thoughts from the working mom

to go to work or to stay at home with the kids.

it's an internal debate of head versus heart made by millions of working moms nearly every day. it's a difficult choice with many factors coming into play, mainly finances and mom-guilt. but you must make your choice and be happy with it.

my choice is to work. i do this so my family can have a more secure financial future. there are other benefits too, like socializing my naturally reserved offspring, getting a jumpstart on their education and getting my own grown-up time with friends and coworkers.

with this choice, i must focus on quality time with my babies versus quantity. some things are currently being sacrificed, such as working out and couple time. but family time is priority. my mom worked my whole life and i always felt very close to her - and still am. i never felt second to her job or activities.

life is all about balance. this post speaks to the working mom's soul.

Please note: i am by no means judging stay-at-home moms or moms who work from home. i think it's a wonderful thing to be able to do that. we're all just doing the best we can so let's not judge each other.

kindergarten take 2

Fall kindergarten is way better than summer school kindergarten. After summer school, I was a little worried this summer that E would be super bored with learning shapes and colors and letters again.

It turns out they move at quite a speedy pace in "real" kindergarten. He is learning a letter a day Mon-Thurs and then they review on Friday. They use a method called Animated Literacy where there is a character, movement, song and sound with each letter. They started putting words together the first week using the letters they covered. He is very excited about learning to read a BOOK! They rotate through P.E., library, art and music each week. The favorite? P.E. of course! He likes to play on the "horizontal ladder". Is it not PC anymore to say monkey bars?? Maybe we offended the monkeys somewhere along the way. His teacher really is wonderful. She is expecting a baby in November, so I hope she comes back!

I think he is making friends with his classmates, although it took a week or two for him to break out of his shell. He gets to see Noah, his friend from day care, at recess. The first couple of weeks he was so exhausted from no naps, but now that he is in his groove he is in much better moods in the evenings.

The hardest part for me is not seeing his teacher and his environment every day. You have to trust that he is being nice to his classmates, eating all of this lunch, etc. He got a yellow card one day for talking, but has stayed on green since. This kindergarten thing may work out after all.

4 months!

Emma is four months old! And what a happy baby she is! She is all smiles all day. She "talks" a lot, sounding something like a growl with some squeals thrown in. She has a hearty belly laugh too! She loves to play on the floor mat, holler at her mobile, and have people talk and sing to her.

Her checkup at the doctor weighed her in at 16 lbs 4 oz - 25th percentile in weight and 95th in height. Doc says she'll make a great downhill skier with her "muscular" thighs! Her hair is pretty short on top, but starting to grow in a little thicker. She still has some of her original baby hair in the back.

Emma made her first trip to Illinois over Labor Day Weekend. She did great in the car, only crying the last 10 minutes of the 5-hour trip there. She enjoyed getting to spend time with her uncles, grandma, granddad and great-grandma! She is a very loved little girl.

watch dog catcher

It sounds like a Wheel of Forturne "before and after" phrase, but it's also what I label my conversation with big E yesterday on the way home from school.

Last night E and daddy were heading back to school for the Watch D.O.G.S. program orientation. It's a program where dads sign up to hang out a school for the day to help out and to have the dad presence known.

E and I were discussing the evening plans, and our convo went a little like this:

Uncle George is a watch dog.

I had to think for a second.

Oh, no honey, Uncle George is a dog catcher.

Why is daddy going to be a dog catcher?

No hon, dad is going to be a Watch D.O.G. It's just a name for dads who hang out at school for the day. There aren't any dogs actually envolved.

I'm trying my best not to laugh because he gets upset now when you laugh at him.

Well maybe he'll look for cats.

No. No, I don't think there will be animals of any kind. It's kind of like a mascot, like how you're a Shark.

Or he can catch snakes. Mrs. B had a snake in her house once...

And on he went. Sometimes there is no changing his mind once he gets rolling.

Love that kid.

back to work [3 months]

it's amazing how fast 12 weeks can fly. 12 weeks ago yesterday my baby girl was born. I was able to spend an amazing 11 1/2 weeks at home with her, but now i'm back at work just living for the weekend.

she's doing great at day care. there's a trio of may-baby girls there: emma, emily, and elsa who starts in a couple weeks. how cute is that?

the first couple of days emma didn't sleep much and only took a few catnaps. by the time we got home she just wanted to eat and go to sleep. and she slept from 7pm to 7am that first night - waking up once at 4am just long enough to eat! yesterday she got some longer naps in, but she was still in bed by 7:30. i'm looking forward to longer evenings as she gets a little bigger.

her teacher ms. gail says she loves book time and gets along great during the day. i miss her so much though. i mean, look at this face!!

two months

weighing in at 12 lbs and measuring 22 1/2 inches, miss emma is cuter than ever! her smiles make mommy & daddy melt. :)

smoke and fireworks

the fourth of july. around here, it's all about the attitude...

emma didn't mind the fireworks much, until the neighborhood gang all came up with the big artillery. then it was time for her and mama to head indoors. here's her first time in the bumbo:

we had a fun night with some good friends, but i'm always relieved the next morning when the house is still standing.