mommy & me...

there are seriously days where I still can't believe I'm a mom.

seriously?

who thought it would be a good idea for me to be responsible for another human being?

I never thought that being a mom or better yet, a mommy would be something that I would excel at...

but I'm not going to lie, I don't think I'm half bad.

Penny is clearly loved, taken care of and smothered with kisses every day.

I like that think that I'm her favorite person in the world

[but we all know that's daddy]

but seriously, she smiles and giggles when she sees me, she cuddles and nestles into my neck when she's sleepy, she giggles at my voice - and I can't lie I LOVE that she recognizes/knows me

[even if she might just be looking at my boobs and thinking YES, DINNER is here]

there is nothing better than those sweet snuggles and that amazing little laugh.

at dinner the other night Danny said something along the lines of wishing we had kids earlier because we're having such a great time with P and he loves being a dad - I told him I disagreed, I thought that our timing was perfect - because it all happens for a reason and now we have our sweet Penelope.

with that being said, I'm glad we didn't wait any longer because I'm starting to get the hang of this whole mommy thing and I can't lie - I love it...

...and because DJ is the best dad ever - here are some of my favorite recent "daddy & me" shots...

yup.

we're in love.

phew.

phew. 

that wasn't so bad. 

first, thank you all so much for your sweet comments, texts, emails, tweets - everything. they really made yesterday so much more bearable... and to be honest. all in all, it wasn't so bad.

I got up at the crack of dawn [5:15am] - got showered, dressed, packed up all my stuff, got ready to go and then woke up sweet penny girl and changed her, fed her and handed her over to Danny and I was out the door at 6:30am, got to the office at 7:30 and got reacclimated with my office - a few other folks were using my office while I was out on leave so I setup my computer and got things set up "as I like them."  when I opened up my desk drawer I saw an envelope with my name on it and opened it up... this is what I found... 

man. this was exactly what I needed. I was wondering about this scholarship/student all summer and could not have been happier for this student, she truly is so deserving and it was a great way to start my first day back.

overall, the day went really smoothly.. I truly am lucky because I work in such a supportive environment, also, I was ridiculously busy yesterday which really did help. I purposefully filled my last two hours in the office with student meetings so they would go by faster - it helped, the day flew by. I think it also helped that I had been working from home the past six weeks, I knew what I had to get done and that transition of "working" again had already happened... it was just distraction free... I also got my dual screens back... oh I love me some dual screens...

[pictures of your adorable as new desktop images also help...]

DJ was also great, we skyped during my lunch hour and he sent me adorable pictures of my babies like this one...

[caption of this photo/text: Ollie is watching his sister practice flashing people while daddy yells at both of them -- haha, special]

I also am starting to figure out my new routine... which includes plenty of time with this new friend...

If you plan on going back to work/pumping I definitely recommend getting a handsfree support/bra/thing -- it makes pumping so much "doable" when you can get other things done at the same time [what can I say, I'm a multi-tasker.  

with that, I wrapped up my day at 4:30 meeting all of my goals for the day...

[don't cry at work, no breakdowns, leave by 4:30, get to work by 7:30]

got home at 5:30, woke my sweet pea up from her nap to feed her, had dinner with fam, went to go get fro-yo to celebrate surviving my first day back and then fed Penny her bottle at 8:30pm [an hour past her bedtime, selfish I know, sorry moms on call!]

why, yes that is my three month old baby holding her own bottle... baby genius, I know.

then I crashed and went to bed at 10pm and woke up at 5:15am to do it all again. 

wow. 

welcome to my new life...

I'm going to reflect on this some and write a post about some helpful tips on this whole process... but I figure I should have more than 24 hours experience before writing that, hah.

do you have any helpful "going back to work" tips that I should share with others new moms?