regarding your kids (like no we can't recover your child's photos) won't stop you from trying.

I would have really missed not seeing this photo again:

Here is my handy work

First photo from trying out a new SD card. "Here kitty kitty"

Very Very Sad

Well I came to blog tonight. I wanted to post pictures of Halloween. I realized my memory card got corrupted. I have tried 2 computers and 4 memory card readers. Nothing will recognize my card. I can't even try to recover the photos. I have photos since when Teagan was 4 months old on this card. I have pulled some off here and there, but just a fraction of them. Basically my child's first year is on a crappy piece of plastic and I can't view it.

I know. I should have known better to back up the photos.

I'm really bummed. I will now cry myself to sleep.

Sorry, no Halloween photos.

Run Run Kimmy

This might be the longest blog post ever. But its a fun story.

I watched the World Series game last night. And what a game it was. It ran very late though. I should have gone to bed earlier. I stayed in a different hotel last night, across the street from the airport. I made sure this alarm clock was correctly set to PM and set my alarm for 5:00am.

I woke up and thought I woke up early again (like I have been all trip due to the time zone difference). I decided to look at the clock anyways and it said 6:42am. I had to take a double look. 6:42am??? This must  be wrong.  I grabbed my cell phone and it had the same time. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. My flight is at 7:10am. Do I dare try to make it? I thought I better take a shot. I chose my 7:10am flight specifically so I could home at a decent time. All the other flights would get me home after 9pm and I want to see my baby before she goes to bed. Another flight was not an option.

I had the great idea last night to pack in the morning. My belongings were scattered every where around the room. Sweet. I threw on some clothes and scrambled to put everything in my suitcase. I'm sure I left something behind. No shower, no makeup, no hair brushing. I think I even forgot to brush my teeth. I looked very pretty, I'm sure. As I rushed out of the room, I saw the hotel put my bill under the door.  Thank goodness! I don't need to stop and check out now.

I flew down the stairs, through the lobby, and out the door. I sprinted across the major road between my hotel and the airport with a purse, backpack, and suitcase in hand. My belongings were not level and I was wavering. The cross walk light showed do not walk but I couldn't wait. There was no cars so I dashed across in my black coat in dim sunlight. Not the brightest thing to do. I barely made it across the street before a motorcycle crossed the intersection. I feel like I'm Carrie Bradshaw from Sex in the City in one of her famous running scenes, but I'm wearing ballet flats instead of heals.

Whew, I hurried like hell through the airport parking lot, down through baggage claim, and up stairs to the check in counters. I'm out of breath. Yippie. No one is in line. I don't even know what time it is. I asked the check in lady if I can still catch my flight. She was rather annoyed with me and said no without checking a thing. I'm sorry to bother you grumps, but I did not intentionally mean to wake up late and jog to the airport this Friday morning. She starts whacking away at her computer and makes a phone call. She said the plane's still there but they won't hold the door for me. I can still try to make it, but I couldn't check a bag. All my coworkers know I hate carrying bags on the plane. Crap. I had to open my suitcase and pull out all my liquids, including my "Very Sexy" Victoria's Secret perfume and contact solution and put them in the trash. All victims of my tardiness. Seeing Teagan today is more important to me.

Off I go running again to security. Boo, there is a line. I look at my watch 7:00am. 7:02am...argh...hurry up. Then a page came on over head. It was for me. "Kimberly So&So, please report to gate 12. Your flight is ready to depart and you're the last passenger to board." Haha. I've never heard "last passenger to board" before. Alright, no more waiting. Security said I could jump ahead but I had to ask every person in front of me. Everyone let me cut! They were really nice. I'm rushing to get all of my stuff on the conveyor belt to go through the scanner and by accident knocked the man's bin in front of me on the floor. It had his laptop in it. Oops. He did not seem pleased. I explained my story, but he was less than impressed. He must not have any kids. I'm very sorry!

This security checkpoint had the full body scanner. I didn't have time for TSA's friendly pat down so I went through it. Crap. I forgot I put my jewelry in my pocket to save time. TSA didn't like that. Now it cost me time.

