manic monday.

Before I write about my day (my BIG day. my first day back to work.), let me just say a HUGE thank you to every single person who left me a comment, sent me a tweet, a message on facebook or an email. I felt so much support after last night's post and it really helped me make it though the day. Seriously. Thank you SO MUCH.

Now, onto my manic Monday...

We woke up this morning at 7am, just like most mornings. Kale normally wakes up and I nurse him and then I put him between Kris and I and he'll roll over and grab Kris's nose to wake him. If it was anyone other than the cutest baby in the world doing this I'm sure it wouldn't be a pleasant way to wake up. The boys got out of bed and started the coffee while I got acquainted with my good friend the breast pump.

We used to spend a lot of time together when Kale was a newborn because I had oversupply and a forceful letdown, but since then we haven't seen too much of one another. Now that I'm back at work I know we're going to rekindle our friendship. Big time.

Directly after pumping it was time for coffee.

Kris gets a full cup and I get a half cup since my coffee must be steaming hot. If I take a full cup it'll be too cool by the time I reach the halfway point. Here's a little "did you know"...I used to work in a coffee roasters and would drink coffee ALLLLLLLLLLLLLL day. I'm talking 8 or 9 cups. Before I worked there I'd never had a single cup.

I got ready - put on my big girl clothes (i.e., not the track pants and hoodie I've been living in for the past 8 months), did my hair and make up, and packed up my stuff.

 

I had a lot of stuff to haul. My briefcase stuffed full of snacks, tea and hair stuff, my breast friend (the pump!), my shoes, my purse, my 800 lbs. of winter gear....

Then it was time to say goodbye to this little guy: 

And then to both of them...

Since I was running late I didn't have time to dwell on the situation and I didn't want my emotions to rub off on Kale either. So I put a smile on my face and gave him about 400 kisses (and a couple for Kris!) and then waved bye and he waved back and then I drove the five minutes it takes me to get to work and I found myself here:

 

The person who covered my maternity leave is actually staying on to cover another person's  maternity leave and so she is staying in my old office (which used to be my supervisor's office - I started working there covering her maternity leave). So I ended up getting put in the the new, super nice office. So nice that everyone calls it "the executive suite." I don't know if I'll end up staying there or if we're going to shift around, but I'm enjoying it for the time being. Besides, if I go back to my old office I'm likely to get pregnant again considering the history of its inhabitants. 

The morning pretty much flew by and I was out of there as soon as the clock hit lunch hour. When I got home and took Kale from Kris he just laid his head on my shoulder and cuddled me for a few minutes. It was so sweet. I ate a quick lunch and nursed Kale as much as I could and then went back to work for the afternoon. I snapped this picture just before I left.

The afternoon went by really quickly. I was in staff meetings the whole time and had to foce myself to focus on the discussion. It's hard to turn your brain back to work stuff after you've spent eight months talking to someone about colours and singing silly songs. I was so happy to have made it through the work day and come home to these two:

Kris had an awesome day with Kale, who was on his very best behaviour. We worried most about how hard it would be to put him down for naps since Kale prefers I put him to sleep, but there were no issues or tears for either nap. Kris loved being home with Kale, but was going a little crazy by the end of the day (hence the face he's making in that picture). He went from working a physically demanding job to chilling on the floor with a baby. He's got a lot of pent up energy to work out at the gym tonight!

Kale pretty much nursed for the first 20 minutes (he normally nurses for four minutes...he's fast) of me being home and I found out that he didn't take much from the bottle all day. This might be our biggest challenge, but I'm hoping it's going to work itself out.

I made dinner, played with Kale and then jumped in the tub with him.

After getting ready for bed we went out to the living room and played for awhile. I set him down on the rug and then sat down at the other end and then HE CRAWLED TO ME. This was so amazing. For the last week or so he's been doing this awkward army crawl and refusing to go any further than he absolutely has to. I knew the real crawl was going to happen soon, but I was convinced that I was going to miss it by going back to work. But I didn't. It was totally amazing. I grabbed my camera and took a few quick shots.

Check out the concentration on that face! I'm so happy that I got to be there for this moment.