A boy and his box

Miles decided to spend the last 20 minutes before bed tonight in a box. I can't really blame him. It looked pretty fun. But I have to admit that I would've chosen a bigger box.

Brushing up in a box.

Rinsing in a box.
Drinking in a box.

Smiling in a box.

Being transported in a box.

Reading in a box.

Good night!! (not in a box)

Science experiment

We usually make fun of the FOX 9 news crew because they are usually a little over-the-top in their reporting. Drama central. Tonight, however, they gave us a great idea for keeping Miles occupied for a few minutes. It's so darn cold outside, we decided to see how long it would take to freeze a soaking wet t-shirt! Why a t-shirt? We don't know. That's just what FOX 9 used, so we went with it.

Step 1: Get the shirt wet.

Step 2: Go outside. (Daddies only, please. It IS 10 degrees below zero afterall!)

Step 3: Lay the shirt out to freeze. (We realized that maybe this wasn't the best position for the shirt, as it could freeze to the ground. If it weren't a Packers shirt, we would've left it. But we don't want to risk losing the thing, so we ended up hanging it over the railing. No pictures. Sorry.)

Step 4: Wait approximately 4 minutes.

Step 5: Check it out, dude! It's FROZEN!! So awesome.

Time to go warm up :)

Day 1: Success!

It was a big morning at our house, as Weston had to get ready to join the rest of the working world. Miles woke up eager to teach him the daily routine -

After rolling around in bed for a few minutes, we go to the bathroom (good aim, 'eh?!).

Then it's time to get dressed. Pants go on after the undies, and one leg at a time!

Then we wrap Rosie up in the blankie and put her in a secret hiding spot. Shhhh! That's where she stays for the day.

Then we put on our jackets. C'mon Weston! Hussle up!

Then we grab our bags and head to school. Look - the boys have matching bags!

One additional step in Weston's routine: insert dooza. Don't leave home without it!

Weston visited Miles' classroom today and rumor has it he was given a warm welcome. Miles said he walked on his knees over to Weston and gave him a big smooch. We sure hope so! Other than that, Miles didn't have much to report...neither did Weston. When I picked them up this afternoon, Weston was working on his first art project. He and a teacher were taping together Humpty Dumpty with bandaids. Okay, the teacher was doing all of the work - but Weston was watching closely :)

I'll spare you the details of my first day back to work (grrrrrrooooooan). Rest assured both boys had a great day at Kids Korner! That's what matters most.

The other list

Here's the other list I developed as part of my it's-really-time-to-go-back-to-work therapy session. It's a bit ironic because I also had to do a little personal therapy at the beginning of my maternity leave. Like most mothers, I am racked with guilt about anything and everything related to my children. I felt absolutely horrible for sending Miles to daycare after Weston was born. I finally looked in the mirror and told myself the reasons why it was GOOD for Miles to still go to daycare even though I was at home. A friend reminded me that Miles and I had 12 weeks of time together after he was born, and Weston deserved the same. Tanner and I also know how much Miles thrives from his daily routine, so we wanted life to stay as "normal" for him as possible after Weston was born. Turns out it was a win-win for everyone - Miles loves daycare and told me nearly every night that his favorite part of the particular day was having Weston come with me to pick him up. We're so grateful that he loves his little brother...and that he was relatively clueless about the fact that Weston and I were home every day :)

Anyway, here it goes -

Top 10 Things I LOVED About Being On Maternity Leave

10. Experiencing neighborhood life on weekdays. You can learn a lot about your neighbors by staying home during the day.

9. Baking cookies, preparing lavish family meals, cleaning out the fridge, organizing closets…the list goes on and on. Just kidding. Not much of that happened. But it was nice to have the time to think about doing it!

8. Catching up on Miles’ baby book and getting a good start on Weston’s book. Fun stuff!

7. Napping with Weston! I love my sleep and I love my baby…it was the best of both worlds. Who could resist napping with such a snuggly little guy?

6. Speaking of sleep… Waking up at 2am to feed/snuggle Weston instead of waking up to stew over something related to work. When given the opportunity to sleep long enough to dream (!), they were actually pretty decent dreams.

5. Watching morning TV, which is not too shabby. Afternoon TV gets a little borrrrring, though. I strongly recommend the CBS Early Show (there’s this news anchor guy named Jeff who is…ahem…fun to watch), followed by Ellen. She’s hilarious. Weston and I danced with her most mornings.

4. Following the schedule that Weston and I set for ourselves. We were able to go to lunch with friends (Natalie and I are honorary managers at the bagel shop), run errands when we felt like it, visit with grandmas and grandpas, get Miles from school early when we missed him (which was a lot), and snuggle any time the urge hit us (which was a lot).

3. The chance to sneak a peek into Miles’ world away from home. Weston and I spent hours and hours with Miles and his friends at daycare. We got to know each of them and their little quirks, and they got to know us. We ran crazy in the gym with them, shared snacks with them, and got to do what all preschoolers do best – just play. Now I really know why Miles is such a happy and loving boy.

2. Watching Weston grow from a sleepy newborn to a cooing, smiling, and alert baby…and to now be able to share this happy boy with his new “family” at Kids Korner, and watch as he makes new friends and learns new tricks.

1. Being a mommy all day, every day. There was no competition for my time or energy – it was all about my boys. Life doesn’t get any better than that.