Finally through security and I'm off running again. Of course my gate had to be far away. I'm getting tired now. I wondered what people thought of me sprinting through the terminal. I go up some escalators and I see gate 12! There is no one there but one lone man at the door. The door is open!!!! I run up. He asks me "Are you Kimberly?" Ha, I'm on a first name basis. Yep, that's me!!!!! He took my ticked at let me in.

At 7:10am exactly my butt was in my seat. Not bad for waking up 28 minutes ago.  The only overhead space left was in first class so I didn't get to pull my laptop or magazines out to read on my 3.5 hour flight. But that's okay. I made it! I was a momma on a mission to get home. I even got a morning workout in. ;)

I had plans to buy my hubby and daughter souvenirs at the departing airport. That didn't exactly work out. I hope they like their gifts from my layover airport in Texas. YeeHaw!

You know you're a ftwm when...you won't let anything stop you from seeing your kid.

Video Chatter

I just finished a video chat with Bret and Teagan. Loved it! We have a computer hooked up to our TV so Teagan saw me on the TV. She offered me many toys and wanted to share her dinner with me. This was the most interactive she's ever been with a video chat. On previous video chats she didn't seem to notice me. She's not a big TV watcher in the first place.  Her interaction was what this homesick mommy needed. I love watching her grow. 

T minus 24 hours till I'm home. :)

You know you're a ftwm when... time away from your children and your ability to focus are inversely proportional. 

Here's Teagan on Halloween last year. Her daddy thought she wanted to be a green dragon. Every little girl's dream right? I'm looking forward to her trick or treating this year. She will be a kitty. She told me so.

I'm leaving on a jet plane

Well 2 days down of my 4 day work trip.

Day 1: Thumbs down.
First day out was all traveling. 12 hours. Two flights and a car ride made me exhausted. Why is traveling so tiring? I'm just sitting. I woke up sad and it didn't go away. Every mommy and toddler pair at the airport made it worse.  I checked on Teagan before I left in the morning and accidentally work her up, an hour before she normally wakes up. Sorry hubby for dropping her off in our bed and running out the door! That was not a good start.

Day 2: Thumbs up
Worked all day and rocked it. I'm solo on this trip. Well my manager is with me, but I'm the only engineer. First time by myself and I got most of our work accomplished. I love what I do and today reminded me of that. For dinner, the boss and I ate on the deck of a nice restaurant overlooking a river with huge boulders. Check out the picture of it below. Today was a good day.

I came back to my hotel room tonight and heard a noise inside. After being startled, I realized it was my alarm. My 6:00am alarm went off at 6:00pm since the clock has am and pm switched. The last work trip I was on had the same setup. Whats up with that? Good thing my body is on a different time zone and woke up way before my alarm anyways.

Due to the time difference, I haven't been able to video chat with Bret and Teagan. I check my email tonight and found 3 videos of Teagan sent by my husband. Yes!!! He is so thoughtful. See?... I mean it when I say I'm lucky to have him.


You know you're a ftwm when...you accidentally wake up your kid, you're not entirely sorry since you get a little more time with her :)

Photo Bret sent me on night one. At least someone will eat his fettuccine .

View from dinner tonight.

She's part me!

My daughter looks nothing like me. She is a spitting image of her daddy and her grandma on her dad's side. Their baby photos look just like Teagan. My daughter and I also have opposite personalities. I'm content being by myself and calm. She's outgoing and high energy. 

While though I grew her, I sometimes wonder if she's really mine. 

At her 15 month check up, I asked the doctor what blood type she has. And it is....O+. That's my type! I was rather excited. My husband didn't really get my excitement. There is something in her that is part me!   

I should post pictures of my husband's baby photos. Maybe someday when I have free time and remember. 

You know you're a ftwm when....mommy brain never goes away. 

Moments like these

Teagan melted my heart last night. I'm still in bliss.

We flew up to my parent's house for the weekend. Bret and I are going to a football Saturday at my Alma Mater (I cannot wait!). Teagan will be spending the day with her grandparents.

