a quick sidebar

I have to take a moment to whine.

Well, maybe more than a moment. In a blink of an eye, maternity leave came and went. Today is my fourth day back at work, and already I'm thinking back on my time off as if it were the good ol' days, when life was simple and I walked five miles to school in my bare feet. Clearly I have a flair for the dramatic...
In all seriousness, three months off is too short. It just is. By the time you have a remote idea of what you're supposed to be doing with this miniature person, your days are quickly coming to an end. Not to mention the time it took (for me, personally) to recover from her birth. Not that I expected to bounce back the next day, but the healing process definitely took a lot longer than I realized. Ah, the little gems of post-childbirth that no one tells you about... but I digress. Around six weeks of age, Baby S stopped staring off into space and began focusing intently on objects (and us). At eight weeks she was smiling and two weeks ago she decided overnight to become more vocal, as if testing us out on her own little language of cooing. It's beyond adorable.

While the uninterrupted computer time at work is nice, watching her sleep before I head out the door is just plain sad. The good news is that now when a colleague asks about the baby, I don't immediately burst into tears.

Thank God for small favors, right?