When does a working mom blog?

Now that everyday is an Aliya Adventure and blogging time gets scarcer by the week, things begin to blur together, and I find myself at a loss for words when faced with the blank screen. Aliya's doing really well, other than some persistent diarrhea that our pediatrician is helping us sort out. It's weird to be on the other side of the "my little one has diarrhea that won't go away" conversations.

Ava has been slowly learning to share her daddy. It has not been an easy transition for her, but she never once has taken out her frustration on little Aliya - which I think is a significant accomplishment. Certainly, the same could not be said of me when ol' Ginger rolled into my life (Ava loves to hear my mom tell the story of how I tried to bang baby Ginger with a hammer). I've actually gotten to have more quality time with Ava, now that Daddy is sometimes occupied with the baby, which has been an unexpected positive development as well.

Each day Aliya becomes more spirited and less reserved. She loves to be outside, and it's finally the time of year where it can be a regular occurrence. She is "walking" by herself now, with the aide of her Pediatric Walker, aka, the thing with beads, wheels and a handle that allows her to propel herself recklessly forward without falling on her face. She gets a big open-mouth grin when using her walker:

The walker grin is not to be confused with the demonic Chucky grin she gets whenever she's doing a mad crawl at Sal or I - which she will inevitably do whenever one of us is foolish enough to lie on the floor in her presence. (Note to self - videotape demonic-Chucky-grin-mad-crawl before she outgrows it!):

Aliya is slowly meeting and getting comfortable with all the neighbors, which is good, because our block is a social place to be, especially with warm weather hovering around the corner. She is beginning to smile when either Sal or I get home from work, recognizing us as we stride through the door.

Returning to work on 2/25 was not as bad as I'd feared. The balance is actually pretty ideal. We have staggered our schedules so that we only need a babysitter 10-hours/week, so that both Sal and I have about 25-hours/week home alone with her. My mom did us the great favor of babysitting the last couple weeks, but our new sitter Gabby will start next week. Aliya took to Gabby right away, which is not her usual M.O. Now we just have to figure out when Sal and I will spend time with each other. This may improve when we figure out how to stay up past 8:30pm.

What else of note? A visit from Aunt Ginger, a visit from the Keisters, and a second visit with Grandma & Paw Mengine. Trips to the grocery store and the dog park. Learning how to feed the dogs crackers (and cereal, and bananas, and apple sauce, and toys, and lint). Here are more pix from the past couple of weeks: