I’m tired. Right now I am a bit worn out. I have been pushing hard to be better, do better and get more things done. And I have succeeded in some ways. Fortunately we’ll be taking a break soon and spending some time recharging.

Maybe I push myself too hard and put too high an expectation on myself, but right now I struggle to see alternatives. I would rather push myself to be better, push myself to my limits rather than settle for a lesser win. I want to give more of myself away, touch more peoples lives, create a better life for my family. I have to keep pushing, pushing to break through my own barriers and to give my own art to the world.

On the other hand I might just be pig-headed, and thick skulled – bumping my head needlessly instead of finding smarter ways forward. Right now I don’t have any alternatives, so I’m just going to keep pushing and taking breaks when I really need to.

I don’t remember much from my childhood. I am not sure why it is, but there are very few vivid memories that spring to mind, but one of the things that I do remember is Ship Mate. Today Grace had her first bubble bath…her first Ship Mate bubble bath.

Enjoying the bubbles

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See the full gallery on Posterous

We devised Grace's first bike stunt….

In March 2006 I started "Donné Drennan Occupational Therapist,"  and now 5 years later I have decided to sell my business.  It wasn't an easy decision, but one of those decisions that once I had decided and spoken to the relevant people, I felt light and free and it just felt so right. For months now I have felt that my heart wasn't really in the business anymore, and the work I have had to put in I was doing begrudgingly. Time I had to put into my business felt like time away from this new chapter in my life, being a mom (which I am currently really enjoying exploring). At the moment I have no desire to attend CPD (Continuing Professional Development) courses, or see clients or write reports and it felt kind of wrong to continue running a business with this mind set, so as of end of June I will know longer be a business owner.

 

Donné mentioned Grace reading her book yesterday, here is the evidence,

Grace has decided that she should pant like a dog while building the Pluto part of her new Mickey Mouse puzzle. On the point of puzzles she now has 24 piece puzzles under control, so we need to start looking for 36 piece puzzles with decent size pieces.

I just wanted to share three little stories that make Grace who she is:

One of the things I have been working on this year is building a network of developers, both to help me achieve what I need to, and to help provide a smoother flow of work for them as well as help them achieve what they need/want to.

Over the past month or so I have been working with someone (Francois) on a project and the whole process has gone really well. I have worked with another contractor in the past and it did not go well at all, but working with Francois has been a really great experience. It has been a big learning curve for both of us and I have been working really hard to make sure I provide him with a platform to be creative, and then get out of his way and give him as much responsibility as possible. I really want to make sure that I avoid any form of micromanagement so I am making sure I restrain myself. Francois has been amazing and has taken initiative which has been awesome.

It has been a really satisfying and rewarding experience and I am looking forward to working with him more in the future. I hope and
work towards becoming a great leader who empowers people to effect change in the world – to achieve that would wonderful.

I think the most exciting thing for Donné about Mother’s day today was finding plastic fruit and vegetables in the toy shop. They are the type that velco together and can be cut apart, and Donné has been looking for some of these for Grace for a while now. Maybe that captures the essence of being an amazing mother – that it is not going out for sushi, or coffee, or a gift or flowers that excite you, but that it is the joy you get when you see your child enjoying life and the world around them. Happy Mother’s day.

Grace learned a new skill today…..not so sure how well it is going to work out for the cupboard though.

It has been 1 month since Grace has worn any form of nappy at any time of day. She has been doing amazingly well – sleeping through without any accidents, and we only had occasional accidents during the day. Until two nights ago that is….

For the last two nights Grace has wet her bed and not woken up to let us know. After having had this long problem free period I find it quite strange for this to happen, but I keep remembering a discussion I heard on the radio a while ago. They were discussing bed wetting (from toddlers up to teenagers) and one particular thing stood out. One of the ladies said that most bed wetting (a very high percentage, something in the range of 85% if I recall correctly) was due to physiological reasons, i.e. the bladder and muscles are still developing. So I will just hold on to that for now and hope the development comes quickly. For now we are just going to make sure she does not drink too close to bed time and that she has definitely made a wee before bed time.

There was also another surprising thing today – a great escape. We have changed things around a bit with Grace’s day sleep and we are still in the process of getting her to go to sleep quickly and easily during the day. After a while of restlessness things seem to go quiet and I think she has finally settled for her sleep. Then a little moan after about 10 minutes and quiet again. Phew, seems like she has now gone to sleep. Five minutes later she is calling and I go to check on her.

There she is, sitting up in bed, out of her sleep sack and out of her panties. Clearly the “quiet” time was spent figuring out how to unzip the sleep sack…..