to 1998 - Present.
I looked at the word "Present" for a while. I feel so proud, happy, relieved and ready, to be announcing to the world that I am a working person again. I write with post with Livi at her daycare and my desk and office full of pieces of my summer wardrobe to be stuffed in my luggage just before we take off to the Mayan Riviera for a family holiday to celebrate.
It has been a gradual journey to today, starting at the end of November. I got a call from her daycare, the ONLY daycare I had hoped would call once there was an opening. I felt like I had won the lottery - with one exception....I still had no job. I asked her to wait for a month, and then start part time to keep my cost down, but it was a foot in the door should something come up. Livi and I spent all of December going to the day care together, for a couple hours a couple times a week, to really get to know all the teachers, kids and the routines. By the end of December, she was sitting in her teacher's lap right in front of me, and playing so that I could step away without her noticing. So I knew she was ready. The first time I left her there she watched me leave and never cried. When I come to pick her up, she just keeps playing until I pry her away and put her coat on. Last week I asked for a full time spot in February, having a hunch that one opportunity was going to come through. Two hours after telling the daycare director that we will go full time in February, I got the call. I got the job....and just like that....no interviews....nothing. It was a previous manager from my previous company that knew me and my work well and didn't waste any time. I loved feeling valued like that....especially after a few jobs that I wanted had slipped though my fingers.
And the moment of truth came yesterday. Livi was to sleep at daycare for the first time....and after being nursed to sleep for over a year. Thanks to Auntie Serena who sent a sweet little nap mat from the States, Livi loves her mat, loves her day care, loves her teacher, and fell asleep like a trooper. I was soooo proud of her, happy and relieved.
I run off to pack, pick her up and hit the hot tub with Livi before a friend comes over tonight for dinner and advises me on what to bring to Mexico (aka....stopping my neurotic packing frenzy)
Will update and send pictures soon. Here is an upside down (sorry) video of Livi....only a fraction of how well she is speaking. It's beyond amazing to watch/hear that journey beginning.
