Officially back (edited)

Today marks my first official day back to work. Andrew decided to choose today to meltdown at daycare and I left him feeling like someone had ripped out my heart. Poor little guy did not want to go to "school" today and cried the second we walked in the door. I took him to the bathroom, gave him hugs and kisses - then the real waterworks show started. He balled and balled. The teacher tried to distract him, I told him I loved him and turned around to leave. I closed the door and he caught my eye, reached his arm out and started screaming "Mama, Mama!". I almost scooped him up and took him home.

Instead, the teacher took him to the other teacher who tried to calm him down. I stood outside where he couldn't see me and listened to him cry. Boy oh boy did that suck. I left because I could take it anymore and instead I cried on my walk over to work. I knew at some point the honeymoon would be over and he wouldn't want to go. We spent the past 4 days together and I ruined the routine which was probably one of the biggest problems.

Speaking of routine, if I have one word of advice for those of you about to bring your kids home or who eventually will be... routine, routine, routine. I was horrible about that because when I'm home I do things/go places as I want to. Andrew didn't nap for two months because we didn't have a routine so when I tried to put him down he fought it. We probably could have avoided a lot of the temper tantrums if I had stuck to some kind of schedule. I knew, the entire time, that I should be following a routine but chose not to heed the advice looming in my head. If I had to do it again, I promise, there would have been a routine. Lessons learned right??

So, I'm becoming one of "those" bloggers! I disappear for days/weeks at a time. Now that I'm back to work, not working at night and have a semi-schedule I hope to be able to blog more. I have so many funny stories about Andrew, so many updates (like how he's learned and perfected the use of the word "MY" and is starting to called Keith "daddy" instead of "papa" which I think secretly breaks Keith's heart) and so many pictures and videos to share. I feel like this little guy is growing up so very, very fast before my own eyes and really need to get better about capturing what he does and says.

I'm also working on updating the layout of the blog which has taken a lot of my time. I'm hacking, baby, hacking! :-) When I'm not a mom, I'm a techie geek so I enjoy these kinds of challenges but I do wish they made things a bit more simple. Makes you think about switching blogging platforms just so you have the ability to do more!

Alright... I need to go do some work. I have a ton to do and not much time in which to do it. I came back to work in the midst a re-org so that should be fun! Hey, as long as we can pay the bills that's all that matters, right??

Hugs!
Becky

EDITED TO ADD: I received an email this morning from a co-worker who also has a child in our daycare center. She MADE MY DAY! Here is what it said:

Hi Becky,
It's probably still really hard to leave Andrew at school every day (I remember those days!), so I wanted to let you know about the happy little boy I saw today! I was late dropping my daughter off (9:15) and on my way out I saw Andrew's class playing outside. They were running in a big circle chasing the teacher and having a great time. He was running his little legs off and was as happy as could be. Such a cutie.

THANKS, Nicole, for making me feel soooo much better! :-)