Thursday, November 23, 2006

Gobble gobble!!!


This photo is of the wild turkeys that visit our backyard almost everyday. Strangely enough we haven't seen them for a week. Wonder if they heard what day was coming up?
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This will just be a quick post to wish everyone happy eating, visiting and football watching. Ben is watching the parade now and is fascinated by the Broadway Kids Camp singing group - hmm, a hint into the future? We'll see. Later this morning Nate & I will be going to my mom's to have dinner with her and my grandparents. Ben & Tim will be going to his brother's house this afternoon to celebrate with his mom and brother. So it's another Turkey day apart for this family, we've done something similar to this each year so it's nothing new to us. Odd thing is too, it doesn't feel that weird, maybe we're just used to it.


Anyway, I will post an update on our activities later tonight or tomorrow. In the meantime I hope you all have a very happy Thanksgiving.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Here we go...Day Two

Ok, so this is my first blog entry on this new blog. I had one going on MySpace but it was very infrequent and I didn't like the layout and honestly, never really felt motivated to do anything with it. But this weekend I was visiting the Mothering Dot Commune boards and checked out a fellow mama's blog and got inspired. So here goes nothing.

The main reason for doing this is to provide a place for friends and family to see pictures of the boys and get updates without clogging their inboxes. I also thought it'd be a nice way to record our adventures and experiences for our own sentimental value.

So this week is my first week of being a full time stay at home mom to both of my boys (Ben 3, Nate 2 months). Up until now Ben was still attending daycare while I was trying to get reaquanted with what life with a newborn is like. I had been working since Ben was 8 months old and he was attending a great daycare center affiliated with my employer (and Tim's). But now with two kiddos, it just doesn't make sense to be turning over my paycheck everyweek so that someone else can be with my children.* If I made more money then this might be a very different story, but as it is, it's not financially logical for us to have both boys in daycare, and emotionally I don't think I could stand not being with Nate all day at this age. Although Tim suggested renting him out during his colic spells in the evening and I'm thinking this could help buy some holiday gifts.

Anyway, today is day two. So far so good. I'm following good advice given to me by a dear friend when Ben was first born "Get out of the house at least once a day." Sometimes that means going for a walk, goign to the children's museum or just going to the post office to check our mail, but no matter what it is it does help to break up the day a little bit and I think it helps all of us feel a little more connected to the world around us. As much as I like our new apartment we need to step out of the cocoon sometimes. Today we ventured out to the bank and then the library, where Ben was thrilled to find a Thomas the Tank Engine video he hasn't seen. (I didn't think this was possible.) It was very quiet in the children's room today. Most times, when we are there there are lots of other kids and Ben has a good time playing with them and sharing stories. Our library is wonderul about welcoming the kids to the children's room and providing them with a lot of group activities they can explore if they want to. There is always a big tub of blocks for kids to use and a puppet theater for the felt, homemade finger puppets. Over the summer they had a pirate themed reading program and a large pirate ship and a cave with burried treasure for the kid to play with. (Both made out of cardborad and paper mache). Needless to say Ben was very sad when summer came to and end. This week they have some Thanksgiving decorations up, which Ben likes to look at but they aren't nearly as fun as pretending to be a pirate. Today it was different, very few kids. Ben was also fairly anxious to get home. I think the cold that we're all battling was wearing him out.

I'm still a little anxious about how I'll handle this new role. I've been a mom for a while, but having two is very different. I'm sure it will have its challenges and there will be days where I'll wish bedtime would hurry up and get here but I'm really looking forward to this new adventure and the surprises it holds for all of us.


(*Please note that I'm not bashing working moms here, having been one myself and been the past co-host of a working moms support board. I think each family has to do what's best for them. In our case right now, that means me staying home with my kids. I expect this will change in the future as most things do.)