We boarded the plane but hadn't pushed back from the gate yet. Teagan flew as a lap child. She was looking everywhere. The window, the overhead controls, the tray table, & the people were all very exciting. She was her usual busy self. Then out of no where, she rotated her body towards me. She placed one hand on each of my checks and pulled me in. She kissed me on the lips. A real kiss! This was my first kiss from her. Oh how sweet that was. I'm smiling writing about it.

Her daddy told me earlier in the week he got a kiss. That was suspect, till now. How lucky and blessed we are.

You know you're a ftwm when...you child can make you forgot about a hard week with just one simple gesture.

Traveling Momma

Its done. Tickets are booked for another work trip. 4 days, 3 nights. Not too bad.

This is only my 2nd work trip since Teagan has been born. My team is awesome! They respected my wishes that I didn't want to travel the first year of her life. Now they need me. Travel is a tricky subject. I loved to travel before Teagan. I enjoy my work. But now, there is someone I miss and I feel I burden my husband by making him a single parent for a week.

I had knots in my stomach the first trip I took. I psyched myself out. It turned out it wasn't so bad. I had a picture of Teagan in my binder that I gazed at every other minute. I was busy with long days that time flew by.  I was able to video chat with my family. That made me feel right at home.  And my husband rocks! He is a great Mr. Mom and supportive of me.  I could not travel if it wasn't for him.

I feel obligated towards my team. They have been supportive of me and I want to help them.

Work travel is bitter sweet.

You know your a ftwm when...you feel like no decision can make everyone happy, including yourself.

Closing Time

I need some more work stories. Its very easy to blog about the mommy side of my life and I forget to blog about the working woman side.

I would like to ask the question...why do they close my office bathroom for cleaning when I'm getting ready to leave work at the end of the day? I leave at 4:30, which I think is a normal leaving time. I'm usually rushing to get out the door so I can get to daycare before it closes. Every working parent knows about trying to get to daycare before they close.  I have a long commute and I pick up Teagan. By time I leave work, I won't get to my house for another 45 minutes to an hour. That's a long time to hold it. I could go find another bathroom on a different floor. But that's too much effort when I'm in "I get to see baby soon" mode. So I just suck it up and pray there is no traffic jam for the day.

Do the cleaning employee's have comment cards?

You know you're a ftwm when... leaving work has a whole new motivation.

Baby Babbles

I have a sweet story to share.

Last Friday, both the Mr. and I dropped off Teagan at daycare together. As soon as we came in, her little friend N appeared. He pointed and babbled. Teagan ran to him and they started chatting it up. They both went frolicking into the playroom together. I wondered if they could understand each other or even had their own little language.  It warmed my heart seeing the two of them babbling and playing with the same toy together. It was obvious to see how excited they were to see each other.  I tried saying  bye to Tea but she was too busy with N. Mommy didn't matter. Apparently this is an everyday occurrence.

Bret does drop off because I'm a wuss. Maybe we should trade. I leave the house first in the morning and Teagan cries most of the time. Bret stated when he drops her off at daycare she so happy with N that she  never cries.

Friday morning was a good morning. It made me so happy to know Teagan loves daycare and she is building relationships with her little classmates.

You know you're a ftwm when...you need constant assurance you're making the right choices.


I didn't take many pictures this weekend. However, I always take pictures of Teagan sleeping at night when I check on her. Here's a goodie from last week:

Clean House

Yes, you with your beautifully decorated, clean house. You, I don't like you. Your lack of dust, finger print free windows, and carpet with vacuum carpet lines makes me uncomfortable.

I'm not sure how my house survived last Saturday. We only lock up a few of our key cupboards (under the sink and the china hutch). We thought its good for baby to explorer. We may have to rethink this. The day started off with Teagan breaking one of my bunny bowls. Later on she figured out how to open spice bottles.  We let her play with the spices. They're kind of like a rattle. It looked liked it snowed garlic powder in my kitchen. I couldn't get to Teagan fast enough. She was pretty much rolling in it. After I vacuum her off (which she though was hilarious though she still reeked of garlic), I began cleaning the floor. While doing so, Miss Tea found a glass of water and poured it onto our faux leather couch that cannot get wet. The hubby and I finally got our house back into order and sat down for lunch. Teagan then decided to take a bite out of my foam kitchen mat under the sink.

