Final maternity leave checklist -- and a TREAT at the end of the post

I know you've all been wondering: So how did you do on your maternity leave checklist??!?!

Here are the results (read to the end, because there's a treat at the end!)

• Finish sending out thank-you cards to friends
• Organize and clean out my basement
• Swap out winter and spring/summer clothes
• Figure out what to do with maternity clothes Tahira said she wants them. So I'm holding on to them for her. (Hmmm. I won't say anything about what that implies. But I hope it implies a sweet new friend for Clair, sooner rather than later.)
• Frame (and/or re-frame) photos; hang them in the house
• Find an aesthetically-pleasing (or if not, then cheap and easy) way to organize the boys' books in the living room play area
• Take my bedroom comforter to the Laundromat to wash
• Take my Christmas tablecloth to the dry cleaners (yes, I still have not done that and it's April. And what?)
• Take some things back to Macy's/Target
• Get a pedicure
• Get my eyebrows done
• Go to the Dominicans and get my hair done (This item and the previous two are all part of Operation Bring the Sexy Back. New spring/summer clothes are also a part of that mission, but only after this baby belly has gone the way of the wooly mammoth.)
• Go visit friends with Clair, or the boys, or all 3 (Kelly, in particular)
• Go visit friends all alone! Preferably where a meal and cocktails are present (Angel, Kelly, Beth, Stacey) Saw Beth! Had awesome time. Failed miserably on the others, although Kelly and I did hang out at the New Edition concert!!!
• Go visit Granddad
• Have lunch with Lester during the work week
• Go out with Lester on a real grown-up date We went on TWO dates!
• Take my Dad out for lunch again, this time with Tahira since she missed it last time
• Get Clair on a predictable eating and sleeping schedule
• Get Clair sleeping in her own bed
• Wean the boys from their nighttime bottle
• Get on the pill I've had my prescription for weeks. Gotta wait for Aunt Flo to show before I can start taking them. My hair has just started falling out (inevitable post-pregnancy thinning) so maybe that means my hormone levels are getting back to normal. So maybe THAT means Aunt Flo will show sometime this century.
• Make an appointment with my primary care doctor to get my sugars tested Tested. Fasting sugars were 89, which is good. A1C is 6.1, which is not as good, but not terrible either. So the Doc said let's check again in 3 months.
• Plan and have the boys' 2nd birthday party.  No party, but we had a wonderful day!  

That was all that was on my list, but I also cleaned out my bedroom closet, took the boys to the zoo, went to the NEW EDITION CONCERT!!! and just all and all had a very fulfilling time off.  As you can see, I still have a few things left to do. So I'll work those in over the course of the summer/year.  No stress. It'll all happen.

Even though I  enjoyed my time off, I still feel like it wasn't long enough. And I miss my babies! It's honestly not as heart-wrenching as I imagined it would be, mostly because I know they are in great hands with Michelle, but I do miss them. :-(

Thank goodness Michelle sends me videos like these!

 (I told you there was a treat at the end!)

Another full weekend!

As the weather gets warmer, and my maternity leave days dwindle, I seem to be cramming more and more into the weekends. This weekend was no different.

Friday morning, I met up with my friend Jen and her two sweeties Molly and Keegan (Keegan's just a few weeks younger than Clair) and had a playground playdate. The boys and Clair had a ball!

Friday night, Lester and I had Date Night!! (Thanks to Michelle, who donated her babysitting time just because she is super sweet like that. We really LOVE Michelle.)

Lester gave me flowers when he got home from work (awww!), and then we went to a Turkish restaurant for dinner, where the food was amazing. We ate and drank and talked and, because we had a window seat, we people-watched and talked some more. It was really lovely.

 As good as the Turkish are with delicious meats and rice dishes, they are not so hot in the dessert department. So when we left there, we went to Morton's for their LEGENDARY HOT CHOCOLATE CAKE!!!! I honestly could not, in a million years, tell you how much I love Morton's LEGENDARY HOT CHOCOLATE CAKE! I love it so much that I have to say it in ALL CAPS every single time I say it, or else you will not properly understand how much I love, love, love Morton's LEGENDARY HOT CHOCOLATE CAKE!

