About a month ago our family made a set of pretty big changes. After 7 years with a company near and dear to me I made a career change to become a (once again) full time server at The Cheesecake Factory. We moved Hannah from our beloved Mother's Day Out program to a full time in-home daycare. Andrew, in his usual way, held steadfast and strong in his kitchen position of weekend doubles and late nights.
I've always said, I don't mind change, but I really hate the transitional period from one step to the next. That in between phase that is awkward and stressful and unknown. The point of deciding it was time to leave, but not being sure how or when to. Of knowing Hannah needed full time care, but searching for the perfect place to watch over my baby. The gray area between black and white -- it's a stressful place to be.
Now that we're a month out we are starting to come out of the gray, transitional period and we are starting to set a new normal. We're hitting a new routine and figuring out who comes and goes and when it happens. It's not necessarily easy, and we haven't hit that sweet spot yet, but it's working.
Hannah's still adjusting to a whole new routine - new schedule, new food, new caregivers, new friends, new toys, new everything. Most days she gets a great report from school. She really is the sweetest little thing and goes with the flow pretty well. She doesn't care for the traditional toddler food they serve and most days she's HANGRY when we pick her up, but they're learning her preferences and doing their best to accommodate the one kid that prefers fruits and vegetables over everything else. I think she lived off of bananas for the first two weeks, but it's getting better, moving out of the gray zone of learning a new child's tastes. She's learning to sleep on a cot, play with kids in age groups outside of her own, how to go with the flow. It's been a little hard on everyone, but we're growing.
I'm really enjoying my new work situation, but it's different. I'm no longer working from home and spending long hours with my sweet baby girl, and that's hard. But I love my Cheesecake family and being able to move around and interact with people, it really makes the days go by so much faster. We're still figuring out how many shifts I need to work to hit that sweet spot of enough money to pay bills and enough time at home with my family.
Probably the best part of these changes is Wednesdays. Andrew and I have set Wednesdays as our permanent off day, something we never had together before. We get Hannah up, give her lots of kisses and send her to school. Then we have the entire day together with little to no agenda. One week we did chores. One week we slept in until almost 1:00. Last week we helped my youngest sister find a new car. Wednesdays are our day together to recharge as a couple, and it's been wonderful. With such carefully coordinated schedules we had very little time together before The Change. Now we have a full day, and a few evenings as well. It's been so good for us to have time together again.
Some days things are hard, some days things are smooth. Sometimes I wonder if I'm crazy for going back to serving at the age of 30, but then I step back and see the benefits of it and realize who the heck cares if I'm a server or a lawyer, what matters is my family and my own happiness. And right now all of those things are coming together. Ch-ch-ch-changes!
