Daycare Fun

Yesterday I got the following e-mail from daycare:

"Once again Brody was the only boy in the room. When I was putting 'prettys' in the girls' hair, Brody pulled his own hair and signed 'Please.' He even looked up at where we keep the rubber bands! With the new refined 'please' baby sign and those big blue eyes I couldn't say no..."

She also added that she told him that some football players wear ponytails too! And then said, I hope you don't mind! This type of thing doesn't bother me in the slightest, I think it's cute. With Brody's mohawk the first year of his life, it isn't the first time a teacher put his hair in a ponytail! I laughed, put the picture on my phone and forwarded it to Jason right away.

However...Jason thought Brody should have a hairstyle more like Daddy's...so here's what he looked like this morning...

I do have to say, the styled look does make my heart melt. He looks like such a big kid!

Easter 2011

Easter was great this year and we got to spend a lot of time with family. Of course I always over-book every minute of the holidays which ends up stressing me out, but I'm not sure I'd really have it any other way. I love that we have so much family to enjoy the holidays with.

After early church service, which Brody did pretty well (we sit in the cry-room at church which makes it easier), we headed for a quick visit with at my Nana's house. We don't generally spend Easter with my Mom's side of the family (since we do Thanksgiving with them), but it's been too long since Brody has seen his Great-Grandparents, that I really wanted to make sure we stopped by. Brody played the shy-guy routine the whole time we were there, but since it takes him an hour to warm up to new houses and we left after about an hour and a half, I couldn't expect much more out of him.

Since we were hosting Easter dinner with my Dad's side of the family and Jason's family, it allowed us to get Brody down for a nap before the guests came. As stressful as hosting a holiday dinner for 17 people can be, it easily offsets the stress of lugging Brody from house to house, trying to squeeze in a nap and some sort of normal routine. That, and our family helps out so much with the food and prep for holidays, that I can never really complain!

Dinner seemed to go pretty well and despite the fact that I burned the glaze for the ham & had to make a quick substitute, I think the food turned out great.

The Easter Bunny brought Brody a lawn mower to play with outside and a basket with a few smaller goodies. He seems to like the lawn mower & the bubbles that it makes, but probably loved throwing the plastic eggs more.

When to expand

We get this question all the time. Are you ready for #2?? When are you having another baby!?!

I keep saying, we just had one - leave us alone! Then as 15 months is coming up, I am reminded that I was born when my sister was only 15 months old. 2 babies right now? I don't know how my parents did it. They're amazing.

But I'm more practical about my limitations. I was useless the first three months of my pregnancy falling asleep almost immediately after getting home from work. I know I won't have that luxury next time. Then I imagine myself 9 months pregnant trying to carry a toddler, or waking up in the middle of the night with a newborn, but still getting up early with a toddler. I am quickly reminded that I am just not ready yet.

But then, Jason and I will be watching a tv show with an adorable little baby and how quickly I forget about everything else. Babies are just so cute! How easily a cute little smile from a tiny baby can melt your heart...

But...no, we're not ready to expand yet. And no I don't know when we will be (or I should say, when I will be...Jason is probably already there). But we do know that there will be another one, someday.

Working Mom - 1 Year

One year ago today, I returned to work after 12 wonderful weeks of maternity leave. I will be honest, I was happy to return to work and 12 weeks was actually a little longer than I think I needed. Brody was taking 4 hour naps at home and I got a little stir-crazy. With a second child (down the road...) 12 weeks probably won't seem boring when you have an older child to take care of at the same time!

Now, a year later, I am still glad that I work. As hard as it is at times, I do love my job and what I do. I know that Brody is well taken care of at daycare and I know they are much more creative than I would be as a stay at home mom.

There are a lot of challenges to being a working parent. But I think the one thing that makes us working mothers stress out more than our male counterparts, is guilt. I constantly feel guilty that I'm not doing enough for Brody or spending enough time with him. I feel that men can look at this more rationally, where I tend to be more emotional about it. Jason will be the first to tell you that we need time together just the two of us and that we both need to make sure to make time for ourselves as individuals as well. But then I instantly worry that it's taking away from Brody. Especially since I spend so much time away from him at work.

I will also tell you that I am definitely my worst critic. I often feel that I could be a better mother, a better employee and a better wife. Don't even get me started on how I could be a better daughter, friend and sister... That said, Brody is obviously thriving, I was promoted at work and my husband continues to love me. Clearly I'm not failing!

This isn't a blog for reassurance that I'm doing okay, this is just something that I think most mothers struggle with and I'm no exception. The desire to do the best for all of those in our lives with not enough hours in the day to do it.
While I know that one day it will probably get even harder, for now the three of us seem to have a system that works and I love every minute of my life with my favorite two boys.

I know this works somehow

Today Brody was determined to figure out how to put his shoes on. Apparently he didn't like that I took them off and wanted them back on. Hmm, maybe these socks should go on first... Ok, I give up. HELP!

Best Purchase Ever

There are a lot of silly purchases we've made since we found out Brody was on the way. But more often than not, we end up getting something that works out really well.

This past month we bought Brody a play kitchen. Winter seems to be never-ending in Wisconsin this year (though I'm truly hoping the 70 degree forecast for Sunday turns out to be accurate). All of us have been feeling a little stir crazy. So we need something else to play with in the house.

So a few coupons and my employee discount combined, we got this kitchen for steal. And it was worth every penny. Though I have to say, I end up finding pretend food scattered across the house. I found an orange in the bathtub tonight...the same orange that is in the bookshelf in the picture below.

Even tennis balls make their way into the play kitchen somedays. The best part is that I really think it will last for awhile as he gets older.

Go Brewers!

Yesterday was our 2nd Annual Family Trek to Opening Day at Miller Park. Taking a 2+ month old last year, was much different than a 14+ month old this year. But for the second year in a row, I'd say it was pretty sucessful.

Unfortunately, it was FREEZING! I looked back at our pictures from last year, and the sun was shining and we were all wearing short-sleeve shirts. Yesterday, we were bundled up with hats and gloves. That made tailgating a little less fun than normal. But we got there early, attempted to play washers (only one of us could actually score a point), and grilled some brats. Brody loved the food and running around. Unfortunately we were on a slight slope in the parking lot, so when he tried to run downhill he ended up on his face. Not to mention he had a strong desire to run circles around the grill. We spent most of the morning stopping him from hurting himself.

We headed into the game a bit early, even though we actually had seats this year. It was too cold to stay outside any longer. Brody had fun running around the stadium a bit with no one in his way.

Then, the game starts, and Brody passes out...

He slept for about 3o minutes until Jason attempted to move him. Since that was unsucessful, Brody ended up staying awake the rest of the game.

We left after the 7th inning, when Brody started to lose patience. When we left, the Brewers were up 1-0. Unfortunately they ended up losing 2-1 after a couple home-runs in the 8th inning. But if they were winning when I left, do I have to admit that they really lost? Because that's two years in a row they lost the home-opener...

It could have been a warmer day, but it was still a fun one. And needless to say, all of us were in bed early last night.