Walk It Out

What in the heck does the title of my post means? Well, it's a desperate plea to my son to START WALKING. Some of you are probably scratching your heads and doing the math on your fingers....YES, he is 15 months old and not walking. Refusing to even think about walking...or standing. Just as an extra boost, Max's pediatrician got us involved with a great organization called First Steps about two months ago. First Steps is an early intervention organization for kids from birth to age three for a multitude of different things. Anyway, we got hooked up with a great physical therapist, who evaluated Max and determined that he had low muscle tone in his ankles and core area (stomach/abs) - therefore, not making it easy for him to support himself to walk. There is no reason for these, no physical or mental abnormality....I guess it just happens. She comes out once a week for an hour and works with him....which he does okay with for about, oh, ten minutes. For the past two weeks, this lady has left my house smiling telling me he'll be walking by the time she comes next week. Guess what....big surprise, both times she was WRONG. At Max's 15 month check up today, I mentioned my frustrations and worries to the doctor on Max's lack of ambition to walk. The doctor observed him and told me he is not concerned....he feels that it is more a "stubbor" thing than an ability thing. He claimed that about 10% of babies Max's age don't walk yet. We are in the lucky 10%, as I continue to lug my 27 lbs. toddler around and feel my back completely breaking from doing so. We have been working day and night with Max to try to encourage him to walk....and I am DREAMING of the day he just stands up and does it. I never dreamed I'd have a toddler that refused to walk! Putting everything in perspective though, I'll take this "health" issue with my child any day over the more serious health issues other parents have to deal with for their children. Therefore, I'm not complaining....I'm simply writing a plea to Max to please get his booty off the floor and WALK to mama :) Let's hope I can post an extremely excited post on here soon about Max running around the house!

Moving Forward

So...life has been crappy lately. Actually, I feel bad for saying that, since I am so fortunate for so many things in my life such as health and family. I guess I can say I've been dealing with some difficult trials of life lately, and am truly trying to make the best of my situation with a goal in mind. What exactly has me down in the dumps? The gosh darn j-o-b. As I've said before, I'm not going to go into detail on here for various reasons. I just needed to share that I'm going through a rough time with it right now, and need some encouragement to make it through. I'm trying to "leave it at the door" when I come home to my family at night, but some days I just feel like crawling under my covers and bawling. All of this conflict and grief has taken a toll on my health, my personality and my family. I need to get over it, accept what cannot be changed, and move forward...knowing that I will make it through.

I need to take a step back and "find myself"....because I really don't like this depressed person that this current situation has made me. I'm young with a young family....I don't want to look back at memories of my son at this age and remember being so depressed that I missed out. So, I need to put this out there so SOMEONE can make me accountable to stick to it. Here's the plan: MOVE FORWARD. ACCEPT WHAT I CANNOT CHANGE AND AVOID THE NEGATIVITY. My family is my number one priority, and I need to make sure that I'm enjoying time spent with them rather than working about petty crap.

This post seems pretty pointless, but I figured I may as well put it out there. If anyone has any words of wisdom, lemme have it. I need to form a support group called "Mean People at Work Suck". For right now, though, I'll stick to venting on here and listening to what you have to say.

Woof Woof

In the Fawley household, we are currently looking to expand our family. Since I am not sure what my career holds for me next school year, we unfortunately have to hold off on another baby until I have secured a position. Don't think anyone would want to hire a six months pregnant teacher who would need maternity leave ASAP. BOO. So...a dog it is! The choices are limited though, considering I am allergic to pet dander...also known as shedding dogs. I'm also not a fan of sweeping the house five times a day to get the dog hair up so Max doesn't eat it. Sooo, to my husband's dismay, this has really narrowed our choices down to a breed that is mixed with a poodle, since they don't shed. The breeds we are considering don't look like poodles at all...he just can't bring himself to openly love a dog with an "oodle" in its breed. My solution for him? Just say it's mutt...geez! Testosterone...I tell ya. Our two main contendors are:

Goldendoodle (Golden Retriever + Standard Poodle)

Labradoodle (Labador Retriever + Standard Poodle)

I think we are kind of leaning towards the Goldendoodle. Does anyone have any opinions or experience with either one of these breeds? Does anyone know of any other good nonshedding breeds? We're hoping to find our new family member soon :)

Working Mommy 101

I've spent the last four months experiencing the "full-time working mom" phenomenon. Apparently, it has overtaken my life so much that I felt the need to begin a blog about it. This has been an entirely new experience to me...being a first time mom, then working full time while still trying to be super mom. There have been nights that I've cried to my husband about selling the new house we bought in Granger, and downsizing our lives so that I may stay at home and raise babies (yes, I realize that's plural. More on that in later posts.). Being the voice of reason in that conversation, my husband always uses the "playing hard" scenario with me. We work hard, so we can play hard with our family. I get that. I was blessed to have grown up in a family that had the opportunities to take family vacations, provide me with my first car, pay for my college, etc . My husband and I want the same for our family. So, although I've struggled hard with it, I am finally at peace with the fact that I will have to work in order to help provide those fun and amazing opportunities for my family.

As many of you know, I'm currently in my first year of teaching. My classroom is a self-contained classroom of emotionally disabled students in the elementary school setting. I won't put all the details out there on the Internet for various reasons, but it's been a rough first year. I'm getting anxious about hopefully returning to my "secondary teaching roots" (junior high/high school) next school year....please keep your fingers crossed for me on that one :) On a happy note, I have made a wonderful friend this year that has really helped my "hobble" through the year in my current position. My program assistant, Gena, has been a wonderful friend and colleague to me this school year, and I am forever grateful to have her in my life! She is an amazing, selfless person who works so well with the students in my room. I will be very sad not to see and talk to Gena five days a week after the school years ends, but hopefully we will keep in touch.

Back to the working mommy challenge - ours days are crazy around here! Right now, our daycare situation is VERY fortunate. Between my husband's work schedule and my parents, we haven't had to put out a dime in daycare expenses. I've also gone to work a little easier knowing Max was in good hands for the day. We are now reaching a point, though, where I feel as though Max really should have the daycare experience - as well as not abusing the generous baby-sitting my parents have given us for free! Max LOVES others kids, so I know he would really enjoy the social aspect of daycare. My few issues, though, are as follows:

• I want an educationally-based daycare. Being a teacher, this is extremely important to me (and my husband). I don't want my son sitting there watching TV all day....I want him to have fun, but I want him to be learning his ABC's and numbers as well. Also, I would love some help with the potty training when that begins :)
• I need it to be somewhat affordable. I priced one of the well-known day-cares in town last year, and it was freaking $800 a month. AND they required you to pay for the full five days a week, regardless of if you needed five days a week or not. Between my husband and parents, we only need about three days a week.
  
• Proximity. Although my work location is not definite for next school year as of right now, I would still like something pretty conveniently located to my house (in Granger). Especially when it's 7:00AM in the dead middle of winter and I need to drive Max to day-care and myself to work...not really down for a huge commute here.
  
• Reputation. Although I am not completely opposed to at-home day-cares, they do worry me. I, personally, do not know anyone who runs an at home day-care, which makes me leery to drop my child off at a strangers home. Now, if I knew of someone who had a day-care like this, I would absolutely take Max there. Since I don't, though, the idea scares me, and I think I may feel more comfortable with a more reputable establishment that has a reputation to uphold. This, off course, means I am probably going to pay a lot more.

I could really use anyone's help here! Anyone know of any good day-cares in this area?

Well, I think I've written enough for my first blog. I think you guys should become a follower so I feel special about this whole blogging thing :) I'm off to enjoy the remainder of my three-day weekend with the family!