The transformation is complete. Yoga pants and Toms have been taken out of regular wardrobe rotation and I have had to iron for the first time in almost a year. The crock pot has been brought out of storage and complicated meals have become weekend-only food.
I haven’t been much in the mood for blogging of late, due to the massive chunk of my time that seems to be taken up by something called work. Work is this thing that sucks up most of my time, takes me away from my family, but provides us with an extra paycheck for the family . . . except when it doesn’t . . . wait . . . huh?
That was my reaction last Friday when I found out that our district’s pay cycles actually don’t go in to effect until the end of September. And because I started working early due to the type of school I am at (innovation not charter, blah, blah, blah) I have been working a full month without pay and will have to do it again next month. Which for lack of a better term, sucks. Especially when you still have to pay for daycare. Without going in to any more boring details, I can say that hopefully it will all work out in the end and I am salaried so they can’t jerk me around too much. The added stress was definitely not needed though. Going from stay-at-home Mom to working Mom is tough enough.
I am starting to adjust to the new normal for our family, but it hasn’t been the easiest. I definitely miss my little booger Ace during the workday and the time I have with him in the morning (10 minutes max) and the time I have with him at night (2 hours max) doesn’t feel like nearly enough. When you spend 10 hours a day working and commuting and your little one sleeps 12 hours a night, it is no wonder I never see him. Why do toddlers sleep so dang much?
On the bright side I do like my new job. I am a special ed teacher and this year I am working with a population better suited for me than the previous one. Plainly put – the types of disabilities you address can greatly impact your satisfaction as a special ed teacher. I really like my students which is half the battle as a teacher.
How is Ace dealing with the change? Hard to tell since his communication skills beyond tree, more, dog, and banana are nil. As far as we know his sleep has been the biggest problem for him. For the first two weeks of daycare he was napping less than an hour each day which left him exhausted and crabby. Ace is finally napping at least an hour and a half each day at daycare but he still seems have a sleep deficit on the weekends, when he will nap up to 3.5 hours during the day.
This week Ace is switching daycares to the one we originally wanted him to start at. We had to wait a month for this one because there wasn’t a spot for him in August. The daycare he has been going to was okay, but the one we are switching him to is AMAZING (or so it seems based on my visits there and the catalog). It is about $100 more a month but has real teachers with degrees and teaching licenses, serves organic and natural foods, has smaller classroom ratios, and just flat-out looks fantastic. Time will tell if it is as great as it seems.
This Labor Day weekend was a much-needed break from the work and daycare stuff though. Ace seems to be sleeping a ton and we have gotten a lot of work done around the house. We also got in a lot of play time too.
Ace decided being pulled in his wagon isn’t nearly as fun as pulling the wagon.
Hope you all had a nice holiday as well!
The Ace Times 