It takes 30 minutes to make it, so while we waited, I ordered colossal shrimp cocktail and Lester had a Glenfidditch 12 year, neat. Then we both devoured the LEGENDARY HOT CHOCOLATE CAKE!!! and nearly collapsed from being so stuffed and happy and also a little bit drunk.

When we got home, all the children were asleep, and they stayed that way until ...wait for it.... 8 o'clock the next morning!!! Seriously, I think I can still hear angels singing from that marvelous occurrence.

We hustled and got ready so we could meet our friends Mark and Kelly (and their little girl Naomi) at the Touch-a-Truck festival in their neighborhood. We imagined our boys would lose their minds over all the trucks, buses, cars, etc. they'd be able to see, touch and climb in. And lose their minds they did, but not in the way we saw it in our heads.

Cary loved riding on the little train they had set up.

Someday I'll tell you how my child got out in public and acted as if he had no idea what "wait your turn" means. #Iswearmychildhashometraining

  And Dean loved honking the horn in the school bus.

What? This IS my happy face.

But other than that, Touch-a-Truck was a major FAIL. There were tears upon tears upon tears upon tears galore. "No like it!!!" Cary wailed. "Up! Up!" Dean demanded.

It was really noisy and incredibly loud what with all the sirens blaring and horns honking, and the trucks and buses must've seemed frighteningly bigger to them up close. No amount of balloon-buying, bounce-house-attempting (also a major FAIL) or faux excitement on our part could stop the melting down. At a certain point, both boys had to be held or else they would completely lose it. 

Cary, being held by Kelly, refused to even look at the camera. Dean was fine as long as he was in Lester's arms.

So, we said reluctant good-byes to our friends and boogied out of there. This is one way we know that we have gotten better at parenting. Early on in their lives, we would have 1) felt like we had done something wrong because our children were so unhappy 2) tried over and over to get them to see how much fun Touch-a-Truck day was 3) sniped and stressed because of the heat, the crying, the noise and the fact that we got up early and hustled down the highway to get to Touch-a-Truck and these darn kids don't appreciate it! And we would really like to talk to our friends, dangit! And it's so frikkin' hot!! And you LOVE trucks, boys! We have to read "My Big Truck Book" and "My Truck is Stuck" 8,000 times a day! What is the PROBLEM?!

But nearly 2 years into this thing, we know to just cut our losses, pack up the crying kiddos, laugh at the insanity, kiss our friends, arrange a time to see them without crying kiddos (and with cocktails instead) and keep on with the rest of the day. No problemo.

So that's what we did.

We first went to see my sister at her house so we could give the boys' cousins Aminah and Kwahli their birthday presents. Aminah turned 7 on Friday and Kwahli turned 4 on Saturday. I have pictures from that popsicle-filled visit as well, but my sister Kadija would kill me for posting them, because she hates photos of herself. So I will respect her wishes and not post them.

From there, we went to my Mom's and spent the entire day there. My mother bought the boys a bubble lawnmower that was supposed to be for their birthday, but she couldn't wait to give it to them. I don't have to tell you that they thought this was the BEST. THING. EVER.

What? This IS my happy face!

Clair enjoyed napping with her cousin Matthew, both on the floor and in my arms.

Zebra-print throw = napping New-Jersey-style

 

Mom and Matthew, me and Clair

And because it was Cinco de Mayo, we made soft tacos for the kids and strawberry margaritas for the adults. (Tahira has the best strawberry margarita recipe, with real blended strawberries. Yummmm!) 

All the Davises were exhausted by the end of the night, so we put on an Elmo Sings the Hits DVD in the car on the way home, keeping Cary and Dean singing happily -- and not crying even a little bit, despite the fact that they barely napped all day and it was 2 hours past their bedtime! The no-crying also made Mom and Dad happy, which is why I totally thumb my nose at the "your children will DIE if you let them ever watch television before they turn 2" madness.

