Summer Blues

Literally I have blinked and I went from St. Joseph's hospital in the birth of Anna to finding myself entering another school year already!!! Each school year I am never ready to end my summer break, but this year especially coming off of a maternity leave. I wouldn't exactly call my summer break a 'break" because I worked my tail off adjusting to the man-to-man defense or the 1:2 defense when Rob was at work. For you Sex in the City fans, although I had my "Charlotte" moments where I wanted to lock myself in a closet for 5 minutes, ultimately I went to bed blessed with our two miracles and ideally wish I had more time to spend with the kids especially now that I am gaining more confidence taking them places together and figuring out strategies when they both need me at the same time. Tyler makes me laugh everyday even in his "naughtiness" moments and Anna is smiling and cooing non-stop which makes me not want to miss a moment of her life because the famous phrase "kids grow up way too fast". Although it will be hard to transition back, I am lucky to have a modified leave when I return to work in that I will be taking both Monday and Friday off in the month of Sept and October which will give me a gradual taste of the insanity working and getting 3 people ready in the mornings.

And as hard as it is to think about returning to work I am forunate in having a job in this economy (especially the school system) and a job with people I like to work with. After getting laid off three years ago when I was pregnant with Tyler, I left it up to God if I was meant to be a stay-at-home mom (if I didn't get a job) or if i was meant to work and clearly I got the sign I needed especially when we needed my health insurance for all of Tyler's medical bills. It's time to serve my "other kids"- I think back to the end of last school year where I received a letter from a girl I helped stating "mulitple times you saved my life just by listening"... it makes me think that I am on this earth for more than one reason. Thank goodness I have a caseload of 430 kids who are potty trained and can feed themselves though :)

Lots of random pictures from the last few weeks...

A much overdue visit with the Lusics.. here is a picture of Tyler with "mini Mark" (Cal) and "mini Aimee" (Maddie)

Tyler is mean-muggin Cal for some unknown reason

A trip to the State Fair.. luckily we left before the mob came that same day!

We went to the air show this year and Tyler is showing me how the Thunderbirds fly into the air.. it was a pretty sweet show and we ran into Willy Davis, former Packer Hall-famer in the elevator of Rob's brother's place downtown.. no big deal, Rob got to shake his head and he waved to Tyler.. meanwhile I am still trying to figure out who the big celeb is and surprisingly didn't embarrass Rob by snapping a picture.

Tyler getting a lot of practicing kissing girls the way he kisses his lil sister... it's all cute now until he gets a little older and I have to worry about "other" stuff!

Tyler and Alex indulging in some sugar... marshmallow bunnies!!!

Celebration of Laura's birthday... the best present of all for her birthday is "chilling" in this picture. Alex sometimes still calls Baby Sean, Baby Anna, that poor thing!

Mommy's obsession with bows... yes alittle over the top at times, quite big, but it's an addiction.

Summer Challenges... these pictures are going to be good reminders of what my first summer with two was like at times:) I am certaintly not one to sugar-coat things.. I had a blast with them, but it also came with a lot of work! It just got a little ugly when both kids needed something at the same time.. I could't resist snapping a picture of them in the chaos. Wouldn't you agree these are Kodak moments?

"Mama- I am hungry feed me!!!!!!!"

"Mama- I am the baby in this house. I come first. Feed me now!!!!"

Another challenge that I learned with two is that it's alot easier to run errands alone than to take a field trip out with both. Many of times I am the mother closing down Pick in Save or Target because that is when I run errands. I am usually the mother still in the aisles when the 10 minute warning comes on that the store is going to close. Due to my time constraints I have become a very efficient shopper none-the-less. As the summer went on I braved it and gained more confidence in taking them places but I still enjoy running errands solo as you can imagine why!

One day while Tyler was at daycare, Anna and I shopped for probably 3-4 hours.. she was an angel however I had to break once to feed her. Hmmm.... I'm thinking this picture makes me look just alittle insane? When you don't get out as much, I guess you just make up for it when you do finally get out shopping :)

I will say the few times I have taken them both out running errands with me, I have gotten a few looks. I don't know if people look at my like I am insane or if they look at me with admiration that I am multi-tasking while also getting my shopping game on. I would like to believe the second of the two :) A few times after random strangers have commented how cute Tyler is then they say "Oh and there is two" like they are so surprised that they have never seen two little kids out shopping before. I wish I could write the tone of voice it's said in because it's pretty funny! Having kids shopping does draw just a little more attention to you doesn't it?

I stumbled upon this picture of Tyler.. To think it was only just last summer that he still had his Doc Band....The start of his life was difficult and it gives me hope because things have gotten easier and I know it will continue to get easier adjusting to the two even when I return back to work. As one of my CC coaches always said, for every up-hill there is a down-hill. The uphills sure are worth it!!!!!

And finally, when I was pregnant with Anna I took poll of mother's with more than one kid and said "What advice do you have for me?" I got lots of great advice, but the best piece of advice was from a co-worker who said PRAY & DRINK. Amen enough said... that is my philosophy going into my return back to work. I thought I was working hard this summer already so maybe going back to work will be like a mini-vacation who knows but one thing I know for sure is those dust bunnies in our house are hear to stay :) and as Tyler refers to it: I will be drinking a lot of "Mama's Juice" to get me through stressful moments :)

On to enjoying my final week of summer with my babies before jumping in with the monkeys working on schedules changes.