Mother's Day Milestones

May 9th was a bittersweet day. It marked my very first Mother's Day ever, and at the same time it was the end of my maternity leave. In the culmination to Mother's day, I have bonded with my little DD so strongly. I live to give him kisses and pinch his cheeks--a habit I had only felt strongly for the furry species in the past. We spent the day running errands that needed to be done prior to Diego going into daycare such as buying extra clothing. Then we walked on the Golden Gate bridge and took some pictures, and topped the day off with a dinner at Grandma's. Javier bought me the Be Delicious perfume that I had always wanted, my sister got me a necklace similar to one I had commented on while watching Cougar Town, and my parent's gave me a gift card for VS, and I know just the zebra-print jumpsuit to buy for the Bahama trip!


In the back of my mind though, I knew this was the last day of leave and the transition would be hard. When the time came to drop him off at the sitter's, I brought him in his car seat with a blanket over so that he would not catch the draft. As I laid the car seat down in her house, I dared not lift the blanket. I would not be able to contain myself if I saw his sweet face and large almond-shaped eyes. The sitter kept consoling me by telling me not to worry, that he was in good hands. I believed her, but it was difficult nonetheless. Somehow, I managed to walk out the door and drive myself to work in one piece.

We both got through the first day--Diego with a lot of crying according to the baby sitter, and me with a lot of thoughts of him and one phone call to the sitter after my lunch break. Today is Day 2, and it's getting a little better.

Next week he will be 4 months, and I have been impatiently waiting for new milestones to develop. There was hope that he could have started laughing and grasping at toys, but so far not much. He's given me a few chuckles, and what I thought was a laugh on Mother's Day, but they were so quick that I was left wondering if they had really happened at all. The best milestone this month is the face recognition. He will look at you and smile, especially if you baby talk. What's more, while smiling he will draw his head inward and try to hide his smiling face with his hands as if he were shy about smiling. He also turned over once from his tummy to his back, and like a pageant show mom I tried to push him to do it again so I could get it on video with no luck.



When propped with a pillow, turning over is a cinch for him, which led to a scare last week. He was sleeping in my mother's room on her bed. I went to check on him and saw that he was sleeping on his side surrounded by pillows. Pillows of any kind are a SIDS enabler, so it's best to keep them away while sleeping. I mentioned the pillows to my mother and the fact that he might turn over since he was on his side. But my mother thought it would be more dangerous when he gets older and more mobile; not now. I would've moved him if I felt true danger, but I felt it was enough if I just left the door open so I could hear him. About 20 minutes later, I heard low crying coming from the room and told my mother. We went to check on him--my mother leading the way. In a few seconds we were in the room and my mother darted for Diego. He was face down in a pillow, crying because he couldn't get away. His cries were muffled by the pillow. Though I know there was absolutely no malicious intent from my mother, I'm kind of glad it happened because from the look on her face, I know she will no longer be putting him to bed with pillows.