The Start of Something New

My job starts tomorrow! Aiiieee! I'm excited and terrified all at once. It has been a sort of ridiculously long time since I had an actual job anywhere, and this is the first time ever that I'm trying to juggle work and baby. I don't know if I'm ready for this. I know it's really silly, that moms do this much earlier than I've had to, and for much longer hours every day, but I still feel so nervous. I spent time tonight making a schedule for the week, where all of us will be going, when Robert is eating, and writing out a sheet of instructions for the neighbors who are going to watch Robert for us tomorrow. It's only three hours, I know it will be all right, but I still feel nervous. M is kind of freaking out as well, which doesn't help. =D I keep telling myself that it'll be okay, that I really, really need this job and the money it will bring in, and that being around other people is good for Robert. Our neighbors are very nice people and will take good care of him. Deep breaths.

In other news, I screwed up today and went over my budget for the month. Urgh. I realized all at once that almost all of my really good diaper coupons expired today, so I went out to Target and spent them all. They had a deal going where if you buy three jumbo packs, you get a five dollar gift card, so between that and the coupons, I saved sixty percent, but I still don't feel sure that I did the right thing. I hate that, knowing that I got a deal, but not knowing if it was good enough, or if I should have let it go and let the coupons expire. The diapers came out to 12 cents apiece, which is within my price point, but I already have a lot of diapers. I bought size 3 and 4, because I have enough size 2. I'm going to have to put these in the attic or something. I guess it's good, because you never want to buy diapers at regular price, but I don't feel quite as good as I would like, especially because of the budget thing. We had money come in from a couple of sources this month, and I added my survey check that came in, but after all my shopping today was done, I'm 6.45 cents over budget, with four days left in the month. Sigh. No more shopping.

My last hurrah, besides the Target trip, was one more jaunt to Walgreens, to do the other transactions I didn't get to yesterday. Man, were they picked over! I went to the one that still had the most stuff at the end of yesterday, but they were cleaned out as well. I still managed to get some of the stuff I'd wanted, and got sixty dollars worth of stuff for six dollars, and now I am done there for the month as well. The lady who checked me out was the same one as yesterday, she is very nice. We joked our way through my transactions. It's always good when you get a friendly cashier on a slow evening.

Oh, and a new step for Robert today as well. He lay on his tummy for almost five minutes, watching Fraggle Rock without crying. Up until this point, nothing I've tried has been able to work that magic. I think my channeling of inner Mean Mommy is paying off. Robert still doesn't like being on his tummy, but he is starting to get used to the tummy interlude. Now he just needs to work out how to get off his tummy on his own!