So yes, you with your free time or childless home. You,  with the miraculously clean house. You, I envy you.

You know you're a ftwm when...despite the fact you clean you kitchen floor every day, its still dirty.

Weekends

Baby girl LOVED the circus. She sat for one hour. Let me repeat that, ONE HOUR! If anyone knows Teagan they know she does not sit, ever. There was three of us moms and 3 one year olds. We were brave or crazily optimistic. But all the kids enjoyed it.

Our weekends are always busy. Sometimes we need a weekend from our weekends. I once used weekends to catch up on sleep, clean the house, run errands. But that never happens anymore. We're either traveling, or have something local going on (birthday parties, family functions, social events, etc). Ever since we've had Teagan, I feel like we've become more popular. I should probably say our popularity is the same and Teagan is the one everyone wants to see. Bret and I feel guilty declining so we just keep filling up our calendars. There was one point last summer, where we were not home for 6 weekends in a row. Our poor cats are becoming feral.

Is this just a normal part of parenthood?

I'm looking forward to winter when nothing is going on. Bring on the cold.

You know you're a ftwm when....you finally check something off your todo list, 5 new items are added back on.

A real tent circus!

Teagan paying attention

Baby girl and I.  The wet shirt is from a snow cone. I didn't realize  a snow cone could be so messy.

Tada!

How do you like my blog makeover? No more boring Blogspot template.

I was thinking of ending each of my posts with a "You know you're a full time working mom when..." section.  I thought about shortening full time working mom to ftwm, since I've seen sahm (stay at home mom) on other websites. Then I realized ftw mom backwards is mom wtf. Haha. Yes. Mom wtf as in why do I put myself though this lifestyle and spread myself so thin? I got a good chuckle out of this.

So in good spirit:

You know you're a mom wtf when: You're cube is littered with pictures of your children.

24 Hours

Its been a while since my last post. I was wondering if I would have enough time for this new blogging hobby. Working full time, being a mommy, and a wife leaves very little time left over. Tonight the husband is playing softball and baby is sleeping. Its ME time. I already worked out too. Go me! 

I know I do not give enough time to my husband and our extended families. And I'm awful at keeping up to date with my long distance friends. I think about them. Does that count?

My ideal day would be 

-Wake up before baby. Shower, get ready, eat breakfast, get my crap ready for the day.

-Wake up baby, play with her

- Drive to work, work, drive home

- Pick up baby from daycare, make/eat dinner

-Hang out with the family (lately we've been either playing "chase me" outside, or have a dance party with YouTube music videos in the family room)

-Put baby to bed (there's a whole schedule just here)

-Do dishes, clean, workout (I've been trying to work out every other day), and if I'm lucky watch TV in bed. But I usually fall asleep within a few minutes. 

Reality:

-Baby wakes up early (5:30am this week....eew. I already gave up hope she'll sleep in this weekend. Sometimes she'll sleep to 7/7:30, but not the past few days).

-Husband  and I try to entertain her while taking showers and getting ready

-Teagan clings to me as I try to make breakfast, pack lunches

-I'll have to change my clothes due to baby slobber, food, or milk stains. 

-I leave for work and Teagan cries. I become sad. Husband texts me that she's happy right after I leave, but my morning is shot.

-Somehow my sleep deprieved self drives to work, usually later than planned.

-Work

-Drive home, get baby from daycare

-Evenings somehow go to plan. They are the best part of my day. 

Weekends will be another post. 

I've learned I can write posts and have them publish in future dates. I hope to write many over the weekend and have them publish throughout the week, since I have little time to do anything on weekdays. 

We're going to the circus this weekend! I cannot wait to see Teagan's reaction. She LOVES animals. I just really hope she likes it and is entertained. I've never taken her to a show before and she is a child that has to move. She never sits still. 

Here are some pictures from last weekend.