Nate Night & My New Job

Since starting work I've wanted to make sure that one night a week I devoted to Nate and doing something fun. Thus I have created "Nate Night" which is essentially date night with my 2 year old. We spend time together every night, but usually that includes dinner, bath, cuddling, and watching Dora. As a semi-Stay at home mom I made sure that we did something fun/interesting every week and I don't want to give that up now. So tonight was Nate night. It actually started at 2pm. Mom brought him to meet me for lunch at Panera then he came to work with me. He got a big kick out of the kids and the things we were doing.

There is a rec center directly across from where I'm working so we met Amy there when I got off. Nate loves the pool! This particular pool has a fun kiddie area, although I think his favorite part was taking a hot shower after getting out of the cold pool.

To top off my good day I was offered a fulltime job for this school year at the preschool. I've been praying about it, not just about that job in particular, but about getting a job that I will enjoy and grow in. Obviously I need to spend more time praying. I accepted the offer! I will be working with 6months-2 year olds in the morning and 2 year olds in the afternoon. I think it will be nice to have a job where the morning is different from the afternoon. It is going to continue to be a transition for Nate and I, but I think with the institution of things like Nate night we will continue to have a close, loving, attached bond that can't be broken.

Day 4 of my 29 Day Giving Challenge

Today is Day 14 of my 29 Day Giving Challenge. This afternoon while Nate was napping I was able to take some time to organize all of my grandma's files. She doesn't have a whole lot, but it does take up a drawer of a filing cabinet. It felt good to accomplish something and I do love organzing things. It's relaxing in a methodical way.

Days 10-13 of my 29 Day Giving Challenge

My first week of work didn't leave me with much time to do anything and thus I didn't really do anything out of the ordinary for anyone on Days 10, 11, and 12. I'm sure this happens to many people at some point. I guess in a way I just gave a gift of fully devoting myself to Nate when I got home everyday. On Day 13 I was able to give my sister a small gift. We are working at the same place and she had to be there super early and work a long day, so I picked her up an iced coffee on my way to work.

Day 9 of my 29 Day Giving Challenge

Today is Day 9 of my 29 Day Giving Challenge. There was no physical gift today it was more of a big step to change my life and secure the future for my son and I. I started a full-time job today. This is really hard when you're an attached mama. I did really well emotionally until about lunch time and proceeded to cry through my lunch break. It has nothing to do with the job or not wanting to work. It's an enjoyable job and everyone I've met so far is really nice. It's more about knowing that it is the beginning of a forever number of days of working and being away from Nate. I won't be there to do all of the little weekday things that we've always done. At the end of the day we had 2.5 hours together before he went to bed and it was filled with dinner, bath, changing into pjs, cuddling and then getting him to go to sleep. I do have to say though that my day was made when I walked in the door and he said, "mommy, mommy, mommy" and gave me a big hug with his arms wrapped tight around my neck.

Day 8 of my 29 Day Giving Challenge

Today is Day 8 of my 29 Day Giving Challenge. Today I took time to write some handwritten notes and included pictures from Nate's 2nd birthday. Some things I mailed were just simple "here's your picture", but I did take the time to send notes to people who have been in my life for a long time, but that I rarely if ever see. I think it's important to take that time to stay in touch with people and let them know you are thinking of them.

The Magic of Chuck E. Cheese

Pre-parenthood and even when I had a newborn I always scoffed at things like Build a Bear and Chuck E. Cheese. Who would take their children to a crowded hot building to waste money and encounter all sorts of people? Well I guess I'm one of those parents now since we've been to both BAB and CEC this week :P.

I knew Nate would be excited for the rides because he occasionally rides things at the mall or the fire truck at Babies'R'Us. He LOVED the car ride.

He is normally terrified of the merry go round, but I think Molly being there helped him overcome his fear.

He kept feeding tokens into the wack a mole type game, but I'm not sure he ever actually played it.

The combination of bright colors, smell of pizza, loud music and cheap tokens sucks you right in and you feel the need to spend money and coerce your child to try all of the rides. You should take their cue that they are done when they lay down on the floor and refuse to get back up. We still have half a cup left of tokens. I guess we will have to go back!

Day 7 of my 29 Day Giving Challenge

Today is Day 7 of my 29 Day Giving Challenge. Today I was a nice driver and that was my gift to society. I let people in and didn't even get mad when I got tail gated through a neighborhood. I'm making a point to really not say bad words when driving. Especially when I hear a little chorus of "go, go, go" from the backseat.

Today was also a day to spend fun time with Nate. I took him to Chuck E. Cheese for the first time. We met our friends Casey and Molly there. Nate was pretty spastic, but I know he had a good time.

Day 6 of my 29 Day Giving Challenge

Today is Day 6 of my 29 Day Giving Challenge. This is a bum around the house kind of day. However, Nate pretty much did the giving for me. He wanted to play with his markers and he kept bothering Bubba (his great-grandpa), so I set him up at the table and they've been coloring and chatting away. It's so important for them to have time together and I'm glad that I figured out how to facilitate that. Plus Nate has now been occupied for awhile, giving me a break!

