Life as a Mom in a New World

So, we moved to Texas in August. :) We have almost finished unpacking our boxes and are closing in on being settled. :)

Robert is working for the parent company of the one he was with in Washington, DC. They are splitting his time between the DC office he was at and the parent company he is with here. He is enjoying his work very much but could do without the hour commute to and from work (common story so I'm told). He wakes up in the morning and has about 15 minutes with Samantha before he heads out to work. Usually he will return home around 6:30 in time to have about 30-45 minutes with her in the evenings. He enjoys this time, but as I am sure you can imagine he wishes there was more of it. 

I am working as a consultant for the organization I was with in Washington, DC. They hired me on to train up my replacement in the DC office, as well as to work on some of their U.S. based programs. I took three days in September to travel to Denver for a set of meetings. Sue, Robert's mom drove up to Dallas from Houston to

watch Samantha while I was gone. She loved the extra time with S.J., though I am fairly certain she was glad when I returned so that she didn't have to wake up at 5am for the sleepy feeding. :)

I am traveling to Chicago this month for another three days of meetings for which I have been coordinating the hotel, travel and logistics. Mom(M) will be coming to Dallas again in order to look after S.J.. I am absolutely sure she will be glad to find out that S.J. has cut out the early feeding and now wakes up around 7am. :)

Samantha is has cut her second tooth and has a steady trickle running from her lower lip. Its actually kind of cute. I bet that will change around tooth #12. :) She is wearing her 12m clothing at 10-1/2 months, though she isn't quite filling them out yet.

S.J. has been walking while hold

ing onto either Robert or my hands for a couple of weeks now. It is so fun to watch her grow and progress. We recently bought her a little walker cart shaped like and elephant, it is very cute. She has refused to walk without the aid of our hands. It is the funniest thing seeing as while she has our hands she barely uses them except to catch herself every few steps. It is simply the fact that they are our hands. So, just today promptly after giving her mid day bottle to her (this is when she is the happiest) I set her up at the walker and sat a few feet in front of her. She stood at her walker as happy as can be and we exchanged grunts (her favorite) and hand gestures (she has learned how to, and loves to point her finger in the air). After a while of this she realized that she could lean forward and move the cart a bit. She wasn't quite sure if she liked the feeling. :) But after more grunts and hand gestures she decided to take three steps. This was very exciting for me, and naturally I followed them but much clapping and a few "good job"s, desperately hoping that positive reinforcement takes root and we won't have to wait three weeks for a repeat performance. :)

I have found that being a mom has been very thought provoking. I find myself constantly thinking about my mom and dad; thinking about the things they did to take care of us. I think about their sacrifice and commitment to seeing us have what we need, but not let us command their lives or mistake desire for necessity. I often find myself thinking about the stupid things that I said to them that I now understand why they were shocked, and how tremendously wrong I was. I once told them, when I was asked to do a load of laundry that I didn't want to do, that I thought they had kids just so that they cold have people to boss around and slave after them. I had NO idea that the 6-8 years that they invested in me to keep me alive to the age where I could do laundry were not worth the benefits of merely having a slave. Between the dirty diapers and the money for the toys - they would have hired a live-in maid and saved their money. I love being a mom. I love the way it makes me think about my life. I love how it makes me think about my parents, my aunts, my uncles, my grandparents. I was so much more loved than I ever realized or could ever comprehend. I am so glad that I get to share those people who loved me so deeply and unfailingly with my daughter, so that she can have the luxury of saying her own dumb things to us only to have a greater understanding some day, when she finally loves someone more than her mind can comprehend. :)