Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it's off to work I go

Looooooong day, but I did it. I am officially a working mom! Molly must have known it was my first day back at work, so she rewarded me by waking up early at 5:45, smiling and full of energy. Approximately 2 hours later, I was out the door with my purse, mini cooler full of milk, breast pump, and a sleeping Molly. Because she was sleeping, it wasn't as hard to drop her off as I thought it was going to be. I just popped her in her crib, dropped off her milk and spare outfit, said hi to the teachers, and then went on my way to catch the train.

The first couple of hours at work flew by. My coworkers decorated my door with a "welcome back" sign and stopped in one-by-one to say hi and listen to me babble about Molly for a few minutes. Then I spent the rest of the day sorting through email and getting caught up on all the latest projects. Fun. The next thing I knew it was 3:00 and I was DYING to get home and see Molly. By the time I got off the train, I was practically running to get to her. People probably thought I was crazy!

Molly was a little on edge this evening, but we still got to enjoy a few of her adorable smiles before she fell asleep. Here's a little video of Miss Molls having fun. She starts to lose it at the end, but she still looks cute when her lip curls :) 

Tomorrow might be a little more difficult. We have a 7:00am physical therapy appointment, which means we have to leave the house at 6:20. Ugh. Good thing we've got the weekend coming up!

The first day of "school"

I have very mixed emotions about dropping Molly off at daycare this morning. On the one hand, it was kind of traumatic to leave her in the care of virtual strangers in a room full of crying babies, all glaring at me with their wet angry eyes. On the other hand, Molly seemed fine in the hands of Gina, the assistant director (see pic below), and even started falling asleep in her arms before I left.

I actually feel kind of good about it now that I'm home. I'm free, for the first time in who knows how long, to play on the internet, take a bath, and clean my condo without having to worry about Molly and when she's going to wake up or need to eat. Well, I'm still worrying, but just can't do anything about it today. I just hope she's happy over there and able to sleep okay in a strange crib. And I hope they keep their promise and do plenty of tummy time and make sure to turn Molly's head to the left when she sleeps.... Waaaahhhh! I need to wrap up this post before I get myself too worked up!

Here are a few pics:

I wanted Molly to look cute on her first day of school -- mission accomplished!

Apparently Molly doesn't need me. She can fall asleep anywhere!

Playdates, physical therapy, and daycare, oh my!

Molly and I have had quite the week so far. We went to Caroline's for our first playdate on Tuesday with a bunch of the other kiddos in the group -- Olivia, Sadie, Mia, Whistler, Ramey, and Ethan. Molly is still too young to 'play', but it was nice for me to be able to hang out with the other moms. One downside of going back to work is that I won't be able to do stuff like that during the week anymore.

After the playdate, we drove up to Jason's office so his coworkers could meet Molly. They loved her, of course, and couldn't get over her red hair or how much she looks like Jason.

We continued the action on Wednesday with our first physical therapy session for the flat head problem. Jason and I learned a bunch of new ways to hold Molly to help her strengthen her neck and get used to tummy time and turning left. The physical therapist doesn't want us using any equipment, like bouncy seats or swings, so it means we have our work cut out for us carrying her around all the time and interacting with her on the floor during tummy time. The good news is that we can still practice standing (Molly's favorite activity) and I can carry her facing out in the Baby Bjorn, which Molly seems to like much better than facing in.

Molly still hates tummy time, but the therapist said with a little hard work, she should be a different baby in 2 to 3 weeks. Unfortunately for now, it means I have to spend most of the day pissing her off. I'm letting her hang in her bouncy seat right now as a little reward for being manhandled all day. Hopefully the 20 minutes she spends in it won't negate any progress we've made.

I'm also counting on daycare to help with the flat head problem. We stopped by yesterday to meet Molly's teachers, drop off her paperwork, and ask a few questions before her first day next week. I was happy to hear that they spend a lot of time working on tummy time and getting the kids to sit up by themselves. And hopefully Molly will pick up a few tricks from the older babies in the class! Only one more week to go before I'm back at work and Molly is in daycare full time....

Winners and losers

I've been meaning to blog about the US Open, Top Chef, Project Runway, my fantasy football teams, and a few other topics, but haven't had time. So here are a few random thoughts combined into one post...

Winners from this week:

• Rafael Nadal: Congrats to Rafa for winning the US Open and for completing the career Grand Slam at the tender young age of 24. Since I'm home on maternity leave, I was able to watch A LOT of the US Open and no one plays with as much intensity as Rafael Nadal. No one. I'm so happy that he won. What am I going to watch during the days now that the US Open is over??
• Novak Djokovic: Yes, he lost to Rafa in the finals, but Novak won my respect in the semis by taking down Roger Federer in 5 sets. At times, I even cheered for him vs Rafa. But just at times!
• Kevin from Top Chef: Ed and Angelo thought they were competing against each other for the title, but they forgot about Kevin, who cooked the meal of his life and the best the judges have had in any finale (according to Tom Colicchio's blog). I really wish I could have tasted that dessert
• Mondo: Finally, my boyfriend wins a challenge! He was the clear winner this week, not that he had much competition. I loved this quote from Michael Drummond, "If you took Jackie Kennedy to the desert and gave her some mescalin to eat...then you would have Jackie Kennedy and Mondo. Does that make sense?" Yup, makes perfect sense! I heart Mondo
• The Dillon Panthers: They won this week, thanks to a last-minute TD by Tim Riggins. I love Friday Night Lights and am so happy that ABC Family is playing it over again from the beginning

Losers from this week:

• My fantasy football team (The Duendes): Ryan Grant is out for the season and I wasn't quick enough to pick up his replacement. I'm going to be playing catch-up all season long now
• Molly: See previous post about the flat head :(
• The Cincinnati Bengals: Sucked it up against the Patriots on Sunday
• The Chicago Bears: Technically, they beat the Lions, but it wasn't pretty and everyone seems to be outraged by the Calvin Johnson call. If they had this much trouble vs Detroit, I'm a little nervous about their chances vs a decent team, like the Cowboys
• Jason Street: QB from the Dillon Panthers (Friday Night Lights). He breaks his neck in the first game of the season, learns that he'll never walk again, and then finds out that his girlfriend is cheating on him with his best friend. Man, what a cruel show! I love FNL, but it's almost more difficult to watch the second time around, now that I know what I know...

