When Mama Comes Home Tonight

Every time we see my mother-in-law, she has a new book for the kids.  It's a wonderful gesture because Lilly loves books (I hope that Craft will, too!) and she  always finds new books that I've never read before.  When Lilly was still an only child, shortly after I went back to work Susan bought Lilly the book When Mama Comes Home Tonight because she said it reminded her of Lilly and me.

"When Mama comes home from work,

dear child,  

when Mama comes home tonight, 

she'll cover you with kisses, 

she'll hug you sweet and tight."

This book, y'all.  It is one of Lilly's favorites (mommy's too!), and it is the sweetest.  If I wasn't pretty sure I'd get in a lot of trouble for some kind of copyright infringement I'd post the words of the book in their entirety, but trust me when I say that you should check it out.  Lilly and I have read it at least once a day for the past week and a half or so in preparation for my return to work.  I figured she'd be "over it" this week since I went back, but she's still asked me to read it every night.  

As suspected, day 2 was a tiny bit better and easier than day 1 (both for me and the kids, thankfully, per reports from Aunt Syd and Carney!).  We have by no means perfected our routine yet, but we'll get there very soon and it will be glorious.  The best part of both days so far has been walking in the door to discover that both of my babies are ecstatic to see me, and sweet little Lilly rushing up to me and saying, "Hi mommy, how was your work today?"  I just love them both so much my heart could burst!

I found a never-used pea pod on Craigslist for a steal because I thought it would be good to use at the pool for C.  Apparently both kids love it!

I have an exciting giveaway planned for the end of the week, so stay tuned!  :-)

We All Survived!

Welp, day 1 of back-to-work is under my belt and I must say that it went much better than anticipated.  My little stinker woke up in a fantastic mood and giggled at me while I finished getting ready this morning.

I managed to make it out of the house only 12 minutes later than I wanted to, which is an accomplishment in itself.  I also managed to make it to the car before I cried!  Unfortunately, Lills wasn't awake when I left so I didn't get to see her before work, which I was sad about.  It was an emotional morning, but my day was pretty busy and it flew by, which was good.  It sounds like Craft got off to a rough start but made up for it this afternoon with a nice long nap.  I think it's just going to take everyone a little time to get used to each other and to get used to our new routine.  Auntie Syd sent me some cute pics so I knew he was okay!

I was SO happy to see my babies when I got home.

We did have a weird "thing" tonight, though, in that Craft wouldn't nurse!  I have an app that Carney also has and it syncs during the day so that I can see when he's eating, sleeping, etc.  I pumped three times at work because he ate three times while I was gone.  My last pump was around 4:30 pm (he ate at 4p), so we were on track for him to eat around 8pm right before I put him down for bed.  He got hungry a little before 8, so I took him upstairs to nurse him, and…wait for it…he wouldn't nurse!!!  The total opposite of the problem we were having before when he refused a bottle.  He was a little fussy and then burped so I thought it was a gas bubble but he still wouldn't nurse after the burp…he would latch for literally 2-3 seconds and then pull away and talk and laugh (which was super cute but also real annoying).  He was SO happy (and sweet and snuggly, melt!) but I didn't want to chance him being up all night due to starvation so I heated a 2-oz bottle, which he sucked down so I heated 3 more, which he also sucked down.  Sigh.  Surely one day of nothing but bottles wasn't enough to make him decide he doesn't want to nurse anymore, right?!  I pumped three times to try to keep up with what he's eating while I'm gone, but maybe I need to only pump twice to make sure I have enough and then pump after he goes to bed?  I'm not sure but I did not like it one bit.

Anyway, thanks for all of your sweet calls, texts, messages, etc.  They meant the world to me and made my day a whole lot better!  Day 2 tomorrow, hopefully it will only get easier as the days pass.  I'm off to wash bottles before crashing…have I mentioned I hate pumping?!

Back to Work

Well, friends.  I can't believe it, but I blinked and 16 weeks has come and gone, and tomorrow I return to work.  People have been asking how I feel about it, and honestly I have mixed emotions.  Part of me is happy - I have a great job, I like what I do and I love the folks I work with.  It will be nice to get back in the swing of things.  The other part of me is really sad because I am sure gonna miss hanging out with my babies all day and also because I have to wake up early, shower and put on real clothes every day instead of hanging out in my yoga pants looking a hot mess.  Except for the days when both are crabby, I don't think I'll miss those days (sorry, Carney).  I know I will be a wreck tomorrow because I got all weepy tonight when I put Craft and Lilly to bed.  I've been talking to Lilly about how Mommy won't be with her all day anymore, and that she should be a good girl for Carney and Aunt Syd and that she will have to be their big helper with Kinsley and Craft. I'm sure both of my kids will do fine (I know there in great hands!) and have so much fun that they won't even realize I'm not here!

I actually had a trial run on Thursday when I took a day trip to DC for a meeting, and it was a complete disaster so who knows how tomorrow will go.  My flight wasn't until 10:45am and I still couldn't get my ish together to get out of the house on time and was worried I wouldn't make my flight.  Luckily, I made it to the airport just in time only to find out that my flight was delayed - which was fine, except it meant that I arrived to my meeting literally 2 minutes before it started but I had to pump, so I missed the first part of it (side note: I am definitely not looking forward to all of the pumping that will have to happen from this point forward).  My meeting ended at 5:30 pm and my return flight wasn't until 7:30 pm, but I underestimated the horror that is DC traffic and was closer than I'd like to admit to missing my flight home.  It was stressful and I rewarded myself with an enormous glass of wine!  The kids appeared to have had fun with Daddy, at least.

