Coming Up for Air

Phew.

In the last two weeks, we have been busy. Like bees.

Both sets of grandparents visited. I party planned and prepped and went grocery shopping for 6 adults + 2 kids and a house full of people to have lunch. We cleaned (a little), did preschool dropoffs, worked, made three round trips to the airport, packed, did no fewer than a dozen loads of laundry, baptized our last baby, celebrated her first birthday, had two long flights to & from Canada (first country for Claire!), drove a long time in a rental car, played with friends, drank a lot of beer, ate a lot of food, skied for the first time in 6 years... and... and...

Now we're back. We planted our feet back home on Tuesday night and Wednesday carried on like any normal weekday. Dad works and Mom takes kids to storytime and preschool and runs errands so we can eat things that don't come from cardboard boxes.

I've been sorting mail and writing thank-you cards and finally stuffing clean clothes back into our drawers.

We've invited friends over for dinner tomorrow night, so I hurriedly picked out a recipe for that occasion. I'm contemplating another 30-day Shred or quitting sugar... or something. I'm just so hungry still, and there's really no excuse anymore since I'm not pregnant and breastfeeding has slowed to about 5x each day. I don't really need the extra calories, but I'm finding myself rummaging through the pantry and fridge while the kids are napping or before I hit snooze for the night.

Claire's 1-year appointment was today and she is just perfect, except for the fact that she ripped off three bandages from her hemoglobin finger prick and proceeded to bleed all over about 100 things. Aside from being terrified of her brother (which I hate writing in the single form), she's thriving and loving and has a few words down. Benjamin is still using the toilet and usually wakes with that Buzz Lightyear Pull-up (only ones he'll use. GRUMBLE) dry. Except, he did (intentionally?) pee on the floor next to two potties while on vacation and went in the laundry room and did the other business on Wednesday. Not during travel or on airplanes or long car rides when there is no toilet around. Instead, when a toilet is literally feet away and there is no imminent rush. Sounds about right.

Benjamin continues to be two, almost three. His tantrums are frustrating and totally get the best of me. I hate that. And also, GODSPEED to four, please. Not that I want to speed up his childhood, but if he could be more human and less satan, I would totally appreciate it. He is really awesome when he's not attempting to destroy everything in his (socio)path. But when the switch has been flipped, it's like someone switched kids with me.

We put lots of dates on the calendar to use up some recent Groupon restaurant purchases to get us through the rest of winter, in addition to a trip to Arizona and California closer to spring. Our children's museum had a pipe burst, resulting in massive water damage and will be closed the rest of the winter for renovations. Looks like #museummondays will return to #storytimemondays once again.

I sported my life is good hat over vacation and while I know life could be greater, life is still pretty good.