Today, after 16 months, I re-joined the morning rush hour to head into work.
I had planned and re-planned my first day back to work in my head and how I would strategically pull off having a shower, drying my hair, and straigthtening my hair all before the twins woke up. (Big brother was at his grandmother's house for the night to help us out a bit.) In my mind I would get these three tasks done and then get the babies up, put them in their high chairs with their morning bottle, get their daytime bottles mixed up for the babysitter, feed the babies, then get dressed afterward to ensure I didn't get any baby splatter on my good work clothes.
Last night I triple-checked that my TV alarm would click on at the right time. Checked that the time on the TV was actually set for AM and not PM and so on. I didn't want to screw up my first morning back to work!
My sleep was restless and even though I didn't feel stressed out or worried about my first day back, I think just the idea of sleeping in and ruining "The Plan," was keeping me from sleeping well. When I say, "sleeping in," all I really mean is sleeping to our usual 7:15 or 7:30, which would have had me at least 45 minutes behind schedule. Not good!
Twin A had other ideas anyway and he let it be known at 5:55 AM that he was ready to get up. This was so unusual for him to do and I really do think that he could tell something was up. These babies usually sleep at least 11 hours! There he was in bed, jibber jabbering away, waiting for someone to come get him.
"The Plan" was already destroyed! I hadn't even gotten out of bed yet! :) Instead, both babies had their bottles in bed, which their Daddy made, while I had a shower. Amazingly, we were able to pull off the rest of "The Plan," getting them fed in their high chairs and getting dressed and out the door at 7:43...2 minutes ahead of schedule. *Big Smiles*
We got the babies over to their babysitter's house at 8:00 on the dot. My hubby joined me to officially meet the babysitter and know where to go in the event of a "please come pick up your kid" request, if I couldn't deal with a potential problem with one of the kids!
Off my husband and I went in different directions after dropping off the twins and I made it to my office with ten minutes to spare before the official start of my day.
My first day back went very well. I felt right at home again, as though I hadn't actually been gone all this time. Since the twins arrived so early, 16 months ago, I really hadn't had the opportunity to do the usual slow wind down and wrap up of my job all those months ago. One day I was there, the next I wasn't. I think this is why I felt like I hadn't actually been gone that long. My memories of the final few days at work before my sudden departure were very fresh in my mind. I can remember several of the clients I was working with, conversations I had been having with them and so on. It's kind of like my work-life was at a stand-still in my mind...but in reality, my how things have changed!
I have a lot of new things to learn and I will definitely be kept on my toes over the next few weeks, learning the many changes that have occurred over the last year and a bit. I think I will be hitting the sack as soon as I can when I come home in the evenings because all this new information is going to be draining. I am, however, looking forward to taking on this renewed challenge! Today sped by very quickly, which I was amazed by. I was reading, refreshing my memory, and learning new things so quickly, so I didn't have time to stop and look at the clock all that much.
I did pull a few serious mommy-brained moves today and one for sure left at least one co-worker scratching her head. Hehehe. First off, I forgot my wallet and had no lunch prepared and no lunch money, so I had to drive back home to get my wallet. Once home I ate leftovers from the fridge, so that worked out okay. I drove back to work and parked in a temporary parking spot, so I could carry in one of my work boxes I had brought home during my mat leave. I left my driver's side door open, while I went to the back and got my box out of the trunk. I then set the box down on the curb next to me and opened the front passenger door, grabbed my nice steamy Tim Hortons coffee, shut the door, armed the car with my remote key and walked away.
About 20 minutes later I received my first phone call on my office extension and it was my co-worker friend, asking if everything was alright. Of course it is, I said...why?? She tells me she was worried about me because she just passed my car and saw the driver's door wide open, but I wasn't anywhere to be seen!! What??!! Did you shut it, I asked? No! What?!?! OH MY GOD!! I had to run for it as fast as possible, which is next to impossible in the style of thong sandal shoes I was wearing! How ridiculous! Why would my van remote lock thingy "honk" when I thought I was locking up all the doors, while one door hung wide open? That makes no sense to me. Like I said before, I am not really a fan of my van...so this just adds to my lists of why not to like this van! Yes, it was really dumb of me to leave the door wide open, but why did the locks engage and the van "honk" if it wasn't really secured? No sense...
The van was fine, my change still remained in the change slots, my parking pass was not stolen, and most importantly, my 3 kids' carseats were still in there, nice and secure. All I could envision as I ran to my van was having to replace $700+ in carseats!
I do have to wonder why the person who parked next to my van didn't bother to shut it. I also wonder if they reported to anyone at City Hall, where I was parked, that their was a suspicious van in the parking lot. I wonder. I imagine that everyone minded their own business and went about life like nothing was out of the ordinary. I think that's pretty sad.
My co-worker said she didn't shut the door because she didn't want to put fingerprints on the door, in case there really was something wrong! I hear that. I get that. She did call me and found I was okay. That's cool.
Anyway, those were my two mommy-brain episodes today on my first day back to work. The bottom line is I did make it to work on time, my twin babies were content at their babysitter's, eldest son had an awesome time at a pool with his grandmother and my hubby and I were able to work so well together this morning and this evening to make our new reality work! I also got a parting gift this evening from the babysitter, which was fresh mini meringues with custard and fruit on top. I think I should move into this woman's house...I'd eat really well!
Thanks for wriiting this
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