At home, we put the kids in a warm, soapy tub to wash off all the popsicles, birthday cake, grass, Touch-a-Truck tears, taco sauce, bubble mixture and strawberries, got all three crankies in the bed, had another Cinco de Mayo toast and conked out ourselves. Clair slept until 6:30 a.m. (in her own crib!) drank a bottle and went back to sleep until 10. Her brothers didn't make a peep until 9:30 a.m.

Sunday morning, I made French toast, put the kids down for a nap, met two friends for lunch, came home, played with the boys, cooked dinner, drove BACK to my Mom's because we accidentally left Lester's car keys there, listened to two awesome "This American Life" episodes all the way through without interruption on the way up and back (that app is the best thing ever), got home in time to crawl into bed and watch Mad Men with Lester, while all three children slept (in their own cribs!) until the morning.

(NOTE: Notice how I am purposely NOT saying the words "sl*** thr*** the n****" where Clair is concerned, because I know that as soon as I do, it'll never happen again.)

Now it's Monday again and I only have TWO WEEKS left of maternity leave (pardon me while I go cry my eyes out). And I can't decide if I should rest up from the weekend or cram some more stuff in! Like organizing my bathroom closet? Also, the boys turn 2 on Friday and I still have no plan for their big day, so I really need to get crackin' on that.

Hmmm.

I think I'll take nap and organize and plan later. :-)

P.S. SERIOUSLY, WHERE IS AUNT FLO???

Checklist update and Mommy-guilt kicks in

So Janna (oh, she of the most beautiful twin boy-children I have ever seen), asked me how I was doing with the Maternity Leave Checklist. Good question, I thought. So I thought I'd check, just to keep a running tally.

So here's where I am (with 5 weeks of maternity leave to go):

• Finish sending out thank-you cards to friends
• Organize and clean out my basement
• Swap out winter and spring/summer clothes
• Figure out what to do with maternity clothes (consignment? Freecycle? Give to a friend?)
• Frame (and/or re-frame) photos; hang them in the house
• Find an aesthetically-pleasing (or if not, then cheap and easy) way to organize the boys' books in the living room play area
• Take my bedroom comforter to the Laundromat to wash
• Take my Christmas tablecloth to the dry cleaners (yes, I still have not done that and it's April. And what?)
• Take some things back to Macy's/Target
• Get a pedicure
• Get my eyebrows done
• Go to the Dominicans and get my hair done (This item and the previous two are all part of Operation Bring the Sexy Back. New spring/summer clothes are also a part of that mission, but only after this baby belly has gone the way of the wooly mammoth.) I bought a few things, but nothing compared to what's coming when my gut is gone. Lester, be prepared for the spending spree, sweetie.
• Go visit friends with Clair, or the boys, or all 3 (Kelly, in particular)
• Go visit friends all alone! Preferably where a meal and cocktails are present (Angel, Kelly, Beth, Stacey) I have dates scheduled with Beth and with Stacey. Angel, Kelly? Where you at, yo?
• Go visit Granddad
• Have lunch with Lester during the work week
• Go out with Lester on a real grown-up date Just asked Michelle to babysit on May 4, so that's in the works
• Take my Dad out for lunch again, this time with Tahira since she missed it last time
• Get Clair on a predictable eating and sleeping schedule
• Get Clair sleeping in her own bed
• Wean the boys from their nighttime bottle Down to 6 ounces a night. Next week starts 5 ounces.
• Get on the pill Picked up my prescription yesterday. Gotta wait for Aunt Flo to show before I can start taking them.
• Get on the pill!
• Get ON THE PILL!
• Make an appointment with my primary care doctor to get my sugars tested Called and he said call back in 3 weeks, because they need a certain amount of time to have passed after delivery to get a true reading.
• Plan and have the boys' 2nd birthday party. Working on this. It'll be on May 12th, and I'm going to get them a play kitchen. But that's as far as I've gotten.

Looking at this list makes me think about the fact that I am doing a lot more this maternity leave than I EVER did when I was home with the boys. This is good news; it shows I'm getting better at this "being a Mommy" business. But my Mommy-guilt makes me think that maybe I should be concentrating a bit more on my newborn baby. :-(

When I was home with C and D, I was really paralyzed at the idea of taking two infants anywhere by myself. So I just stayed in the house, by myself. And consequently, I spent a lot of time just being with them: singing, talking, reading, sitting in front of a long floor mirror turned on its side, pointing out the features on their little faces, doing Tummy Time etc. I can't say I was aware of this time as "quality time," necessarily; as I noted, it was mostly by default because I was NOT leaving the house and I was sorta freaked out and fascinated by them, so I over-compensated by being all up in their faces all the time.

