The Delaney and Waylon Diaries

My newest baby

I've finally branded my new company! If you're interested in social media, please join me at my new blog which focuses on my company, Social Media Mentoring, and my thoughts on social media.

Four years!

The Delaney & Waylon Diaries is celebrating FOUR YEARS! I started this blog on June 23, 2005, just three months after Delaney was born. My life was completely turned upside down by my beautiful baby girl and a new work-from-home opportunity, both of which were the inspirations that led me to where I am today both personally and professionally. It seems I hardly post here any more but I can't find the guts to shut this blog down. So, if you're still reading my occasional posts, thank you. I've met so many smart, savvy, wonderful and amazing people through this blog. You've inspired me too. Thanks for coming back again and again.

Waylon is...

...saying all kinds of words and trying to say others. Sure, crocodile, popsicle and helicopter all sound the same (and a little like Czechoslovakian) but *I* know the difference.

...walking up and down the stairs and climbing up the couch and giving his mother heart attacks. 

...learning to be a comedian with his funny faces and by saying yes when he means no and no when he means yes (He shakes his head in the inappropriate direction just to get laughs. Who can blame him? It works.).

...in love with the swimming pool.

...completely weaned.

...a strong-willed, feisty little boy and a shy, quiet soul all at once.

...the most handome boy I've ever seen (funny faces included).

More four-isms

Delaney, as she looks wistfully at me: "Mom, you know what I wish we had? More dresses than I could ever wear. More house than we could ever live in. More food than we could ever eat."

Me: "Well, Delaney, I like to think we have everything we need. We have a wonderful family who we love. We have a nice house and plenty of food. We have clothes and books and friends."

Delaney, scrunching up her face as she thinks about that: "Well, I wish we had more construction paper."

He's nearly 17 months old so how's the weaning going?

You be the judge:

Another day, another job

Because I have sooo much time on my hands (ahem), I started blogging for the San Antonio Express-News about being a work from home mom. It's a topic I originally wanted to discuss over here at The Delaney & Waylon Diaries. But, as this blog evolved over the last four years, it's really become a place for me to jot down silly, lovely, maddening, adorable, hysterical things about my kids. Now I imagine reading back over this blog and these first few years of their lives when I'm an old lady, howling with laughter at my inexperience and bravado. That's pretty much what I do these days when I read my high school journals. *cringe*

At my new blog, Work from Home Mama, I'll still talk about Delaney and Way from time to time but I plan to focus more on me and the challenges I face while attempting to balance work and home from the exact same spot. If you have perspectives on working from home, or even thoughts on the work/mom/kids/family balance in general, I'd love it if you'd visit me at Work from Home Mama!

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Not posting here enough? Take it up with my boss.

I started this blog nearly four years ago after I'd just had my first baby and a previous employer asked me to work part-time from home. It was an easy decision (I'd been with the company for 8 years and knew the job in and out) made easier by the luck o' the Irish: my newborn slept great day and night (Don't hate me. My second child more than made up for that good fortune.). For nearly four years I worked part-time, during the day, when Delaney (and eventually Waylon) napped. My nights were free for important things like watching Survivor and reading the latest Marian Keyes novel. But not any longer. I left my part-time job about a month ago and began working to build the consulting business I'd started on the side a year ago. Now my nights are spent draped over my laptop, eyes blurring into swollen slits as I work long and passionately into the night nurturing my new venture.

Lucky for me, business is good. But it's busy. It's oh so busy! Jeff Probst is starting to wonder where I am (Jeff, don't fret. You can always find me on Twitter!). That's why this blog's gotten a bit dusty (BlogHer ads cut me off!). But it's comforting to know that the ol' blog's still here, keeping the light on, waiting for me to fill it with my deepest thoughts, my most inane chatter, whenever the urge strikes and the time allows. 

I'll check in from time to time to give updates on Delaney and Waylon who both change so much each day that I realize I'm missing out by not documenting it all here. I'll be back. At least until the new Marian Keyes comes out. Oh, wait. I'm starting Dooce's new book tonight so it may be a while until you hear from me after all...

Growing up

I keep meaning to post here about Delaney turning four and all the ways in which she's growing up. And I will, but a post like that deserves more attention that I can give it now. Instead I'm going to jot a quick list about both Delaney and Waylon because if I don't do it now I'll forget and if I do that I'll never forgive myself.

Delaney

She asked me today when she's going to have a baby. I told her not until she's a grown up lady like me. Then she said, "How long will I be a girl for, then?" "A long, lovely time," I told her.

These days you can just see the wheels cranking in her sweet head as she contemplates everything around her and she asks questions when she's just not sure why something is the way it is.

The other day she wanted to know if it hurts a skeleton when he gets stabbed in the ribs. I suppose she's been watching too much of The Corpse Bride again. Parenting FAIL.

The other day while playing with an old phone in the garage she told her dad, "Bob Marley's on the phone. He wants to know what color he should paint your walls." And here I never knew ol' Bob was a painter, nor that our walls needed painting.

It seems silly to say it but on the day she turned four she just seemed OLDER, more mature, even more inquisitive (is that possible?). I'm glimpsing, each day, the girl she'll grow into and, while I'm sad to see her baby-ness fade, it's thrilling to watch her blossom.

Waylon

His vocabulary grows larger by the day. Favorite words include: juice, ball, plane, grapes, cookies, Daney (Delaney, of course!), Daddy, Mommy, dog, eyes, toes, trash, bird, kitty, splash, skeem (scream!).

He doesn't ever say the word "no" but he shakes his head vehemently. There's never any mistaking what he means. Waylon does not = ambivalence.

He was very, terribly sick last week and he had a hard time nursing so he flat out avoided it for a few days. Now we're unexpectedly on the fast track to weaning which makes me both happy and sad. Happy because after two years of pregnancy and nursing I'll get my body back as well as my freedom to leave him with his dad or a sitter for longer periods. Sad because he is my last baby and the mother/baby bond while nursing is so special, so perfect and I'll really miss that. But he's ready and I am too. Just like every other aspect of parenting, this is bittersweet.

A little monkey business

Delaney and Mel at the zoo this afternoon. 

Writer's block or, I prefer sleep, what can I say?

As the day winds down and the children are fed, bathed and bedded I head downstairs with every intent of reconnecting with this blog and reviving it. I've been away too long. The exhaustion of the day, previously absent due to constant motion, sets in. Sleep calls and now that Waylon jumps on the bedtime bandwagon and sleeps 12+ hours (Am I jinxing it here? Now?) I take advantage of the fact that I will get more than three to four straight hours of sleep per night. Thus, The Blog stagnates. The Blog will still be here in the morning--always vigilant, awaiting meaningful content (hmmm...could be waiting a while for that). But for now? I sleep.