No answers...


Hayden has been reading the sports and weather in the newspaper for quite a while now. He started with the weather before he could actually read, just checking out the temperatures and the symbols to tell him whether it would be hot, rainy, etc. It's progressed to a full-blown obsession, where he reads every sports score, and insists on informing me about the inning by inning scores of the latest Cubs' game and who pitched how many innings, who got on base, blah, blah, blah. I want to encourage his love of reading, but at the same time, I'd read the classifieds myself before I'd read the sports section.


So you'll understand that I didn't notice him branching out beyond the sports and weather. But clearly, the boy needs some supervision, because just as there are things on TV you don't want your 5-year old to see, there are things in the paper just as bad or even worse. What do you do when your child asks you "why did the girl stuff toilet paper in her newborn baby's mouth and try to flush it down the toilet?" I gave him the only answer I could "It's an awful thing baby, and Mommy doesn't know why anyone would do something so awful."


From here on out, I'm only handing him the weather and sports. There are enough horrible things in the world to give us all nightmares, I'm not ready for my son to be sickened by them too.

Welcome to the world Brianna...
Our dear friends Traci and Pat welcomed this precious baby girl into the world Thursday morning and I was overjoyed to finally meet her today. Couldn't you just eat her up?

Goodbye Two...
Hello three. Hard to believe that I've fallen so far behind, but it's been 3 weeks since Trevor turned three. The day belonged to him, waking up in his brand new bunk beds...

Unwrapping gifts...

Playing in his new backyard swimming pool...

Cake (the boy is a cake fiend, just like mommy)...

We even let him have his pick of anywhere he wanted to go for a family outing. Which of course meant we ended up at Chuck E. Cheese. Oh well.

I must take a moment to reminisce about the last year for this little man. It was a big year, really, and he took most of it in stride...turning two, the big trip to Yankee Stadium, moving to a new house, surviving Mommy's bed rest, going from sleeping in a closet to sharing a room with big brother, giving up the pacifier (bobo), welcoming a baby sister, going from baby of the family to middle child, potty training, and finally out of the toddler bed.

We certainly had our moments, and my boy certainly can be stubborn as a mule sometimes (where does he get that from???). He'll pitch a fit with the best of them. But his precious sing-songy voice, the constant "why?"s, the squinty eye when he's mad, the contagious joy when he's happy, the sweet loving cuddles when he patters down to our bed in a thunderstorm with his "lankies" (blankies) and 'nother doggie...I wish I could put it all in a bottle marked "two" and preserve it like a fragrance. My Trevie Trevario, I love you to Jupiter.

Very tiny update...

Today was the first day back to work. I'm very behind on blogging, but must say that although Juliette has consistently slept through the night (10-12 hours) since she was 4 weeks old, she chooses to start waking at midnight and being fussy/restless all night two days in a row. I'm not appreciating the irony.

Adding to my list...

Of things I adore about my sweet baby girl.

1) The way she holds her ears when she naps. It cracks me up and makes me melt at the same time.
2) The sweet belly button that forever reminds me of where we were once connected.
3) That crooked smile and sassy tongue.
4) The way she laughs at my feeble attempts at self-portraiture (in the bathroom mirror)
5) The sweetness she brings out in her big brother.
6) And her daddy...

7) The big blue eyes.

That's not nearly all, but in case I forget sometime when you're two years old and impossible, I wanted to remind myself.

Speaking of two, Trevor will only THREE on Sunday. Shocking, isn't it? Erika took him to the mall today to make his own teddy bear and he's spending the night at her house. I keep thinking they'll show up at the door any second now, but sadly, I think he's fine without us. Not even a phone call. I gave him several chances to change his mind before they left, but he was steadfast. Sniff, sniff.

In other news, it seems that I'll be returning to work in the not-so-distant future. My boss called me this week and said that someone is leaving my group and they'd really like me to take over his responsibilities if I'd consider coming back sooner than planned. So I've agreed to work 2 days per week starting in early July. I'm hoping that still gives me some quality time at home with the kids this summer. I'm scared though. So many people tell me that part-time work takes over your life and you get full time work for part-time pay. And it appears that my benefits as a part-time employee are worse than being on completely unpaid leave of absence. How's that for screwy? But seeing as I only worked for my company 6 months before I took off 18 weeks of paid disability, 4 weeks of vacation, and another 16 weeks of unpaid leave (if I go back in July), it probably isn't unreasonable of them to ask me to consider helping out a little.

But waking up early? Showering? Not being able to hold and smell that sweet girl all day? OK, I'm not talking about it. It's making me sad already. I know, I know, I'm lucky to have six solid months with her, but it's still just a little heartbreaking.