Well, I’m back to work! I had intended on having an extended maternity through Thanskgiving, but I asked my manager to keep me posted on opportunities as they came in so I could reevaluate as needed if the right thing came along. I don’t think I’m allowed to say in a forum like this who my new client is, but it’s a large multimedia corporation, which is different from all the pharma companies I’ve worked for/with in my career. Then again, with the nature of my work it doesn’t really make a huge difference what kind of work the company does since I work on Human Resources systems.
Anyway, the right thing came along and I went back to work 3 1/2 weeks ago. When I went back to work after having Hayden I put him in day care because I was starting with a new department and I didn’t know what it was going to be like (likewise I’d never had a baby before so didn’t know if it would be too much to have him home while I tried to work, etc). Having now been through it with him I decided to try keeping Layla home with me while she is a little baby. She really is a pretty good baby, so I don’t spend a lot of time soothing her. Also, when Hayden was a baby I would go in once a day to breastfeed him, and through that I got to see how the infant room operates at the day care center. When they aren’t at full capacity they have time to do a lot of fun interaction with the babies, but when they are busy it is all “maintenance” – whoever’s turn it is to eat gets fed, changed gets changed, slept gets slept, and if a baby is fussing who doesn’t need any of that and there is another baby who does, they have to wait their turn. I can understand that – they have to do what they have to do to make sure things get done for all the babies. However, it’s not more than what I can do with Layla even when I get busy. Also, she sleeps a good amount of time during the day, and she sleeps better at home than she would there since it’s dark and quiet in her room and they have to keep the lights on at day care and it’s not quiet. Although, for a long time I was not able to master the sleeping situation the way I wanted to. I couldn’t get her to sleep in her crib for naps, so I was just letting her fall asleep on the boppy pillow which was around me. This allowed me to still be able to type. I just didn’t have time to keep going upstairs to try to sooth her. I hoped that once she got good at going to sleep on her own at nighttime that would transfer over to naps, too. So, I tried it today at naptime and she did take two naps in her crib today! The afternoon one was way too short but it’s a start. I didn’t expect it to be perfect right away.
So, I am very happy with my work situation right now. I know when she gets more mobile she will need to go to day care because I won’t be able to chase her around all day (and who knows how far off that is – she has really mastered her belly to back roll today!), but until then it’s working. It’s much more demanding having her home than it would be with her at day care, but it’s so much more rewarding.
Layla had to get a little haircut a couple of weeks ago. It wasn’t that it was getting too long (she is a girl, after all, so I don’t expect to be hearing the frequent “she needs a haircut” from John that I get about Hayden (John is not as big of a fan of shaggy little boy hair as I am) 😉 ), but she has been losing some hair on the sides of her head while the top keeps growing longer. It was starting to look a little bit silly so I decided to clean it up. I did feel badly giving a haircut to a 4 month old as it just didn’t seem like it should be time yet, but there was one particular chunk on the side of her hair that needed to be tidied. Once that was cut then the top and other side needed to also be cut to make it all look even. 
bed’s headboard, cars, really anything that he can find. He is a big fan of this cartoon called Team Umizoomi, and the focus on that cartoon is math. They count (regular counting and by tens so they can get to high numbers), build things with shapes, do subtle addition, and find patterns. With the patterns, they will notice that something has a pattern and they’ll talk the pattern out: “red, blue, yellow. red, blue, yellow. red, blue, what comes next?” “3, 5, 7. 3, 5, 7. 3, 5, what comes next?” I’ll hear Hayden doing this, too, when he’s off counting something. He’ll start saying, “12, 18, 17. 12, 18, 17,” in the same voice/enunciation as the character “Millie” who does the patterns in the cartoon. It’s so cute! Anyway, Hayden is very strong on counting his numbers 1 – 12. Once he gets to 13 he needs a little help. If left to his own devices his counting will go a little like, “10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 80, 40, 100!” He’s getting better everyday, though. John told me that a couple of days ago he counted up to 27! I don’t know what help, if any, John gave him with that one.
Layla rolled from belly to back on Sept 25! I had her on her belly with her arm underneath her a little so she didn’t have to figure out how to get her shoulder out of the way. It took a lot of encouragement, leaning over her and talking to her and jingling toys just out of her line of vision so she’d have to keep turning her head further and further back to see and then… bing! Onto her back she went. She did it few times that night, but she hasn’t done it much since then. She moves around so much when she’s on the floor. She’ll go on her side and lift up her legs so they are parallel to her body, then move her torso to straighten herself out, so suddenly she’s at a 90 degree angle from where she was just a moment previously. She’s done that for a long time. Yesterday at Grandpaman and Grandma G’s she was on a blanket on the floor and she kept rolling onto her side so far that we thought she might end up rolling onto her belly. But not yet, so far!
Earlier this year Hayden started to become a big daddy’s boy. Wherever daddy goes, Hayden wanted to go. If we go anywhere it needs to be in daddy’s car. If daddy wears a blue shirt, Hayden wants to wear a blue shirt. If we are out, it’s daddy he wants to hold him, or hold his hand and so on, and on.
I was making fun out of him about his pyjamas (because they were way too small for him) and he ran out to the top the stairs and started shouting at Kara “hey mummy, look at me, my pyjamas are so funny”. Every day since he’ll insist on doing this during bedtime. Whether it’s about his pjs or what books he read or the fact that he got to brush his teeth while laying on the ground! Whatever it is he wants to tell mummy! He’ll stand at the top of the stairs and just jump and shout until he gets mummy’s attention and get’s so happy when he gets it!
She smiles every time you look at her, she always seems to be happy. Generally anyone can hold her during the day unless she’s really hungry. However, as soon as 7pm rolls around good luck!! I’m allowed to hold her for about 30 seconds before she vocally protests and is searching the room for her mum. I thought it might be me, but I’ve seen another other unsuspecting souls try to hold her after 7pm, and quickly realized it’s nothing personal. It’s mummy or nothing after 7pm!
In the last week when we ask Hayden questions, what did you do at day care today? what do you want for dinner tonight? do you need to go to the potty? etc, he turns around to us and says “I don’t want to talk about it!” – What are you supposed to do with that!!! What a little turkey!
I’m finding that, at 3, Hayden has become quite the mirror to hold up to myself. He says things to me and I think, “where did he come up with that?!” and then I realize it: he’s a mirror. This was evident twice yesterday. He loves asking me the same thing over and over, and sometimes after I’ve answered him several times I will answer again and add “I’ve already told you 20 times.” Yesterday I asked him if he had to go potty, and he said no. A few minutes later I asked him again (because he’s not fully grasped the difference between needing to go and wanting to go – and he pretty much never WANTS to go), and he said, “No, I don’t need to go potty. I already told you twenty times.” I found that absolutely hysterical but of course had to surpress the laughter since it’s not the kind of thing I wanted him saying to his preschool teacher (although I couldn’t fairly lecture him about it being rude since I knew exactly where he got that little expression, and I don’t have immediate plans on phasing it out of my speech since he is still repeately asking the same questions). 
Hayden and Layla's Place 