Anyway, that's what's in my head right now. Next post will have Molly pics, I promise!

My daughter is not an ambi-turner

Yes, just like Derek Zoolander, Molly has a strong preference for her right side. Unfortunately, this means Molly is getting a flat head. Noooooooooooo! It's true. I went to her 2-month appointment all worried about the shots and those turned out to be no big thing. But this whole flat head diagnosis has really thrown me for a loop. I thought my daughter was perfect!

We had to schedule an appointment with a physical therapist (1st opening Oct 21...are you kidding me?) and until then, have to try to keep her off her back or else keep her head turned left whenever possible. If the problem persists at 4 months, this could be Molly:

I do not expect Molly to be as happy about her helmet as the child in this photo... we tried to put a knit hat on her yesterday and she flipped!

Of course I feel like this is all my fault. They told me in the hospital to watch the whole head preference thing and I haven't really forced it...until now. I will be vigilant about tummy time (even though she hates it) from now on! Poor Molly -- she's about to see her mother turn into a drill sergeant.

Other than that, the 2-month appointment went well. Molly is 23 inches long and almost 12 lbs -- that's a little over the 50th percentile for both height and weight. And despite its flatness, Molly's pea head has moved up to the 50th percentile as well. We'll do our best to get it rounded out. Updates to come!

The missing link

Molly has now met all 4 of her uncles. And by waiting just a few weeks, Jake probably got to see the cutest version of Molly. She was smiling and laughing all weekend!

Marsha and Steve also came to visit and were kind enough to babysit while Jason, Jake, Corinne, and I went to the Bears game. The game was ugly at times, but at least we came out with a victory! A loss to the Lions is not a good way to start the season...

Molly sticks her tongue out at Jake

Jake, Corinne, Me, and Jas at the Bears game

The Calvin Johnson TD call may have been controversial, but we didn't care!

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I finished this book in just a couple of days -- it's a total page turner -- but I can't say I enjoyed it all that much. Dan Brown has figured out a nice little template for his novels. An evil character wants to use long-lost knowledge from a secret society (in this book, it's the Freemasons) to achieve world domination (or some other nasty goal) and Robert Langdon, the famous and brilliant symbologist, is the only one who can decipher the clues to save the day. Throw in an eccentric billionaire, an attractive female sidekick, and a plot twist near the end (someone is not who you think they are!) and there you have it, a NY Times bestseller. When I read The Da Vinci Code, I thought it was so clever. But after reading 3 versions of the same book, I think I might be finished with Dan Brown.



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The Outcast by Sadie Jones

The Outcast by Sadie Jones

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is one of those books where the main character just totally self destructs. It's the story of Lewis Aldridge, a boy growing up in the London suburbs in the years following WWII, who can't come to grips with his mother's death and father's indifference. You really do feel for Lewis, but you also want to bang his head against the wall as he makes one poor choice after another. It's a good read, but I wouldn't necessarily run out to the bookstore for it!



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Molly at 2 months

So what has Molly been up to lately? Well, she's been smiling up a storm (see photos below!) and she loves to be held in a standing position so she can lift up her head and look all over the room. We've started calling her "The Meerkat" because of this (remember the show Meerkat Manor?). I can't even begin to describe how cute it is, so I will do my best to catch it on film soon.

Molly is also starting to discover her hands. We think she's going to be a thumb sucker because she tries desperately to get her hand in her mouth when she's fussy or trying to go to sleep. I hope she figures it out soon because she still needs some help calming down when it's time to go to bed :)

Other than that, reality is setting in that I have to go back to work in a few weeks. We received our enrollment packet from the daycare last week and I've read through the thing about 50 times already. I know she'll be fine there, but I still worry about it. We spoil Molly here at home -- she naps for hours in our arms and we race to comfort her the second she cries. At daycare, she'll have to get used to napping in a crib, and with 3 babies to each teacher, there's no way they'll be able to get to her like we do. I still have 3 and a half weeks left in my maternity leave, but it feels like it's going by so fast!

Anyway, we are looking forward to Uncle Jake, Aunt Corinne, Grandma O'Grady, and Grandpa Duke coming in town this weekend. I think Marsha and Steve are going to be shocked by how much Molly has grown since they were last here!

Without further ado, here are a few new photos of my red-headed princess:

Evil, evil Gretchen

Gretchen was just the worst in the group challenge. The worst! I am so happy that Tim Gunn called her on it. She wasn't quite as obnoxious in the bridesmaid dress challenge, but I'm still holding a grudge. Unfortunately, her stuff is usually pretty good, so I don't think she'll be getting kicked off any time soon.

Anyway, I am liking this season so far. Nina and Michael are back AND we get 90 minutes every week! Mondo is definitely my fave designer. I think he was robbed this week, but I loved that the judges basically said F-U to the other designers by giving the win to Michael Costello.

What I don't like about this season? The overuse of the word 'aesthetic.' Seriously, these designers can't get through an interview without saying it. There's nothing wrong with the word, but it just keeps rubbing me the wrong way. Gretchen in particular just sounds so pompous whenever she talks about 'staying true to her aesthetic.' Oh, how I loathe her...