Being a Stay at Home Mommy

Let me first start off by saying that I am really not too fond of the term, Stay at Home Mom.. To me that sounds like all I do is stay at home all day, sit on the couch and watch my child(ren) run around all day. My daily routine is far from that!

Although Nora graced us with her presence sooner than we had planned, I have been so extremely fortunate to be able to put my career on hold to take care of my most prized possession. I am so wonderfully blessed to have such a hard working and understanding husband that made this all possible for our family. I will admit that before taking the plunge into full time mommy-hood, we had to sit down (several times) and put a pen and paper to it on to weather we could make this fly. Although our lifestyle had to be adjusted a bit, we were willing to make that compromise so that I could be the one raising our baby instead of someone else.

Aside from telling you how grateful I am to have this opportunity, I wanted to share a bit about what it is that Nora and I do day to day since most of the time we are not "staying at home" lol. Most of you that know me, know that I am not good with idle time. So, since the day Nora came home from the hospital she has been on the go! I was never one of those moms that believed in keeping your child quarantined for the first 6 weeks to prevent the spread of germs. On the contrary, I think exposing Nora to germs actually helps build up her little immune system. With that being said, I can remember taking her to get ice cream and to Target with us when she was just three days old!

Since about the age of 4 months, Nora and I become quite the social butterflies. As soon as she became more alert (aside from sleeping all the time as newborns do) I was on the search for activities to do daily. Going shopping every day got too expensive (so daddy told us) so we had to find alternatives. I signed Nora up for a class at The Little Gym and found local libraries that offered story times and special programs for even the youngest of learners. We bonded with other mamas and babies and begin scheduling weekly playgroups too. I dusted off my old planner (from my working days) and begin plugging in daily activities and outings for us!

I still to this day, plan out our week so that we have some sort of outing every day and also some sort of home activity. Yes, some of you may think I am crazy or an overachiever but I guess that is the teacher side coming out in me :) I have came up with activities such as "baby in a box", doing puzzles, water play, exploring different parts of the house, bubbles,playing catch, acting out stories, dancing and singing to kid songs off i tunes and the occasional children's show on TV (or now the i pad as she seems to be more impressed with that). You will be surprised the kind of reactions even babies have to being stimulated and introduced to new sights and sounds.

With the move, Nora and I didn't miss a beat. Prior to moving, I was able to do my research and had activities on our calendar before even arriving and boy oh boy, you should see my calendar now! Albuquerque is amazing for having kid friendly activities and centers to go to that both educate and entertain your little ones. I am still searching and trying some of them out so that hopefully soon once we get moved into the new house and settled in, we can finalize our calendar with all our fun adventures!

It has always been important to me that Nora knows how to behave in public and know what is expected of her. I believe we are already starting this with her as we can't go anywhere with out someone stopping to play with her or compliment her on what a happy baby she is and how pleasant she is acting. Don't get me wrong, I am sure this will soon become a challenge as we enter the later stages of development, but I will save my opinions on discipline for a later post, lol! Believe it or not, Nora does already know the meaning of No and has gotten the occasional scowl and thump on the hand.

I know I have other fellow mamas that are following my blog so I would like to occasionally update this on some kid friendly activities that we have found or tried. I would also love to hear your ideas as well as I am always up to trying something new (and so is Nora).

Once again, I can not tell you all enough how fortunate I am to get to spend each and every single day with my baby girl! I know that not everyone is able to do that and I feel so thankful that I am! I would not take back a single day I have had with my little one, good or bad, to go off to work each day and only get to see her for an hour or two a day. Each and every day she amazes me or cracks me up with something new she does and says (yes she is babbling a ton now)!

Here are some pics of little Nora learning and exploring...