Hello From Rainy McRainville …. God Almighty, it feels like we haven’t seen the sun in a decade! I’m not what I would call a huge “summer lover” or “sunshine addict”, but enough is enough with the dreary days and the rain!

It’s been a complete whirlwind of a month since Austin turned 1 back in early October, and today is our little man’s 13th month! I swore I wouldn’t be one of those parents who used months to describe their child’s age until they were 4 years old, but it still makes sense at this age, so I’m rolling with it. I draw the line at 18 months though, after that, he’s one and a half until his second birthday 😉

Daycare

Like I mentioned, it’s been a time of complete and total upheaval in our little world over the past month, as I transitioned back to work at the end of October. This has been BY FAR the hardest thing that I’ve gone through in the past year, including all of the hell with my recovery. I never really pictured myself coming back to work at all; I pictured myself staying home with our kids until they were in school. Financially though, this just wasn’t feasible for us, and so I had to shelf that dream and come back to my dead-end job that I’ve been trying to get out of for the past 9 years.

Sigh.

It was an extremely rocky start getting Austin transitioned into daycare, but he is doing much better with things now. For the first two weeks, every time we would even go into the school building he would start gripping onto my clothes and burying his face in my neck to try and hide, and there were several drop offs where he was screaming his poor little heart out while I walked away…..just awful. Now, about four weeks into the process, things are getting a little better. Today, for example, I dropped him off with only a small whimper, and no cry. Progress.

I completely loathe and hate myself for having to do this, and I question every single day whether or not I’m doing the right thing. In fact, most days, I’m pretty sure that I’m not doing the right thing. But, I guess the only way to get through is to keep moving forward.

The biggest issue that I’m having is that I feel like I have no time for anyone or anything anymore. Not that I ever really did feel like I had enough time. I just hate coming home and having an hour and a half to spend with him before bedtime. Hate. But, I’m doing my best to make the moments count instead of count the moments (cheesy line, I know, but it’s the truth), and focus on quality instead of quantity. It’s really the only choice I have.

On the positive side, I am so, so proud of Austin for how much he’s developed in such a short-time at daycare. He is so much more outgoing now, and I can’t believe the fun that I see him having on the video feed (which I sit at my desk all day and watch on my phone lol). The shy little baby that I knew for the past year seems to have really evolved! It just cracks me up to watch him cruise around the classroom and get into everything and anything.

We’ve had good luck with Austin’s teachers and the daycare in general; I’ve been pretty happy with how things have gone overall. The food that they serve them is great (when he eats it), and the teachers seem really nice. There are three main teachers in his classroom, and then subs switch in and out to cover off. He seems to really like all three of his main teachers, and they seem to get a kick out of him too, which helps!

At Home

Austin is SUCH a little turkey these days, I don’t know whether to die laughing or throw my hands up in despair sometimes!! The child is not capable of sitting still for more than 5 seconds, absolutely MUST get his little paws on everything in the entire house (the more you don’t want him to touch it, the more appealing it is to him!), knows exactly where he’s not supposed to be and is bound and determined to get there, has the will of an ox and the pipes of an opera singer……shall I go on?!?! LOL I say all of this with a huge smile on my face, because 99% of it just makes me die laughing. 1% of the time I seriously think I would have more success trying to parent a chicken.

Drinking / Eating

We’ve had a big break through with his drinking! AT LAST! He pretty regularly will drink water and / or orange juice from an open cup these days, at least with Matt or I. It’s still a work in progress with his other caregivers at daycare / my mom’s house, but it’s definitely coming along. It’s funny, we noticed how intrigued he was when we would drink water from a glass in front of him, and then one of us (can’t remember who – most likely Matt) tentatively offered the glass to him….and didn’t he gulp the water down straight out of the glass?! Guess our little man just has no time or patience for sippy cups or plastic cups…..full on, adult size glasses of water it is for our 13 month old.

*Insert straight, terrified face here*

Eating has been interesting over the past month, as Austin has basically entirely given up his pureed foods now. I’m not overly happy about this, because the purees were a good way for us to make sure that he was getting enough vegetables, and also for us to sneak some milk into him without him realizing….but it’s also a good sign for his development that he doesn’t need / want them anymore. We just need to be more diligent about making sure that he gets enough vegetables from his food.

Walking

We still don’t have an independent walker, but he’s trucking along and getting closer every day! He’s super sturdy on his feet, loves to climb on everything, and once or twice has let go and taken a half step or so before he crumbled down again. My guess is that he will be walking by Christmas!

Christmas 

We did a set of Christmas pictures last weekend, and it ended up conflicting with his nap schedule, so I’m crossing my fingers and praying to God that we get at least a few good ones out of what ended up being a bit of a disaster shoot!

I am so super excited for this Christmas. Last year really kind of got squashed by the fact that my Dad was so super sick, so I’m really looking forward to making up for it this year.

Wearing

It’s becoming more and more fun to dress Austin these days, because he doesn’t only have to wear onesies anymore! For a while there, I didn’t really want to put him in t-shirts or sweaters or anything that didn’t have a button down between his legs because he was rolling and being picked up a ton, and shirts would have just rode up on him and been uncomfortable. These days though, he’s a lot more independent and spends a lot less time on his back and more time standing, so it’s starting to make sense to wear “real clothes”…..and OH MY LAWD is it ever fun to buy these clothes!! It’s like a whole new world has opened up to me!! Eeeee!!

My Recovery

I think that I am almost ready to close the book on this chapter once and for all. I had an MRI done back in September, and finally got the results at the end of October. The results showed a completely clear scan, no evidence of any structural damage or abnormalities. I’ve been feeling great, symptoms keep diminishing every day…. and I think I’m just about ready to dust my hands off and close this book once and for all.

CAN I GET A HALLLLLLLELUJAH?!

Well, on that super positive note, I’ll leave it there for this month! I can’t believe the next time that I check in it will be December!! So many fun things are coming up, and I just can’t wait!!

All our love,

-Sara xo

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