Full-time Mom - Part 1

Sometimes I feel like I'm only a part-time Mom because I work full-time.  After I drop the kids off at Jane's in the morning, I can feel my "work-brain" kicking into gear - thinking about what meetings I have, deliverables that are due, action items that I need to work on, etc.  I think about my babies during the day (a lot), but I'm usually not "being a mom" during the day (unless I'm scheduling a doctor's appointment or something).  4:30 or so rolls around, and I head to my car, and I start thinking about dinner and what we are going to do for the evening as a family - Mom-hat is coming back on. 

Well, this week, I get to stay home from work and be a "full-time" Mom.  Its had it's ups and downs, but I am enjoying it so much.  Though, it is only Wednesday night...  Anyway.  It's funny how much closer I feel to my kiddos already, just with being here with them for so much more time.  I think they are enjoying it too, because usually we don't go out and do a whole lot together.  We really only have time on the weekends, and those are generally taken up by grocery shopping, cleaning, Church, and whatever else we didn't have time to do during the week.  I was planning on doing kind of a deep dive in cleaning, but changed my mind Monday morning.

We've had a bit of a break in the 100+ degree weather (high of 90 or so), so after a late breakfast on Monday, I decided that we were going to go out.  I packed a small picnic lunch, grabbed the stroller, sunscreen, water, and lots of snacks, and piled the three of us into the car.  We headed down to the Overland Park Arboretum.  I thought I had been here before, but I believe I was wrong - or it has changed that much since I was there last!

At the beginning of our trek.

 Jacob pointing at something in the water.

A fish! (or two)

Smelling the flowers.  Jacob tried to eat them.

Climbing the rocks in front of the Medicine Wheel.

A cool dragon fly we saw - it actually held still for quite a while.

Searching for the "Faraway Tree."  This got even cooler once we got to mulch trails.

Taking a quick rest on one of the bridges.

Posing like the lady carved in the tree.

This little guy kind of freaked me out  First, he was huge.  Second, all I could think about (as we are walking around with NO ONE ELSE around) was "The Village."

My attempt at a group shot from the top of the Children's Garden.

The Yellow is where I *think* we were.  I was silly and didn't actually pick up a map when we first got there, so spent our time just wandering around, trusting my sense of direction and the few maps that were posted along the trails.  Next time, I will have a map with me, just to make me feel a bit more secure.  My Fitbit showed us going 3.23 miles while we were here.  Ally walked every bit of it!  I was pretty impressed. 

In the midst of wandering around, we ran into Holly and her kids.  That was a fun surprise.  And even better, they ran into us a bit later (I think it was in the same location too).  They told us about the Train Garden, which we hadn't been to yet.  We made our way that direction.  I didn't get any pictures of that area though.  They had a model train set up (it looked really cool) but it wasn't running at that point. 

So, the arboretum was pretty cool.  I want to go back (with the map this time) and wander around some more.  I have a feeling that my favorite part will be the Monet Gardens.  I just got a glimpse as we walked through and they looked like a fairytale. 

Tuesday, we didn't do much.  Babysat Maddie in the morning.  Played at home, did a little shopping (losing Jacob's shoe in the Super Walmart, and then finding it again after backtracking through the entire store), and played with clay and legos. 

Ally has been totally into clay lately (not to be confused with PlayDough).  We cancelled our cable a while ago and have mostly been relying on Netflix for our visual entertainment.  Ally has discovered BabyFirstTV, especially Clay World.  For some reason, she calls it "clay" or "stackers."  Either way, she loves to play with it at the table and recreate some of the things she's seen on Clay World.

And Jacob, with his beloved cars and oranges.

And today was another pretty low-stress day.  Jacob had his 18 month check up this morning.  He did incredibly well.  Barely fussed while he was weighed, measured, poked, prodded, and everything else.  He had to get one shot and even barely whimpered with that.  Ally was with us and did a great job at the doctor's as well.  I got Ally and Jacob Wendy's to celebrate, and then we had nap time.  If Ally went to sleep in time we were going to go with Taunia and Liz to the Johnson County Museum...but, to no one's surprise we didn't make it.  Ally was begging to see her cousins though, so we went to Liz's (Taunia and her two littlest were still there) and had dinner and ice cream. 

And, last, just for fun, here is a picture of my living room this afternoon before naps.

Scary, yeah?  I got it picked up while both kids were asleep this afternoon.  I think we'll be a little more disciplined for our next few days home :)