Skip to main content

Reflecting on a Summer at Home with my Daughters

It's true folks. The time has come for me to slap on a pair of pantyhose, a pair of heels and my flashiest smile and head back to the office. It sounds so cliche to say that time flies when you are having fun but it's just so true. It's amazing how long the days can be when we aren't doing what we truly want and how quickly the minutes pass when we are too busy to care what time it is. Each minute of the last fourteen weeks has been just this way for me. When many people hardly have the opportunity to take more than five days away from work, I was fortunate enough to spend three whole months away from the daily grind. I openly admit that I spent little time focusing on my life as a 9-5 professional and instead whole heartedly dedicated myself to being a 24/7 mommy. Here's a taste of the things I did during my whirlwind summer with my girls.
  • Becoming a night owl again;
  • Learning, after a few weeks, that I didn't need to change Charlotte's diaper every 2 hours during the night;
  • Learning that I could feed her laying down (why, oh why did I not do this the first time?) and feeling her body next to mine as we drifted off to sleep;
  • Feeling the sun on my face while playing motor boat in the lake with Caroline;
  • Making sand castles with our friends;
  • Watching Caroline become protective and motherly with her little sister;
  • Becoming the center of Caroline's life again and getting lots of hugs and kisses from her;
  • Singing songs with lyrics like, "My sister's got a pig on her head. She keeps it there all day";
  • Waving to Caroline as she rode the carousel by herself for the very first time;
  • Making silly faces to get Charlotte to giggle and squeal;
  • Listening to Caroline spill her juice and say with a perfectly Minnesotan accent, "Oh Crap! I spilled my juice!";
  • Hearing Caroline say Mr. Table Head (potato), zucchina and carsodo (tricycle);
  • Counting the rolls on Charlotte's legs and arms;
  • Teaching Caroline to pump her legs on the swing;
  • Getting dizzy playing Ring Around the Rosey;
  • Taking long walks and long naps;
  • Knowing we were going to do it all over again tomorrow.

Going back to work is cruelty to mothers. This morning, I packed several new framed photos of the girls, and my pump, and reluctantly left them behind. As I drove to work, I cried a bit but laughed more, thinking about all the silly and wonderful things I experienced with them this summer. Nothing is better than watching your children grow right before your eyes and wanting to tell everyone you see, "I love them! I love them! I LOVE MY KIDS!"

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Facebook Reality Check

I am a big facebook user. No, I don't play Farmville or Candy Crush Saga but I spend at least 15 minutes on the site daily. I have read many articles about how facebook kills one's self esteem because people use the site to boast and brag about their awesome lives, which in turn makes others feel badly about their own. We all know that facebook is a slice of one's life or maybe a projection of the life they want to live. Anybody who isn't a fool should realize that. As a frequent facebooker and hardcore extrovert, with a lack of a strong filter, I find this whole situation to be a dilemma. What is worse, reading about someone's awesome day and seeing a picture of how fabulous they looked during their awesome day, or reading about their terrible day, looking at angry political memes, or rants about the bad customer service they received? Do you want to read about how someone had the best night ever with their bestest buds (you not included) or that they have been ...
1 comment
Read more

TomKat or AndMel?

Over the weekend I had "my hour". Sixty whole minutes at the gym including 30 on the new treadmill and the latest In Style magazine to read while I sweat it out to my itunes. I happily flipped and thumped along, checking out the latest hand bags and arm cuffs until I got to an article about Katie Holmes. I had to flip back and forth several times to admire one of my favorite Hollywood pieces of eye candy. How can she and I have children almost the same age and she can look like that and have run a marathon this year? No matter what we all tell ourselves about celebs, we still envy them or just can't help but stare at their image in a magazine and read all about how they've found themselves via religion, rehab or marriage to Tom Cruise. My favorite part of the article was Katie recalling Suri's birth story. She says something about how supportive Tom was by placing candles and picture frames around the room. That's helpful? If Andy was lighting candles during ...
Post a Comment
Read more

LAX

Some people may think that Andy and I are "lax" parents. Our house isn't a free range farm by any means, although just throwing food on the ground, and letting the kids wander around and pick it up when they are hungry, sounds pretty enticing. It's true that we aren't the strictest parents and that, regularly, there is mutiny on the bounty and we are held hostage by little pirate people. The drill sergeant in our house is 3 feet tall and belts outs commands like, "Get me a drink!", "Turn on Netflix!", or "You will not wash my hair!" while wearing only a pullup, squinting her eyes, and pointing an accusatory finger in our direction. Our kids are often in charge. I'm not going to lie to you. The dog may also be in charge from time to time. That's just the way it goes. As more and more of our peers have a third child, we are, unfortunately, asked if we, too, plan to expand. Are these people insane in the membrane? Have they been...
2 comments
Read more