Going back to work...

Well, I must say I've had a really great Summer at home with the boys. As much as I swear I can never be a stay at home mom, once we got our daily routine down, everything went pretty smoothly and we had lots of fun.

Today is officially my last day of maternity leave. : ( The boys and I have decided to just take it easy today and enjoy our last day together. My one bright spot however is the fact that I will be going back to work only four days a week. That will still give me one day a week just for us - to do something together so I will enjoy it while I can, because before I know it, it a couple of years will pass and our "special time" together will be over.

Enjoy it while you can!

getting ready for halloween...

Mike is finally back to work after his gallbladder surgery so hopefully the blog will get back to normal very soon.

Today was a slow, easing into it day. We started out the day late and went to the train store (aka Barnes and Nobel). Afterwards Jake was pretty cranky so Daniel and I decided to walk over to Target (about 8 stores down from the Train Store) and walk around a bit. It worked out well once we got Jake a bottle. Daniel looked at toys and mommy gave Jake some much needed cuddle time.

We got home around 1 pm and Daniel went down for a nap. Jake and I got the mail and guess what was there? Another piece to Daniel's Halloween costume. He's going as Diego this year and we already got his vest in the mail (from ebay). Today we got the patch to sew on his vest and Rescue Pack!!! When he woke from his nap he stripped down (to go to the potty) and then tried his Rescue Pack on. Now we're just all sitting here watching The Gremlins and Daniel is still naked (and still has not gone potty).

our very busy (but fun!) week...

the first photo is of Daniel, Natalie and Nicholas at their playdate on Wednesday.

the second photo is of Daniel at the zoo - oh boy did he love those goats!

the third photo is of Daniel playing at the zoo in his tiger make-up.

i threw in the photo of Jake just because he's the cutest little three month old around.

Last week Mike had his gallbladder removed so his mom came over to help with the baby and Jacob - hehehe. This gave Daniel and I some great one-on-one time together.

His surgery was on Monday, but on Tuesday the fun began!

• Tuesday morning Daniel and I went to Airtastic. It's a great "bounce-house" center that Daniel just lovees (this kid loves to bounce!) Daniel and I had lots of fun in all of the jumpy tents and on the huge slides. Later that day we went to "the train store", it's a great place for Daniel to play with the trains, look at the books and for me to have a cup of coffee and look through a magazine. Daniel has gotten more and more aggressive lately when other kids want to play with the trains, so my "me time" at the train store is getting less and less. Hopefully this will end soon!


• Wednesday we had a playdate with our friends Nicholas and Natalie. They all had lots of fun playing on the swings and rolling cars down the slide. We went in for lunch and then went into the basement (one big playroom) and the kids played while Brandi and I chatted and actually got to watch some tv without cartoon characters in it! What fun! Daniel had a nice long nap when we got home and I mowed the lawn. When Daniel woke up, he helped me rake and we played outside until it got dark. This was a nice treat for Daniel to get so much outside time.


• On Thursday Daniel and I made a trip to Brookfield Zoo. This is the second time this Summer that Daniel and I got to go there - just the two of us. Both times we had loads of fun. He's at an age where he really enjoys the animals. This trip his favorite animal was the goat! (with the crocs and penguins a close second and third). We got there about an hour after they opened and stayed until they closed! We were leaving the Zoo and parking lot with the Zoo workers. Of course this threw us into rush hour traffic, but it was well worth it.


• Friday morning Daniel and I met Brandi, Nicholas and Natalie again. This time we met at the outlet mall. The kids actually had some fun playing in the stores and riding the little cars that cost fifty cents. They also had some fun getting out of the strollers and watching some tv at the Gymboree Outlet store. Poor Nicholas didn't want Daniel to touch his chair, but in true Daniel fashion, he kept putting one finger on the chair! Poor Jacob is really in for some trouble when he gets a little bigger.

In the end it was a good week but a long one. It's a lot of work keeping Daniel busy from morning till night with no help from daddy.

removing an organ takes less than an hour...

Mike had his gallbladder removed today! We got to the hospital at 5:30 am and no sooner than we checked in they called us to the room (I didn't even get to sit down or get coffee yet). Anyway, two hours and many conversations with nurses and doctors later) Mike was off to surgery. I got comfortable in the waiting room, fired up the laptop and waited... a whole 45 minutes!

