Standing Tall

This month has been a rather busy one for BB. Not only has she mastered crawling (now reaching high speeds from room to room, following us like a puppy), BB is now the proud owner of 4 gleaming teeth, she has added the word dog to her vocabulary and she is now able to stand tall (whilst resting on our coffee tables) confidently for quite some time. I was extremely excited to buy her her first proper pair of shoes this week, being measured and everything!! She now has her first shoe box - proper girly! And she seems pretty happy with them.

We also had BB's first ever parents evening! Yes, seriously. It seems that even at just 11 months old there is enough to talk about beyond our handovers at nursery. Happily she seems to be doing well and the staff are pleased with how well she has settled in nursery even though she is only going once a week.

Unfortunately over the last few days, however, BB has not been very well. She has only had one or two bouts of snotty-ness before but she now has a bit of an ear and eye infection, together with a streaming nose, poor thing. Luckily, it doesn't seem to be affecting her sleep too much at night (apart from the first night when she was up 4 times). On day three of her having some medicine she seems a lot happier but pretty sleepy.

On the work front I can confirm that I have recently handed in my notice and become self-employed. I am trying to build a couple of businesses, slowly, around BB's and my family's needs, which take priority. However, I am keen not to lose touch with the traditional working world and want to set the foundations of possible businesses for me to run when BB (and any siblings she may possibly have in the future) is at school. I want to be a mum and be there for her, but I also want to be myself and earn my keep. I have never coped well with the thought of living off "pocket money" from Mr BB - although it is not really set up like this in our household - we do share everything, which is great, but I still feel as if I am watching the pennies a lot more than before I went on maternity leave. Even with this I still feel that handing in my notice was the right decision for me and the family. Financially, it wasn't going to add up with nursery fees, travel and parking costs etc...not to mention the stress of trying to deal with a full on job but having to leave at my contractual time in order to pick BB up from nursery - pretty much frowned upon by others in the office. I am hoping that being more in control of the work I take on, the type of work and when, will make my life a lot more balanced.