New Patterns at Work and Play

Ever since I wrote a post about turning a milestone with Ladybug Girl's separation anxiety, I've been noticing new patterns in our household.

The bad : at work.  Twelve hour workdays have become the norm.  Sure I love my job but not that much.  Because I leave for work early now, there's no more playtime with Ladybug Girl in the mornings, and barely an hour of bonding before we sleep.  Adjustments needed.

The good: at play.  Our new pattern for after-work play is a lot less "restricted" if you will.  It used to be part of our rules not to wind her up at night after she's had her half-bath.  But nowadays of course, we get too excited when see each other and she brings me around her shelves to show me the leave-behind activities she finished.   Then inevitably she wants to do something, anything with me.  

How can anyone resist a duet performance?

Or making a "book" out of cardboard and duct tape?

Now her body clock has been wired to sleep at 10 pm to adjust to her late mommy, and then thanks to the brighter sunlight streaming into her new room, she gets up at 7 am for school (and naps in the afternoon).  Sticking to a bedtime routine since she was a baby has really helped, and I'm so thankful we can now relax the rules a little and count on her body clock over our parent clock.

We strung up ribbon all over her room before our "poop party".
We just make these things up as we go along!

Her open shelves of supplies are now a lifesaver instead of a bedtime distraction.  They keep things accessible for instant made-up play.  On one late night coming home, I brought in some pizza to eat late dinner in her room.  Inspired, she wanted to make one of her own.  It was easy to grab some play doh and a puzzle tray from her shelf.

She ran to kitchen and found these long wooden cotton buds I had forgotten I placed there for baking play.
We got in some practice counting the "candles" as she put each one in.   

She's still learning to count past twenty, so in the middle of it all she slumped her shoulders and hung her head down reeeeally low and said "I need to go to number school".  Oh but she is the perfect stress reliever!
I laughed and assured her she was getting better.  

Speaking of stress relief, you may be wondering where Awesome Guy is during these nights.

See if you can spot him here.

Yes, fast asleep usually.  Good thing we also have a new pattern nowadays - riding to work together in the mornings!  It's been nice to carve out that extra time everyday, just the two of us.

This is just a reenactment of the "fun" we have.  Haha.  Poor neglected guy, he's been so patient.   

Now if I can just change that work pattern, everything would be perfect.  I know it's unrealistic to expect work to get done by 5, so how do other moms manage to leave at a reasonable time?  I wonder, maybe I should have a winding down routine too.  

Or I might just try Awesome Guy's suggestion after he spotted a pattern of last-minute meetings we like to have at my office.  He says I should just keep my head down and not look anyone in the eye as I pack up and go.  Sometimes in those late meetings, I just want to yell: Uwing-uwi na ako!  

Okay, sometimes I do.

Click here to see the posts on how I try to make after-work life work.  'Try' being the operative word.