The doctor came out and said everything went good. Mike is in recovery now (apparently only an hour or so) and then we can head home.

Modern medicine is amazing boys and girls, you can have an organ removed and be home in time for lunch!!!

Sorry, no photos on this post. If I would have thought ahead, I could have taken a picture of Mike in his lovely gown and posted that, but I just wasn't thinking at 5 am.

a beautiful day at the park...

daniel had fun on the digger at the park and Jake enjoyed just hanging out in the nice breeze.

This morning we had nothing particular planned so I gave Daniel some options. He could choose the park, Airtastic (local bounce house place) or the train store. He chose the park - just like I thought he would.

Before we headed off to the park I stopped off at Dunkin Donuts for some coffee, Daniel was screaming to the lady in the intercom from the back seat saying something about Donuts and just finished his garbled sentence with CHOCOLATE! It was actually really cute (although I admit it's pretty bad when your kid knows exactly what he's supposed to do at a fast food drive-thru).

I got a small box of donut holes for us to share and am happy to say that there are still quite a few left for later (or maybe tomorrow).

I had a few minutes to jump on and update since Daniel is down for a nap, but as usual, as Daniel falls asleep, Jacob wakes up...

playdate fun with friends...

Today we had a playdate with our friends, Jimmy, Sera, Chloe, Nathan, Nicholas and Natalie. We had so much fun. Nathan has a really great sandbox (which I failed to get a photo of) that the kids loved playing in. Daniel really liked to throw the sand, but for some reason the other kids didn't seem to like it quite as much. After being told a number of times he finally stopped (or maybe one of the moms kicked him out of the box - I'm not sure since I was feeding Jacob). : )

Anyway, here's a photo of all the kids, everyone had tons of fun.

(photo): Nathan, Jimmy, Natalie, Chloe, Sera, Jacob, Daniel & Nicholas

lunch with the girls (and boys)...

The boys and I had lunch today with some friends of mine from work. We were celebrating Amanda's belated birthday at a local pancake house. I am happy to say that Daniel was on his very best behavior - what a good boy. : ) He told the waitress that he wanted a hamburger for lunch and when she was walking away he said "thank you", awww... how cute.

By the end of lunch Daniel was geting a little bit crazy (Carolyn was teaching him how to make funny faces) and Jacob started getting fussy. I have to say though, I was able to finish my lunch without much interuption. A good time was had by all.

Daniel did not want the girls to go so he tried to follow them back to work, somehow I convinced him to come back. We had a lot of fun and Daniel can't wait to see "the girls" again.

slugging it out...

Today was a very rainy day. This morning we visited daddy at work and after lunch it was still raining cats and dogs so we decided to take a trip to the train store. "The Train Store" is actually a Barnes and Nobel book store that has a really great children's section that includes a very cool Thomas Train table.

Usually Daniel is the small guy at the table and has to deal with the bigger kids taking charge. Well, I guess today was the day that he had enough.

He's playing at the table with another girl (she was probably 7 years old). They were playing good - he had 1/2 the trains, she had 1/2 the trains. Another little boy walked up (about 4 or 5) and I asked Daniel if he could share his trains. Like the good boy he is, he lets the little boy take some trains (the kid took about 9 of the 10 trains Daniel was playing with - including Thomas).

Anyway, after a few minutes Daniel decides he wants to play with Thomas so he just takes him off the kids link of trains. The kid says "hey, that's mine" and Daniel starts laughing and runs. A chase ensues and Daniel just thinks this is the funniest thing ever. Daniel finally runs into my arms screaming and laughing.

Long story short, Daniel starts playing with Thomas and the kid tries to take the train off him saying "that's mine". What does Daniel do? He starts fighting with this 5 year old! He was not going to let this kid push him around. I actually had to jump up and break up a fight between the two of them (it was about to get ugly). On one hand I was very proud that he finally is starting to stick up for himself - he usually just lets the bigger kids take whatever they want off him and will just move onto something else, but on the other hand, he has started hitting and pushing lately and I'm just not liking this.

Oh, and by the way, the big kids little brother tried to get in on the action too (he was a little younger than Daniel). Daniel started slugging it out with him too!

In the end, I did make him put Thomas down and made him leave the train section. I just couldn't allow him to hit other kids and think it was ok.