Sometimes Life Puts You Back Where You Belong

Today I realized that sometimes life puts you back where you belong. For the past 9 months my life was starting to go in this weird zig-zag pattern and I didn't know where I was going to end up. When Nate was born the plan all along was for me to move to CB with my family sometime around summer 2011. We are back on track. I have had some ups and downs in the past few weeks, but I've made some important decisions for myself and I'm no longer going to allow distractions to deter me from what I need to do; provide a future for my child and myself. Here are a few things I am going to work on in the next few weeks:

• Start my new job, enjoy it, and work really hard
• Get organized, get rid of clutter, and keep everything clean.
• Spend quality time with Nate.

It's already weighing on me that I will spending so much time away from Nate. I've gone to school full time and worked 2 part time jobs all at the same time during Nate's life, but I've never been gone all day, 5 days a week. I'm incredibly grateful that I've been around him so much for the past 2 years, because that's time that I will have in my heart forever. Now it's time to allow him to have space and to spend more time with his grandparents. I know he is in safe, loving hands with them.
To lift my spirits I wanted to share a then and now:

Day 5 of my 29 Day Giving Challenge

Today is Day 5 of my 29 Day Giving Challenge. My day started at midnight with lots of love and patience. Nate woke up still complaining that his arm hurt, couldn't go back to sleep, and refused to take any tylenol. I knew that we would end up going to the doctor today to figure out what was wrong. We finally fell asleep in my bed together at about 2am and slept late into the morning. When I called the doctors I was grateful to get an 11:30am appt. It wasn't with his doctor, but it was atleast a female doctor which he seems to do better with. When we got to the doctors he was all smiles and actually was talking to the nurse whom he didn't want anything to do with last week at his 2 year checkup. We colored while we waited and when the doctor came in she almost immediately concluded that his elbow was out of place. It's called Nursemaid Elbow and it's really common in toddlers. It happens when they jerk away really fast when they are holding hands with someone or if they are being swung by their arms. Ours was the first situation. He sat on my lap and she rotated and manipulated his arm and popped the elbow back into place. He only moaned and kept saying his arm hurt, but he didn't cry! Within 5 minutes he was using his left arm again. We have to be really careful from here on out because he is more susceptible to it now that it has happened.

So now the giving part! After all that I took him to McDonald's and got him a Happy Meal. He's now enjoying his chicken nuggets and french fries and watching Little Bear. I'm so thankful that his arm is better and I have my happy boy back.

Day 4 of my 29 Day Giving Challenge

Today is Day 4 of my 29 Day Giving Challenge. Last night Nate actually went to sleep at 7:45, so I had a really productive evening. I finally finished painting his giraffe toy box and got a protective coat on it too. So today I was able to set it up in his room and fill it with his big collection of stuffed animals! It was built by his great-grandpa 30 years ago for my brothers and was painted a dark blue with yellow spots. It took MANY coats of paint to cover the blue. I love that I was able to re-purpose something for Nate!

Day 3 of My 29 Day Giving Challenge

Today is Day 3 of my 29 Day Giving Challenge. I actually was given a really awesome gift today. I'm not going to say what it is because that's not really necessary. However, my gift in return is a heartfelt handwritten thank you. The gift was something I really can use and came at a really good time and I want the individual to know how thankful I am.

A Boy and His New Bear

As a birthday present to Nate, his cousin, Kristin met us at Build a Bear to let him pick out a stuffed animal. He was a little tired and thus proceeded to run around the store like crazy. We did corral him long enough to get him to pick out a stuffed animal, let the guy stuff it, and put a heart or two inside. We got some accessories for it and Nate even tried to play at the computers. He showed it off to everyone when we got home and has been lovingly cuddling it this afternoon. It was a great birthday present for a 2 year old.

Day 2 of my 29 Day Giving Challenge

Today was Day 2 of my 29 Day Giving Challenge. This morning I needed to do something simple for others because I knew we were headed off for the day. I chose to make breakfast for Mom, Nate, and the grandparents. I made scrambled eggs and french toast and cut up some nectarines. Good food always makes people happy. It's the way to the heart and one of the easiest ways to show people that you care about them.

Getting started.

Yummy Breakfast!

Day 1 of my 29 Day Giving Challenge

Today was Day 1 of my 29 Day Giving Challenge. We have an overabundance of baby toys that Nate no longer plays with. So we sifted through them and pulled a few to donate to the nursery at church. It's definitely in need of more toys and a box sitting under my desk isn't really a useful place for them. Nate will also get to see them when we go to church and he spends time in the nursery. I tried to involve him in unpacking the toys when we got to church, but he was too distracted by the train set that he always plays with there. This was a good start!