Essential Wellness Ottawa: Cooper's 11 Month Update: Aruba Vacation & Deciding to Work Part-time

So Cooper is now 11 months...actually just about 11 1/2 months now. I can't believe I only have a couple more weeks at home with him full time. Anyway the last month has been a lot of fun. The biggest thing that happened in the last month was our family trip to Aruba.

If you have been reading my blogs for a while now you know that we flew with Cooper to Florida in April and he was pretty good on the flights. However, this time it was a bit trickier. In April he was only 6 months so he didn't crawl or move around too much. However, he is crawling now so trying to make him it still on a 5 hour flight was tricky but overall he was pretty good.

We had such a great time in Aruba. We travelled with my sister-in-law and her family. I really liked the hotel we stayed at. We stayed at the Divi Aruba Pheonix which had an amazing beach. Tourquise water and white sand. I also really liked that the beach wasn't too rocky. My only complaint about the weather would be the wind. Aruba is very windy in general which makes it hard to do a lot of water sports so I didn't really get to paddle board as much as I would have liked. I really wanted to try paddle board yoga but unfortunately, I didn't get a chance.

Cooper spent a lot of time at the beach and he absolutely loved eating the sand and licking the salt water off himself haha! He loves the water. We also went to a butterfly farm, took a tour of the island, went jet skiing, and went to a few nice restaurants. My favorite part of the whole trip was feeding the flamingos on Flamingo Island. It is the only private beach on the island and is open to the patrons of the Renaissance Hotel. Overall, we had a great trip and I would definitely go back.

11 Month Milestones:

Clapping - Cooper knows how to clap and knows the song "If you are happy and you know it...".
Crawling - Cooper stated army crawling/scooting/rolling a few months ago but now he can crawl pretty fast. So fast that we really had to start baby proofing. We got a gate and a baby jail for our family room.
Cruising - he cruises around furniture pretty well.
Throwing a ball - he can throw his baseball pretty well. We often play catch in his room.
Says ball - well it sounds like "ball" to me and it is usually when he is playing with his ball so I think that is what he is trying to say.
Climbs stairs - he just learned how to climb the stairs from our main level all the way upstairs.
Went to his first "Carp Fair" and rode the merry-go-around

Going Back to Work Part-Time:

I am pretty sure I mentioned in a pregnancy blog that I was worried I would be bored staying home and/or I would definitely go back to work after my year long maternity leave. I know I at least stated that to family members while I was pregnant.

When I was working, I liked my job, I liked the routine, I liked the pay, etc. but now that I have a son and have been at home for a year with him, I like being at home and watching him grow. I like doing playdates and spending time with the new mommy friends I have made. I like my new routine and I don't really want to go back to work. The thought of only seeing him for a couple of hours each day really didn't sit well with me.

Mitch and I had chatted causally about me taking extra time off work (a few months off) but it really doesn't make sense financially. Plus, I am the only person with health benefits from work. After hearing another lady talking about how she worked part-time, I had an epiphany...Why don't I work PART-TIME.

I have no idea why this didn't occur to me earlier. I guess it is because no one I work with works "part-time". Everyone works full-time. I wasn't sure if my boss would allow it, but I decided it was worth a try because I would regret not at least looking into this option.

The tricky part was trying to figure out what my salary would be. I get paid a yearly salary so its a bit difficult to calculate. I really wanted to make sure that we could afford to have me go back to work part-time and still be able to live comfortably. I also wanted to ensure that I would still be entitled to my benefits. After speaking to a few different people, I was able to find the information I needed and we decided that it would be best for our family if I only worked 3 days per week right now . This would give me two extra days with Cooper which I am so excited about. I will obviously look after him when I am at home, Mitch will look after him 1 day and then he will go to daycare 2 days per week. I am so excited about this decision and I think it will bring a good balance to our life. I think it will be good for Cooper to go to daycare and get into a routine and I think he will learn a lot from the other kids at daycare.

As I mentioned above, I am not really missing work at all but maybe once I get back into the routine, I will like being back. The only thing I am really looking forward to about going back to work is dressing up again. I think I might treat myself to some new "back to work" clothing. My pre-pregnancy clothes still fit me so I don't need a lot of new clothes but maybe a couple of things!!!

Overall, this has been such a great month. I have just been soaking up as much time with him as possible. He is becoming more of a rascal each day. He is getting into drawers and eating everything he finds on the floor but he is also becoming so much fun! He has so much personality! I am so excited to celebrate his birthday in a few weeks!

Here are some pictures from our vacation and some other random pictures over the last month!