Full Time Employee....Part Time Mom?

Tomorrow morning I join the land of the "working-dead".  The every day routine of getting up and going to a job, coming home eating dinner with your family and 

then going to bed only to do it all over again the next day. 

It actually sort of seems maddening when I think about it.

  

You remember when you were little and people would ask you what you wanted to be, and you said an astronaut, fireman or a princess well ever since I figured out that I color inside the lines pretty well I've wanted to be an artist.  

I probably am one of the few people that can say I absolutely love what I do. 

But after having my babies and spending 12 weeks to get to know them and help them figure out this crazy life I find it harder and harder to leave them to go back to an honest paying job.

  

I know I'm not alone feeling this. 

There has to be mamas out there that have thought about leaving their dream jobs to be with there babies. I love where I work and the people I work with so it makes it easier to go back and join them. You spend so much time with them, they really do become a second family to you and I honestly miss them. 

I'm also very fortunate to have my own mother and mother-in-law to help me and Chris raise our babies.  I am SO grateful and lucky to have such a wonderful family.  It makes it a little easier to leave them with two people that love them as much as I do.  

 So how does a woman balance the two,  Her amazing job and her amazing babies?  Is there time in the day to do both jobs well?  Or does one always take a back seat to the other?  These are questions I'm sure a lot of mamas have asked themselves and I struggle to find the answers to everyday. 

 There really isn't a stronger love for anything then what I have for my babies. 

Tonight I'll be praying for a smooth morning, Emma sleeping through the night (yeah right) and the strength to be able to do both jobs fully and with as little tears as I can (hopefully).  

Mama loves you both and she'll be home as soon as she can!  

Its Impossible to count her smiles

Ms. Emma turned 3 months old today and her eyes are 

still blue YAY!!  

Chris may have hope of staying my husband after all. 

 She's still only got 4 strands of hair so I resort to headbands that I buy or make myself.  In these pictures I put a newborn size headband on her - and with her gigantic irish skull they come close to cutting off circulation....but she looks pretty.  

 So you know how when people don't sleep and they 

become slap happy?  

They're always smiling and laughing at everything even if it's not remotely funny....

I believe this is Emma. 

She is so smilie and she sleeps so little, it's the only conclusion I can come to.

But we're both adjusting to the choppy sleep patterns and I hope sleeping is something she'll master soon. 

 

 

She's also such a nosey little thing, she always wants to be in the middle of everything and if she's bored she'll let you know with what I call her high pitch "get me the hell out of this thing" cry.  It was really alarming the first couple of times but now I know that if she's done in the exer-saucer she'll let me know that we need to move onto the next activity with this blood curdling yell. 

And today is the 3 month anniversary of our breastfeeding journey.  Which took me by surprise with how much of a commitment it is, but I think we've hit a stride and both of us are more confident now then 3 months ago.  I read this article: So I Nursed Him Every 45 Minutes recently and I found such truth in it so if your into boobie talk and/or feeding your baby give it a read.  

(If you haven't noticed I learned how to use the "Link" button on my blog - I'm so going to be the best blogger)

Side note it's my Mom's birthday today and I truly never realized how much you appreciate your own mom until I became one so, to my Mom: I love you, Thank you for everything you do for me and my family and Happy 37th Birthday!

Day of "Prizes"

Today was the day of "prizes" which is what Jack calls presents. 

Chris put together his play house and Jack got a kick out of the doorbell that really rings and a cordless phone that sounds like a real phone.  When I was little I got a doll that I had to make believe talked.  

I guess imagination comes with 4 AAA batteries now a days. 

Doesn't Jack look like he's Gordon Gekko 

trading stocks in this photo. 

(It's always a good day when you can reference an '80s movie to describe your 2 year old)

 Then I bought Jack a Fun play table with sand and water with boats that actually float.

In the store I gazed at the front of the box day dreaming that Jack would look like that little boy in the photo making a sand castle and nicely pouring water in the funnel while laughing but in real life Jack flung the sand and water all over the deck and himself. Not my best purchase.   

 This is Chris's "have fun cleaning that up" face. 

