Hard at work

With Ivan’s parental leave over, he and I are both back at work during the day, while Mariah attends her dayhome.  It’s a bit of an adjustment not having either of us home to catch up on laundry or tidying.  But then again, the house is much cleaner when it’s empty all day.  Our new routine is for me to drop Mariah off at dayhome in the morning, since Ivan starts too early for us diva’s to get ready…and he picks her up in the afternoon.  I’m lucky to have Wednesdays off – which is such a nice treat in the middle of the week!  Mariah and I got to sleep in a little bit this morning, lounge around in our pajamas, and we’ve started attending a sign language class for babies.  While the younger babies obediently watch the instructor sing songs and teach signs, Mariah prances around the room sometimes heading for the door and telling us all ‘bye’…sometimes making herself comfortable in another mom’s lap without an invitation. 

Veronica, her dayhome provider, tells us Mariah’s transition has been a bit of a roller coaster.  Many days, Mariah clings to Veronica and tantrums if she even dares to pay attention to the other children.  Mariah sometimes refuses to eat, or worse yet, refuses to nap, so by afternoon she becomes an irritable little ball of cranky toddler.  Other days, she eats double servings, plays with the kids, and let’s Veronica breathe here and there.  Since there are so many activities and things to do there, I have a feeling Mariah almost thinks of the dayhome as her own little ‘job’.  We’ve noticed she often brings her work home these days since she feels the need to keep busy in the evenings.  She’s lost interest in most of her toys, but has become very drawn to tedious, repetitive tasks (I’m pretty sure she gets that from me).  Mariah has a basket full of clips in the kitchen that somehow keeps her entertained for far too long.  She shoves those little clips into boxes, pretends they’re phones, and the novelty has yet to wear off.  Mariah also has discovered the joy of magnets.  She takes one at a time and moves them from the fridge to the dishwasher and back again – with a look of determination in her eyes that says ‘wow, I’m being productive…too bad this job really never ends!’.  I joke with Ivan that she must have been raised in the Jackson household since apparently Michael’s dad used to make him and his brothers move a pile of bricks back and forth on their front lawn to keep them out of trouble and teach them discipline (harsh parenting…but I guess it worked!). 

In addition to finding Mariah’s futile tasks entertaining, I also try to remind myself that she’s a good mirror.  Who’s to say that her work is any less important than mine or yours?  She’s staying active, keeping herself entertained, and appears happy in the process, which is more than many of us can say.  It’s so easy to get caught up with the hussle & bussle of life that sometimes we all get tunnel vision and forget to have fun.  So watching Mariah is a good reminder that it’s great to have focus and strong work ethic as long as you remember to be a child (or one at heart) afterward.

1 Year Later

As you might know, our little cupcake recently turned 1 year old.  A lot of people have asked me if I can believe a year has flown by…and the question really stumps me.  In a way, Mariah’s precious baby moments have moved too quickly since babies literally grow and develop right before our eyes.  But on the other hand, this has also felt like the longest year of my own life since time can inch by slowly when you’re home with a baby…and since it feels like a lifetime ago that Mariah was a tiny newborn.  Some people describe this parenthood phenomenon through the quote “the days move slowly, but the years move quickly” – I’ve found this to be very true.  And despite some of the long days being challenging, each one had its place in teaching me about the illusion of time.  I’ve come to the conclusion that life can move forward as slowly or as quickly as we let it, so it’s probably a good balance to experience some busy days filled with work and adventure, and some slow days to help us be mindful and present.

Mariah’s development has continued to spiral forward in the last few months.  Around 8 months, Mariah learned how to backtrack down the stairs and also learned how to wave ‘bye’ around the same time – so she often combines the two and takes off when she needs a change of scenery.  Her musical talents flourished at 9 months when she started clapping, ‘singing’ (which she does in a very throaty gaaa noise) and dancing.  At 10 months, Mariah turned her ba-ba-ing into a more defined ‘ba-bye’ and knows to do this while waving when someone is leaving.  This was helpful timing since we started transitioning Mariah into her dayhome at 11 months.  After just a few tough days, she started waving ba-bye to us in the morning and has gradually become more and more comfortable with her loving caregiver and new ‘friends’.  And perhaps just to check it off her milestone list, Mariah literally started walking on her first birthday.  She had been taking a step or two for several weeks, but seemed to prefer the safety of crawling.  I guess she was just waiting until she felt ready since she skipped over the wobbly speed-walking stage and just started walking independently with pretty good control.  Her moves are still a bit zombie-ish at this point, but she gets from a to b.  Unfortunately, ‘b’ has included all the things we would prefer her not to touch.  Every now and then when Ivan and I lose track of her for a minute, we hear a ‘clank, splash, splash’ and sure enough she’s swooshing a facecloth in the toilet bowl with a smile on her face.  Yesterday, I learned that my mom had forgotten a lipstick at our house when Mariah emerged from her bedroom with colourful lips and hands.  And just when you think you can get mad at her – she uses her cute magic to make you crack a smile.  She’s recently started laughing like an adult who is having a serious chuckle – she throws her head back in a whiplash motion and then tucks her chin down to her chest like every situation is the funniest moment she has ever experienced.  Mariah does this in public for cashiers and waitresses who indulge her in the attention she loves…in fact she’s been called a ‘ham’ by two different strangers in the last week!  She loves being a comedian like her dad, and I’m sure once she starts talking, there will be plenty of funny lines coming out of her mouth.

I suppose Mariah’s magical charm might have wiped away our memory of how hard raising a baby is…since Ivan and I have decided to start it all over again.  We are happy to say that we’re 12 weeks pregnant, so Mariah and her new brother or sister will be just a year and a half apart!