Routine Needed

I've realized that I'm a creature of habit, as most of us probably are, and I've realized that I'm craving some sort of routine. I'm anxious about what our life will be like when Joel goes back to work and what sort of routine we might fall into. I really can't fathom getting three people out of the house in the morning. As anxious as I am about both of us being back to work, I'm also anxious to get settled into a routine.

I'm also feeling pressured to get our lives in order before Joel goes back to work. I'm absolutely exhausted so I took yesterday off of work to get caught up on life and sleep. I spent most of the day with Nora and took a long nap on the couch with her yesterday. I cleaned our bedroom and got some laundry in order. I have a lot more to do today but I feel like I need to capitalize on the few weekends left before our lives get that much crazier with both of us working.

I've been going into work early lately so it will be interesting to see what schedule and rhythm I land on with getting all of us ready, taking Nora to daycare (in the opposite direction of my job) and then going to work. I know everyone else in the world does it so we will be fine. I consider myself a pretty organized person but I think I'm going to have to be even more so as we figure out our new lives.

Nora is 5 months old and I have to remind myself of that a lot. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed or forget how different our lives are but I have to remember that our lives have been changed for only five months. That's a lot of transition in a short amount of time. Of course, I think that our lives have changed for the better but I keep catching myself when making plans to remember that things aren't the way they used to be- and I'm glad for it.

Beautiful Blogger Award

Melba was sweet enough to give me a Beautiful Blogger Award which actually means a lot because her blog was one of the first blogs that I ever began reading. I had the good fortune of finding her blog right before Charlie came home and posted about it here. So, thanks much for the recognition, Melba, as I've really enjoyed following along with your journey. You were one of the few mom blogs I could read during my wait and I'm glad I finally got to join your ranks.

As part of the award I'm now going to list 15 blogs that I think are great. I actually think every blog I follow is great, but here's a list:

1. Lori at Weebles Wobblog
2. Geochick at Adventures of a Dam Engineer
3. Melissa at Our Full Circle
4. Patti at It's Just One Hat
5. E at Waiting for Our Baby
6. Rachel at Barren Woman
7. Laurie at Adoption Creates Families
8. Kelley at From You and Me to Family
9. Ashley at More Than Dog Children
10. Kalibug at A Sibling for Kali
11. Debbie at Always and Forever Family
12. Her Womb Our Hearts
13. H at Confessions of a Waiting Mommy
14. Fishsticks and Fireflies
15. A shameless plug for family (my brother-in-law). If you need a good beer recommendation, this is the blog for you: BarleyVine

Here are seven things about me in no particular order:
1. I just began home brewing with my husband. Our Belgian Pale Ale and IPA will be done in a couple of weeks.
2. I'm a foodie.
3. I love to garden and plan on planting our sugar snap peas in a few weeks and begin our seedlings for fabulously yummy heirloom tomatoes this weekend.
4. I hate to fly and have to load up on Valium and a Bloody Mary to make it from Point A to Point B but I do love to travel.
5. I relocated almost a dozen squirrels from my back yard during my maternity leave (they are tomato thieves). Yes, I am a renaissance woman- home brewing and squirrel relocation.
6. I'm a morning person but must have caffeine before any interaction can take place.
7. I hate going to movies and have a hard time staying awake through them at home.

I have many posts swirling around in my head and hope to have time at the computer again soon.

Back to Normal

My event is over and it was great, but I am done. Waking up at 3 am for 3 days straight and working 16 hour days on my feet has killed me. My feet look like I've backpacked up Everest but I'm happy to say it was a great success and now my life can return to normal.

I haven't seen Nora for three days since I was gone before she got up and got home after she was put to bed. She seems so much bigger and more alert. Her movements seem more fluid and she seems so much more alert and so much less newborn-like. I don't know if it's possible for a baby to change that much in three days but it seems like she's grown so much.

I'm looking forward to a lot of snow this weekend and staying in with my beautiful little baby girl. I'm so glad she's healthy and happy and I'm so grateful for her this weekend.

Baby Room

This post title might sound strange as we currently have a 4 month old. However, her nursery is a far cry from what I had imagined. First of all, I'm going to give myself and my husband credit because I think we lived in our new house a whopping four weeks when we got the call. Joel spent an entire weekend painting the room and trim and then that's where that project stopped because soon Nora came to join us.

I think it's a little bit strange that the baby room was in a little bit better order when we lived in our condo before we converted it back to an office to sell the place. I look in our baby room now and the color and paint are beautiful. Her furniture looks great but there is nothing on the walls. The only little bit of visual interest is her cute valance and matching rug. I realized all bumpers and cute quilts had to be removed so this has made the room pretty stark. This didn't bother me a month ago when she hadn't set foot in her nursery but now that she's sleeping there I feel like we need it to feel a little more welcoming and permanent. Her stuffed animals are piled in an empty diaper box waiting for a permanent home and she has lovely personalized gifts that people have given her that are dying to be displayed.

As soon as my crazy event is over next week, the baby room is on the top of the to-do-list. If anyone has any great suggestions on wall decor that doesn't involve me being crafty and that aren't too expensive please let me know.

Finally, I want to thank E for her inspiration. Here's a great before and after of her nursery (which I hope has a baby in it very soon): http://finallyababyforus.blogspot.com/2010/02/before-and-afterand-childrens-book.html

(The photo was taken with my phone because I am lazy. I really needed a flash so imagine that the walls are actually an apple green).

Laughing and Sleeping

I realized I haven't posted in forever and it's mostly because I'm barely staying afloat at work and personally but I'm happy that I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I'll be a better manager, colleague, friend, mom, wife, blogger, person and sister in a week and a half when my huge event is over.

Anyway, enough about me and on to the Nora fun. Nora has begun to giggle. She giggled a little bit a couple of months ago but it was almost impossible to get her to do it. Now, if I sing silly songs and tickle her and mimick her exasperated sigh I get the cutest giggles. So much fun! It's so neat to hear her little laughs.

She is sleeping a bit better too. She's been on the schedule of waking up at 2 am for a feeding since December and the last few nights she's been sleeping until between 4 - 5 am. This is actually worse than the 2 am feeding as it's so close to when I wake up but it also makes me feel like eventually she might make the leap to 6 am or 7 am! I also have to disclose that I'm not the one getting up with her since Joel is still off work but, of course, every whimper she makes wakes me up.

That's it for now. Pray that I can make it until 6 pm on Friday, February 19 and I'll be a much different and more sane person.