 Then to round the day of prizes off we adopted another train for our collection.  My mom bought Jack "Edward" and he played with him for the rest of the afternoon.  Jack can easily play with his trains all day.  Lining them up and making them go on the tracks, it's so great to watch him play with them.  

It really puts a smile on my face.  

 And speaking of smiles, I can't forget Ms. Emma - she was watching the whole day of prizes unfold.  She is such a fat and happy baby.  I think she grew another roll today but still NO HAIR!   

Ugh, at this rate I'm going to have to start putting bows on Murphy.

Adventures in the Bronx

It always amazes me that in the middle of the Bronx lives 

Lions, Giraffes and Monkeys. 

Driving into the park I turned and looked up at the buildings across the street from the zoo and wondered if the people that live on the top floor look over the wall at the Tiger cages and think to themselves 

"boy I sure hope those gates are locked"

And here starts our Animal Adventure

 If you look in the background you can faintly make out a Lion and Lioness laying on the rock in the shade.  They had the right idea because it was HOT out!

 Emma loved the monorail and Jack kept on asking if the train was going to fall off the track.  I guess the memory of the carnival is still fresh in his head.

Like sweaty father, like sweaty son.

We took a welcomed (air conditioned) break in The Congo and watched the Gorillas pose for the stupid humans.  

Anyone that says we didn't come from Apes is crazy - This very large beast totally knew what he was doing sitting right up to the window and giving us a show.  You could look into his eyes and see his thoughts.  It was very humbling to say the least.

I think he and Emma made a connection 

Here is my brave husband with his Buzz light year doll crawling into the prairie dog tunnel.

Jack in his very own turtle shell.  And if Jack was a couple of years older we would have had to explain what the daddy turtle was doing to the mommy turtle.......for now they were just dancing with each other. 

 Jack loved feeding the goats with Chris.  Some times Jack completely amazes me with his courage.  I would have thought he'd run from them but instead I was making sure he didn't get through the fence and crawl into the barn.   

Ahh and the piece d'resistance. 

THE CHICKENS!  

The chickens were all Jack wanted to see all day.  We kept on telling him about all the exotic animals that he was about to visit and all he wanted to see were....the chickens.

We tried to get a family photo and this was the face Jack decided he was going to make.  

It's like one of those photos that come with the frame, don't you think? 

This is what Jack looked like before we even pulled out of the parking lot......I call this photo "Success".

Happy (dress your kids up in holiday themed outfits) 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July!  

This is the day our country got it's independence and as an added piece of July 4th information this is the day Chris and I decided to it be our dating anniversary.  

Partly because it was the first night we both realized that we were perfect for each other and partly because since it's a holiday it would be easy to remember.  

So Happy 9 year anniversary of him putting up with me - Yay! 

Here we are 9 years after the night that Chris gave me one of his last beers and we watched fireworks from his roof in NYC we get to celebrate with our babies at our home.  

 They're still a little young to take to watch fireworks but maybe next year we could spend half the day staking our claim to a piece of grass on a field and then wait in traffic as everybody exits all at once right after the finale!  

Always something to look forward to. 

 Could I have gotten any more patriotic with the choice of outfits for Jack and Emma, I think not. 

 My Red, White and Blue Babies

We ended the day with a small family BBQ on our deck and a game of catch the bubbles.  And as we tuck our little ones into bed in a free country I can't help but think, what if Chris didn't give up his last Bud Light can and today would have never happened.  

Good thing he was willing share. 

876*

That is how many times Jack has said Mama so far today.  

Actually that's just an estimate. 

Let me explain how I got this number though:

I counted the number of mama's Jack said in an hour and multiplied it by 6 which is how many hours Jack has been awake....So far.  

(*This didn't include the following: 

• Any of the mamas that was said in the car since that would be dangerous to mark the mama's while driving 

• Any of the mamas that was said while shopping in target which could have exceeded the thousands in the short time we were there

• I also didn't add in the maaaaaa's, mamamama's and MA'S! as I didn't think that was fair since i was only counting actual mama's)