All good things must come to an end...

My maternity leave is nearly over. I will be returning to work on Monday, and Weston will be joining his big brother at Kids Korner. I'm not ready to turn my babiest boy over to other caregivers for 40 hours each week (even though they are wonderful ladies), but I know it has to happen. For now, anyway (Tanner: please refrain from commenting).

Unlike my own big brother, I don't usually make lists - except for the kind that I bring along to the grocery store. But I figure it might be good therapy to put together some lists about the positive aspects of going back to work, as well as the joys I found in being on maternity leave. Here is the outcome of therapy session #1 (check back later for list #2):

Top 10 Reasons Why I’m Okay With Going Back To Work

10. My coworkers will all admit that our company is like one big dysfunctional family, but I really do miss them. I work with some wonderful people, and I am grateful for them.

9. I can go to the bathroom whenever I have the urge. Only a baby can keep a mama from going potty, and there ain’t no babies at work.

8. I can go to the bathroom alone. And I might just stay in there all day.

7. I’ll be able to type with both hands again!

6. Time to bring out my professional side (yes Charlie, I do have one). This means I get to bust out my lady-like clothes again. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it’s true: The maternity sweat pants are past their prime. And I haven’t worn some of my “real” pants in nearly a year.

5. Less dirty diapers to change. And with each dirty diaper there comes a dirty bottle…

4. Less dirty bottles to wash.

3. For approximately 8 hours/day, my voice can return to its normal pitch. Although the “Oh sweeeeetie, did you make a poopy in your diaper?” talk might still come in handy with some coworkers.

2. Return of the paycheck. ‘nuf said.

1. My reward each afternoon will be huge smiles and hugs from TWO boys thrilled to see me (for the moment anyway) and ready to go home to play. Life will be good!

TGI Monday

First, let me just say that we had a rockin' Christmas! How can you NOT have fun when you get to spend your time with these kids?!

Why am I glad it's Monday? Because we had a messy weekend. We woke up Friday morning in St. Peter (that was planned - it's not like we woke up and were magically there). The forecast called for sleet later in the day, so we decided to get an early start toward home. First, though, we wanted to stop by the Southern MN Children's Museum's "Play Lab" to let Miles burn off some energy. We got there 20 minutes before closing time. Bummer. It turned out okay in the end - while we would have preferred an hour or more of play time, the weather started getting nasty as we were leaving so it was probably best that they closed up shop on us.

The sleet hadn't quite made it to Otown yet, so late in the afternoon as the boys were napping I decided to cruise out to the Medford outlet mall to...well...spend money on myself. Mama nature started dumping some freezing rain on my way. Naturally, I pushed the defrost button to "ON" mode. Within a few minutes, I heard a loud noise and watched as a huge crack formed along the bottom of our nice new minivan's windshield. Awesome. I called Tanner for reassurance that it was not going to shatter (and that I wasn't going to die - stuff like that always makes me freak out and think the end of the world is near). I was safe, but we were looking at a not-so-fun way to spend the money that I wanted to spend in Medford. [Oh yes, and before this all happened Tanner left for about 30 minutes to get his haircut. During that brief period of time, Miles had 2 accidents in his pants. The smelliest one happened just as I was about to sit down and feed his starving baby brother. Great timing. I like to think that I handled the situation gracefully, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't the case.]

On to Saturday... Weston woke up at 7am but it felt like 5am. I got up with him and Miles joined us shortly thereafter. Tanner, on the other hand, slept until 9am. That was fine with me because I knew he was tired and I really couldn't blame him. He would have slept later but Miles woke him up to let him know I was making them pancakes for breakfast. Apparently the whole thing caused Tanner to feel super duper guilty. So all day he was looking at me funny, like I was mad that he slept in so late. I really didn't care (if HE hadn't slept in, I would have!), but his guilty-ness was quite entertaining.

As the day progressed it remained bitterly cold outside. Miles was getting tired of running circles in our basement, so we brought him downtown to Federated's gym -- complete with basketball hoops, a big floor for running and for racing trucks, etc. There were several other parents and little kids there, so things were looking good...kids for Miles to play with, toys to share, the whole works. Until a group of adults decided to end their half-court game of basketball and take up the ENTIRE GYM with a game of floor hockey. Not cool. We were pushed off to the side and, although Miles didn't mind watching the big people play, Tanner and I were irked. So we left. Only to find our driver's side rearview mirror had been clipped off by some stinky nut who was probably driving too fast and obviously too close to our vehicle. Here's what remained:

Again, Miles didn't seemed phased by this because it meant a police officer stopped by our house to file the report (i.e. let's hope our insurance picks up some of the tab). Super cool! Unfortunately it wasn't our favorite officer in town (Brandon) but it was a good friend of his. To comfort us after the bummer of a day, I made sausage bread for supper. It was actually edible, which was a nice turn of events.

Sunday proved to be a happier and less expensive day. I slept in until 8:45am (intentionally got up before 9am..ha ha, Tanner...), the Packers won, and the boys had a fun time playing in Miles' bed.

Weston was extra snuggly, so I decided to put him in the ergo carrier to help keep him content and to free my arms for a while. I was wearing my Sunday best when Tanner took this picture...and so was Miles (look in the background).

The perfect ending to the weekend! Happy new year!