Anyway, I hope tomorrow is a lot less stressful and runs more smoothly.  And to any of my co-workers who may read this, sorry in advance if I cry all day.  The waterworks will hopefully slow down by the end of the week.  :-)  

My last weekend before my return to work was busy but wonderful.  On Friday night, Dan had to work late and Aunt Syd went to Charlotte for the weekend so it was just the kids and me.  On a whim, I asked Lills if she wanted to take a bath in the kitchen sink and she thought it was the best bath ever.

Craft thought it was pretty funny, too.

We were stoked when we found out that Daddy didn't have to go back to work on Saturday!  We spent the morning at the pool.  Lilly LOVED it and spent all morning jumping to Dan, I was so surprised and proud.  I thought Craft might hate it because the water wasn't warm (it wasn't cold either, to be fair, just not warm) but surprisingly he loved it as well.

Hello, Ladies!  Thanks to Auntie Mere for the cute swim shirt.

All of the fun wore sweet C out.

After the pool, we headed home for naps.  I don't think Lilly slept for very long, but Craft did for once so Mama was able to squeeze in a short nap, too, and it was glorious. Saturday evening there was a crawfish boil in the alley behind our house that one of our neighbors puts on every year.  There was even a  live bluegrass band!  The kids had all had a blast, and we ended up putting all of them to bed and staying outside drinking too much chatting until almost midnight.  We had so much fun.  We love our neighbors!

Lilly wanted to wear the dress that Aunt Nae Nae made for her.  She loved it and kept talking about her pretty dress from Aunt Nae Nae!

All of the fun wore C out again. 

The setup

All of the kiddies breaking it down

Such a good dancer!

He's awake!

Love these two

Mama's sweet boy

This morning, everyone slept in a little and then we all had some family snuggles in Mommy and Daddy's bed.  It was my definition of heaven.

Even Layla got in on the snuggling action!

We hung around the house and played this morning and then the rest of the day was spent getting ready for the week.  We went to the farmer's market, ate lunch outside, and then during nap time Dan and I cleaned, did laundry, cooked and got a few other chores done.

"Mommy, I want to take Baby Grace for a walk."

Lilly's first pony tail!  Isn't it hilarious darling?!

Lills thought she was hot stuff, and all day any time she saw someone she said, "Hi look at my bunny tail, isn't it pretty?"

Sampling blueberries, strawberries and peaches at the Farmer's Market.

Awake one minute...

…asleep the next.  So cozy.

I love this photo of Lills and Baby Grace playing in the yard.

Picnic lunch.

The past two Sunday evenings, we've taken all of our yard toys out into the alley behind the house and set up a little mini play area for the kids and grilled out with all of the neighbors.  We also had cookie cake tonight in honor of sweet Emerson's birthday.  It's so much fun to get everyone together and hang out!

So, that's what our weekend looked like!  Hope yours was great, too.  I'm off to get bottles ready and then heading to bed soon after to get ready for the big day tomorrow.  Wish me luck!

Teacher Appreciation

I planned to blog about our beach trip and Memorial Day weekend tonight but it has been a crazy day and I just do not have the energy.  Also, Craft has randomly decided to stop sleeping through the night (more on that later) and it has been a rough few nights of torture with that little stinker so I'm exhausted.  In other words, that long-@$$ post will have to wait for another night!

This is Lilly's last week of preschool for the year, and I am so sad about it. We were so fortunate that she has had the best teachers, and she loves them so much (as do we!). I just know I'm going to cry, I wish they could move up with her next year.  

All of the parents got a note from the program director just prior to teacher appreciation week a few weeks ago which said that the program decided a long time ago that the huge amount of parental support and involvement throughout the year makes them feel more appreciated than any gifts ever could, so please not to send any gifts for teacher appreciation week. I wanted to send something anyway but honestly could not get it together in time to do anything, so I decided that I'd give Lilly's teachers something at the end of the year instead to let them know how much we love them and how much we appreciate them loving our child.  

I pinned something on Pinterest a while back that involved a potted plant that was housed in a planter covered in chalkboard paint that said (in chalk) "thank you for helping me grow."  That pin was the original inspiration behind our gift, but after I told Carney about it and we brainstormed she helped me come up with this instead: 

Are those cute, or what?!  And they were pretty easy to make. We took a trip to Michaels and Home Depot today to pick up supplies and let Lilly help choose flowers ("she" chose dwarf sunflowers with urging from Carney and myself because they're adorable).  Carney put two coats of white spray paint on the planters (I did the first coat but I sprayed too close and was on the verge of ruining them so Carney took over) while Lilly was napping and when she got up we used her thumb and made the pink and yellow thumb prints. The thumb printing was by far the hardest step in the whole process - Lilly didn't understand why she couldn't use her paint brush to paint and had to be bribed with ice cream, oy. After she went to bed I drew the stems and wings with paint markers and then sealed the pots (spray paint sealer which dried in approximately 10 seconds) and planted the flowers. I think they turned out so cute!!!

We did bees for Ms. B (get it? B/bee?!):

 

And we did flowers for Ms. Joanne:

The "garden flags" with the notes contain a small gift certificate (I went with Belk in case you're curious. I know Ms B loves it and so do I, and I figured they were more likely to spend the gift card on themselves at Belk instead of on their kids!).

So, there you have it!  I am so pleased with the way these turned out and can't wait for Lilly to see the finished product when she wakes up.  BIG props to Carney for all of her creativity and help!  I hope Lilly's teachers will love them too (and that they will understand the amount of will power it's taking for me to actually give these away because they're so cute!).  They really were very easy and would make great gifts for anyone special in your child's life. So, you're welcome. :-)