All good things must come to an end

Of course I'm referring to maternity leave. This was my first week back at work and to be honest I think the baby handled it better than the dog. We were all spoiled with the beautiful AZ weather these past couple months and walked at least 2 miles a day. While the baby got tons of attention from her grandparents this week, the poor dog hardly got walked at all :( Amazingly its cooling off again so hopefully a few more walks will help Regan adjust.

And what about daycare? Craig's schedule will allow him to take care of the majority of the daycare, but we are very fortunate to have grandparents in town eager to watch Allison on the days Craig works (max 2 days per week). My mom even considered a career change (i.e. home daycare) to take care of her but Craig's parents are retired and insisted they have no problem taking on the majority of our needs. We're going to need all the help we can get once I start traveling again!

So what was the best part about maternity leave? Here goes, Letterman style:

10. Not working of course!!
9. Meeting the neighbors. Turns out I have quite a few neighbors that work from home, my favorite being an artist who works out of his garage and absolutely loved seeing Allison (and Regan) everyday on our walks. We mourned my last day of maternity leave over a box of Dunkin Donuts Munchkins. Yum!
8. UPS, because even after the shower the gifts kept coming! Its amazing how generous people are when you have a baby. And wow did we appreciate it!! I've never written so many thank you notes.
7. Succeeding at nursing. It wasn't easy, but I didn't quit and am aiming for at least 6 months - with travel and all.
6. Starting a bedtime routine early and sticking to it. Allison is sleeping 10 hours a night these days (thank goodness!!)
5. Pictures! She changed so much these past few months, it was an absolute joy being able to get it all on film - or I guess memory card
4. Craig's cooking - he was wonderful and made sure I had all my meals taken care of :) And I ate A LOT when I first started nursing...
3. Shopping during the day. No crowds, no lines, it was amazing!
2. Extra time with Craig. We had a great time spending so much time together as a new family.
1. The opportunity to spend every moment with Allison and watch her grow

Since I never got around to doing a birth announcement or newborn photos (except those we took ourselves) we hired a professional to take 3 month pictures. Here are a few of our favorites:











These days Allison is drooling a ton, were going through at least 4 bibs per day! She has the cutest laugh and is finally starting to like tummy time a little more. If she balances on her arms long enough she can even roll over. I'm sad that I may miss these little things while I'm at work but we'll have our own firsts and I'll enjoy those all the same - words of wisdom from my cousin Melissa :) It's great to be back at work, I really did miss my coworkers and can't wait to start selling some pet food, haha.