Sob.

Oh my God - I left my baby at daycare for the first time today.

I started back to work last Friday, and will be going in for half days for the first couple of weeks, easing my way back into things. Now Friday wasn't so bad, as Harrison hung out with Hubby until I got home.

But today? I fed Harrison, got him dressed in his jeans and hoodie, packed his bag and his bottles, and brought him over to his little school. Surprisingly, I stayed relatively calm until I handed him over to his teacher - and he looked at me and started crying. I barely made it to the car before bursting into tears. It sucked. The next four hours seemed like an eternity - all I wanted to do was leave work and snuggle with my little boy (which is exactly what I did all afternoon).

Please, will someone tell me that it eventually gets easier?

In other news, Harrison successfully took a bottle at daycare today. Thank God. Hubby and I have spent at least $200 trying to find a bottle that he will tolerate. You name it, we own it... I am not joking. The ones that have proven to work best? The cheapest ones out there - your standard Gerber bottle, purchased for $2.99 (for a set of three) at Target. We have an entire storage container full of rejected bottles - oh well, we'll save them for our second child.

This weekend was lovely. My friend Cheryl came to visit from PA - we had such a nice time together. We worked together at Cendant back in the day, until she left to pursue her counseling career. She is a sweetie.

Typing one-handed while feeding the baby. I'll be back with pics tomorrow.

Time flies...

Here's a brief look at Harrison's first two months... enjoy!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Hallelujah!

This week has been nothing short of awesome. So, without further ado, here are the...

Top 10 Reasons Why Amber's Week Rocked

10. Beautiful weather is here! Blue skies, sunshine, mild temps.... hard to believe that we had a snow/ice storm on Sunday.

9. Harrison's New York Giants mobile for his daycare crib arrived in the mail today. Will he be the coolest kid there, or what?

8. Although I will be starting back at work next Friday, I will only be working half days the first two weeks.

7. And I got the okay to work from home on Fridays.

6. We got a letter from Aetna today - our appeal was approved! No more $3,000 hospital bill!

5. Went shopping and to The Cheesecake Factory on Wednesday with a friend...

4. ...and still lost 2.8 pounds at Weight Watchers this week.

3. Harrison is doing better with the bottle, thankfully.

2. I received six issues of Star magazine from a friend yesterday (now I can finally catch up on my celebrity gossip!).

1. Harrison had his pictures done at The Picture People today, and they came out awesome! See for yourself:

Have a great weekend!

Hitting the bottle.

So, with my maternity leave quickly coming to an end (why couldn't we live in Canada, land of the one-year maternity leave?), Harrison will be making his daycare debut within the next couple of weeks. I have pretty much made peace with the fact that I will no longer be spending 24/7 with my huggable little baby any more, but that's a different post entirely...

Anyway. I have been exclusively breastfeeding Harrison since his birth, with great success. But I have known all along that he would eventually need to take a bottle, and we have prepared for that - introducing the bottle between 3-4 weeks to avoid the dreaded "nipple confusion," giving him a bottle once a week, pumping a supply of milk, etc. And everything was going great. Hubby and I were feeling quite smug about our superstar baby, our ''good eater."

Fast forward to this weekend. Harrison decided to stage a bottle protest. He did end up taking one on Sunday and one on Tuesday, but only after a lot of cajoling (and a lot of frustration). I know that he will be fine at daycare, but I can't stand to see him cry, especially when he is hungry.

I can't blame him for wanting to eat "straight from the tap," but bringing him to work with me is not an option. We'll figure it out, though.

In other news, we had a great weekend, despite Sunday's snow/ice storm. Here we are at the christening of Harrison's cousin Audrey:

(Our little family.)

April showers...

Woke up this morning to this:

(Our backyard.)

Yup - more snow in upstate NY. Um, hello? It's April - do you think that we could possibly have some spring weather?

In honor of today's snow/ice storm, here's a pic of our little penguin:

(Mr. Happy Feet.)

Thanks Easter Bunny!

(Say hello to my little friend.)

Today was Harrison's first Easter, and what a busy day it was. Harrison and I woke up early and went to the 7:30 Mass at our church. He was a perfect little angel the entire time.

(In our Sunday best.)

The true Easter madness began after church. We came home to find gifts from the Easter Bunny - a pail filled with books, toys and an outfit for Harrison, and a pail filled with M&Ms for hubby. We then went over to my parents' house for breakfast. The Easter Bunny also made a stop there and brought Harrison the biggest Easter basket ever seen by an 8-week-old boy. There were toys and clothes and a picture frame and a bib... the Easter Bunny really went above and beyond. (Of course, it wouldn't be Easter without presents for us too - I got a Yankee Candle and some chocolate-covered Oreos, and hubby got a Tigger mug, Peeps, and some ice cream toppings, including his favorite hot fudge). Uncle Bryan also brought some special gifts for Harrison, including a Tigger outfit and slippers.

(Check out my loot!)

Dinner was at my Nana's, where the Easter Bunny also stopped, bringing Harrison a stuffed bear, an outfit and some socks. We had a wonderful dinner, and also had a chance to see my 91-year-old Aunt Marge, who recently broke her hip but is doing remarkably well.

It is days like today that I am even more thankful for my wonderful hubby, son, family and pups. We are truly blessed.

Happy Easter everyone!

Social butterfly

(Grabbing a quick minute to post while everyone is asleep and all is quiet...)

It has been quite a busy week in our neck of the woods. Between my (30th) birthday (yikes!), Passover and just getting out of the house more, Harrison has spent time with people he has known since birth, and met new friends and family.

Saturday was our annual birthday celebration at my Nana's house. My Papa's birthday is the day before mine, so every year we get together for dinner and cake. Of course, Harrison was part of the festivities this year (even got a gift!) and Nana and Papa, my mom and dad, and my brother all enjoyed spending time with him.

(Yay for presents!)

On Monday, we made the trek down to NJ for Passover. What a day - we stopped by hubby's office in NJ to pick up office supplies (which we forgot) and introduce Harrison to the coworkers, visited a friend's house on our way to my mother-in-law's house, had dinner and spent time with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law, then stopped by yet another friend's house (him and her) to drop something off and say hello. Lessons learned: traveling to and from NJ in a single day is exhausting, nursing a baby in the car at a Thruway rest stop is quite an experience, and hubby should not be allowed to drink an entire bottle of Dr. Pepper before we leave Albany.

After sleeping late on Tuesday, hubby, Harrison and I decided to go to the mall and have lunch at the Cheesecake Factory (to refuel and get our energy back, of course). While waiting to be seated, we ran into one of the senior executives and some other coworkers from my company who were having lunch. After we ate, we learned that they picked up the bill for us - how nice! We also got to introduce Harrison to our friend Bridget, who works at the mall.

Harrison finally met his aunt, uncle and cousins from Long Island on Wednesday. They drove up for the day and we had a nice visit - the boys brought Harrison a ton of sports equipment (starting him early!) and his first chocolate Easter bunny (which hubby and I will enjoy). We went out for lunch and just spent time at the house - the boys really enjoyed spending time with Harrison, and my sister-in-law loved holding him.

Life with Harrison is awesome. He has been very alert and loves making cooing noises. And his smiles - oh my God, they are so cute! This was taken as we strapped him into his car seat on Tuesday morning for a quick trip to drop my car off at the garage (he was still wearing his jammies!):

(Cheese!)

Hope that everyone has a great weekend!