But with Clair, I'm not so freaked out. So I know if I leave her in the bouncy chair for a bit while I have a sandwich -- or clean out the basement -- she'll live. And I have two boys to play with, so I'm often holding her in one arm while entertaining/chastening/tending to them. She's like an appendage, sometimes, if I'm being honest. A cute and cuddly appendage, but still...

So should I really just chill out on all the chores, and try to cherish this time that I'm getting with her? She really is a totally fun baby -- much more animated and smiley than Cary and Dean ever were at this age (or even older, actually). And you can tell she craves closeness and socialization. She LOVES it when we talk to her and smile at her and sing at her. LOVES it. So maybe I should give her that while I'm off? It's only 5 weeks of time that I get with her. And what on this list can't be done another time, like a weekend or a random day off? And what will really happen if something on this list doesn't get done? Meanwhile, my baby daughter (my LAST child ever) will only be this age once. And never again.

Look how peaceful and sweet she is when she sleeps! Awww.

Dilemma!Sigh. Perhaps there's a happy medium?

Maternity leave checklist

Best thing to see in the morning, especially after a long night!




Isn't that sweet?! :-)

So...writing down the things I want the boys to see and do before they turn 3 has me in the list-making mood.

So I've decided to write down the things I want to accomplish while I'm on maternity leave. Writing things down (and putting them out in the blogosphere) ups the ante and makes me more accountable. So, even though a lot of what I want to accomplish is mundane, I'm still gonna write it down.

Here goes:

• Finish sending out thank-you cards to friends
• Organize and clean out my basement
• Swap out winter and spring/summer clothes
• Figure out what to do with maternity clothes (consignment? Freecycle? Give to a friend?)
• Frame (and/or re-frame) photos; hang them in the house
• Find an aesthetically-pleasing (or if not, then cheap and easy) way to organize the boys' books in the living room play area
• Take my bedroom comforter to the Laundromat to wash
• Take my Christmas tablecloth to the dry cleaners (yes, I still have not done that and it's April. And what?)
• Take some things back to Macy's/Target
  
• Get a pedicure
• Get my eyebrows done
• Go to the Dominicans and get my hair done (This item and the previous two are all part of Operation Bring the Sexy Back. New spring/summer clothes are also a part of that mission, but only after this baby belly has gone the way of the wooly mammoth.)
  
• Go visit friends with Clair, or the boys, or all 3 (Kelly, in particular)
• Go visit friends all alone! Preferably where a meal and cocktails are present (Angel, Kelly, Beth, Stacey)
• Go visit Granddad
• Have lunch with Lester during the work week
• Go out with Lester on a real grown-up date
  
• Take my Dad out for lunch again, this time with Tahira since she missed it last time
  
• Get Clair on a predictable eating and sleeping schedule
• Get Clair sleeping in her own bed
• Wean the boys from their nighttime bottle
• Get on the pill
• Get on the pill!
• Get ON THE PILL!
• Make an appointment with my primary care doctor to get my sugars tested
• Plan and have the boys' 2nd birthday party
  

This is a sizeable -- and somewhat daunting list -- but some of these things can be done on the same day, and others have to happen over time. For what it's worth, I have already started decreasing the amount of milk in the boys' nighttime bottles; I have a prescription for the pill being called into my pharmacy as we speak; and I've been working on Clair's haphazard eating/sleeping/non-crib-loving self since she was born.

I also still want to do fun things with the boys while I'm off, so I'll have to squeeze all this in around that. Honestly, that's most important since I don't know if I'll ever have this kind of time off again while they're young.

So now it's out there, my To-Do list for maternity leave (which ends officially May 16, meaning it's halfway over. Ack!)

You all hold me accountable, OK? As I said, I may never have this kind of time again.