Playing Catch-Up

I have lots to catch-up on today.

First of all, once again, thank you for all of your kind words on my “The Truth Is…” post. I feel like I need to constantly reiterate that this blog is merely a FRACTION of my life and doesn’t even come close to sharing everything. When I wrote that post I was full of emotion from the comments on the previous post and wanted to share a little piece of what goes on in my life every day.

I obviously left out a few details, like Derek and apparently the fact that we DO have a cleaning service that comes once a month. However, it should be noted, that once a month is NOT enough. She comes on, let’s say a Wednesday, and on Thursday the house is a disaster again. It’s crazy how quickly things get back out of place. Of all the things going on right now, a clean house is LOW on the priority list. Like super low. Like, if you’re coming over I’ll just warn you to remember to dodge the stroller, dog toys, and shoes that are currently taking up all the space in our hallway.

Derek and I BOTH work full time throughout the week. We trade off dropping Annalynn off at daycare every morning, but most days I actually make it to daycare before he does. He works on “the other side of the bridge” which in Tampa terms means “really far away” and “crazy traffic.” He actually drives by my office on his way home, and even though he leaves a full 30 minutes before I do, I’m usually turning on the main highway before he’s even reached the light at my building. We looked at daycares closer to my office, but I either hated them, the closer location actually would not have saved us any time (closer doesn’t always mean faster, plus getting off the toll road and back on is a pain in the butt and would cost an extra $1 in tolls everyday!), or they were overall more money. The daycare we’re at now has the latest pick-up time (6:30pm) of any of the daycares we looked at. I actually looked at some in-home daycares, but all of them had pick-up times at 5:30pm at the latest, which would have been impossible, even if the daycare was across the street from my office. I’m already technically leaving 30 minutes earlier than anyone else on my team.

Derek makes dinners most nights and he’s in charge of baths. We’re really good at tag teaming almost everything. I’m the one in charge of washing the bottles because I want to make sure they’re done. Derek is awesome, I love him with all my heart, and he’s really great at most things – but he tends to be one of those who says he’ll do something at night and then falls asleep on the couch before it gets done. I might not enjoy washing the bottles (but, I mean, who does?), but I would rather do them and make sure they’re done. So he gives the baths, I wash bottles, and we both crash on the couch before 9pm.

Our life isn’t special. We’re new parents doing the best we can to make it work. Our struggles aren’t unique, but I know a lot of new parents can relate. I’m just trying to keep it as real as possible. Annalynn is happy, growing, and just a shining light to be around. For that, I am beyond thankful and it 100% makes everything worth it.

As far as breastfeeding/pumping go, I don’t plan to stop writing about either. For every one who hates reading about it, I’ve receive an email thanking me for the post or found my blog googling “pumping at work.” In my opinion there’s not enough information out there about either subject, so the more I can put out there, the better. I will try to make sure every post that includes that subject will now have a disclaimer at the beginning. If you don’t want to read about it, then skip the post. Or feel free to continue to mock me/ question my sanity. Meh. Whatever works for you.

Finally, yes, I registered for a marathon. Crap. What am I thinking? Well, I’m thinking I’m in an exercise rut and I needed a goal. I’m thinking running is my therapy and right now I haven’t been getting much of it. I’m thinking the race isn’t until January and I don’t plan to start diving into training until September. I’m thinking that I’m probably really naïve thinking I’ll have a little more of life figured out by then. I’m thinking I can train by only running three days a week. I’m thinking that the full marathon was the same price as the half marathon, and I like getting the most for my money. I’m thinking at the very least I’ll walk the entire race and really hate myself afterwards. I’m thinking you may want to follow along as I attempt to figure it out (or fail miserably). I’m thinking I have a jogging stroller and can’t wait to actually jog with my daughter in it. I’m thinking I’m crazy and I’ve completely accepted that.

So, yeah, I had a couple of glasses of wine and registered. I’m really excited about it, even if I have no clue what I’m doing.

I owe you guys so many posts. In the drafts folder I have:

Disney with a baby

Baby Led Weaning <- we started earlier this month with Annalynn

How I’m (finally!) fitting in some exercise (hint, it involves me becoming a night runner)

Annalynn’s 7 month updates (<- she’ll be 7 months on the 1st!)

If you’ve made it this far, I salute you! Thank you for reading and thank you for sticking with me as I figure out this thing called life.