Working at Work Mom (WAWM)

This week marked my return to work and both the furthest and the longest I've been away from Tucker. I had not heard back from that coveted work at home assignment I interviewed for and have been commuting to the city since Tuesday for a subjectively better position. As luck would have it the manager of the work at home assignment contacted me today to see if I was still available. Nice. My fate was already decided.

I shed some tears my first day back, a lot of tears the week before, but for the most part I've been a trooper. Tucker has been too. Tuesday was a struggle with some gas (Tucker, not me), not napping for the nanny, and the unforeseen stench from the granite installation that forced nanny and Tuck to his grandma's house. Wednesday was a bit better. By Thursday Tucker had three meals and three good naps on schedule! And now we are in search of a new nanny -- there is another post for you.

Brian set me up with a wireless card allowing me an extra hour a day of work (or writing ...) on the train ride. So, here I am traveling at 50 or so miles per hour and blogging. The nice thing about commuting from Naperville is that there is a zero-stop train straight from Chicago, cutting down on both the motion sickness and time away.

Not wanting to leave my baby, I can't say that I am all smiles. As you could imagine, it is a bit hard to smile at all. However, I said I was being a trooper about it and I am looking on the bright side. That being said, this the bright side:

• Focused quality time with Tucker when I am home!
• Forced personal time on the train for extra work, blogging, or surfing!
• Requisite daily showers.
• Minimized spit up coverage and outfit changes.
• Helps promote Tucker onto a sleeping and eating schedule.
• Great excuse to splurge on a daily (decaf) latte.
• The Chai Tea latte at Rom (that I couldn't have while I was pregnant)
• Seeing work buddies, most of whom have also had kids in the past year or two.
• Get to use my Argo Tea frequent buyer cards.
• Opportunity to see and appreciate the great city of Chicago!
• A paycheck.