Better late than never...

My daughter - 6 months old (now 7 1/2 months old). Rocking her fancy pants, awesome play mat, and unfortunately finding the t.v. more interesting!

Hippybottomus (the cloth nappy mob I bought mine from) are running a blog comp which then reminded me that I hadn't had time to update my blog due to a lot of, well, excuses!

So I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone, and hopefully win myself a $100 voucher in the process. 

Recently the whole 'going back to work' issue has raised it's head. I'm lucky enough to have sorted it all out the way I always intended so there's been little stress on myself or on my family. 

I always figured I could afford to stay at home pretty much full time, but if I want to update my wardrobe more than once every couple of years (and afford decent razors - that's another painful story!!) then I would need to get some employment ASAP. 

When I fell pregnant, I began to think more seriously about what I could do for work after my child was born that wasn't full time but didn't involve becoming Maccas employee. For some reason, the idea of becoming a swim instructor popped into my head. 

I've always enjoyed the water and I had been in a swim squad back in my primary school years. I've never gotten my bronze medallion or anything like that, but I figured I could train myself up for it if it was necessary. 

Well, it turns out nothing that crazy was necessary. 1 week later after a half day course I have found myself (technically) employed at a local swim center that is awesome and fits my preferred hours beautifully. I would never have thought of working with kids before and while it will be a steep learning curve it will also be fun. 

The other wonderful parenting issue that's popped up has been 'going to bed without crying'. My daughter has been a perfect saint with sleeping overall since she was born. I was blessed with a child that slept at night from about 2 weeks' old. Please don't hate me just yet though. She screamed all day. And yes, I do mean all day! Therefore she had to sleep at night. 

Once we got past all that she would go down for naps and her night sleep perfectly. Boob, cuddle, snore. 

Nowadays it's rather different. I have to now guess when she's tired (she hides her tired signs, just like her mummy!) and put her down in her cot. Then I have to time her so that I don't leave her too long crying, just in case she wasn't really tired but actually thirsty/hungry. Yoiyoiyoi!!! She drives me nuts. I console myself with the fact that it won't last much longer, and that one day I will need a watering can to assist in getting her out of bed to get to school on time. That will be my revenge.