Back to Work & Everything In Between

I've been back to work now for a little over 7 months. I have to say it wasn't as hard the second time around, which I'm not sure was due to Isla being a little older, me being a little more ready to join the land of adults fulltime again or what but there were minimal tears all around. It also helped that Children's Academy has camera so I can pop in to check on my baby whenever I'm missing her (which still happens a LOT). Isla took to Children's Academy and adjusted great, and in the past seven months has moved from younger infants, to older and now she's in the toddler room. She's little Miss Independent now, nothing can stop her exploring anywhere and with a voice to match.

Moira is also doing great, the same opinionated 4 1/2 year old, but she's learning at lightening speed and loves to share what she's picked up. St. Mary's is going great but she does love Children's Academy more. I think we made the right decision though to send her to SMS for preK because the class is much smaller, only 11 kids, and much more structured, which will better prepare her for Kinder next year. Children's Academy has 24 kids in their 4's class, and while she's a star pupil there and adores her teacher, Ms. Tati, I feel like the class size can be chaotic, and the aides in the room as end up doing more supervising than actually interacting.

My amazing girl!

I took Mo to my first Mom's Demand Action meeting a couple weekends back and she was so good!

We have some friends who are also considering keeping their kids back a year and this seems to be a popular choices for kids born anywhere from August to December. Based on her fall assessment and where we're seeing her socially and emotionally though we think she's ready to move up to Kinder though. The only plus would be that she and Isla would be closer in grades, but the good thing about going to a preK3-8th grade parochial school is that they'll be in the same school for at least 7 years. We can also reassess Moira next year too and determine if we want to hold her back but I'm thinking not, if her stellar performance this year is any indication, she'll be ready.

Charlie and Ryan came to visit too! Stopping their play briefly for hot cocoa.

And speaking of Kinder, next year we're moving Moira to St. Gregory's in Danbury. While we LOVE St. Mary's, the commute is a killer, especially as a working parent and the school day for Kinder and up actually starts at 7am, which I feel is too early given Moira's late bedtime. Also, I'd love for her to be closer to home and as a Danbury school she'd be able to ride the bus there and back. Plus most of the kids in our neighborhood attended St. Greg's so it makes sense. We toured, loved it, Mo loved it and now she's enrolled so we're all set. I'm a little worried about her starting at a whole new school potentially not knowing any other kids, and especially some of those kids having been together since prek, but she's friendly and once she warms up she's such a social butterfly so I have high hopes that she'll do well there.

And Moira is also the best big sister to Isla. She just loves her little sister, is always giving her hugs and including her in her playtime. We do have the usual sibling squabbles, mostly about who made the mess (Isla) and who needs to pick it up (both of them), and sharing has also become a topic of contention since Isla wants EVERYTHING that Moira has. But this is life, and completely to be expected with 2. The majority of the time though Moira is patient and very sweet and I can tell they're already such friends, they adore each other so much.

In Isla news, we made it a little past 12 months and both mutually decided to stop breastfeeding. I also stopped pumping at 9 months and have no regrets there. Isla is a hearty eater and there's very little she doesn't like. Her latest thing is pointing and she's still working on some words (Dada is a fav, but sometimes says Mama, Isla and Yeah). She claps, sometimes will high 5 and we're working on blowing kisses.

And in work news, there's been a lot. I was hit with my company moving under the barter company within IPG, Orion, which happened right before I returned. In November they announced that our companies would be merging and today they're announcing the actual structure of that merger. The woman I'll be reporting to actually just returned from mat leave with her second as well and we've also worked together for years so I'm familiar with her and tentatively optimistic that she'll be accommodating of my current situation but that hasn't been fully flushed out yet. A lot remains to be seen but the good news is that there's a lot of business in the pipes and we've won a lot of pitches so fingers crossed no jobs are at stake with this merger. And in other good professional news, Bill got a promotion! He's now the digital Group Director for Mars-Wrigley which is very exciting! We're going out this Saturday to celebrate!