What I DON'T miss

Truth be told - I've spent the last couple days, and especially this weekend, being so very grateful for what little time I do get to spend with pepito that I don't think this list is going to be as fun as I thought.  But since I said I would do it - I will try to be entertaining.

What I DO NOT miss about staying home:

1.  The endless washing of sippy cups.  Since he's at daycare for 8 - 9 hours a day, I am no longer in charge of how he receives his liquids and whether or not it is in a clean cup, and I am so relieved to only have to handle two cups a day.  One in the morning for juice and one at night for milk.  It's really quite awesome how little we run the dishwasher now.

my sweet jack o'lantern acting silly 

2.  Tantrums.  Over nothing.  Though, I am still privy to these, but not as much.  Which is great because he's become a pro at screaming, crying, stomping his feet, and trying to make us believe that he is pitiful.  Is there such a thing as terrible 14 months - or do I have no clue what is to come?!

he didn't want the sliding to end...and I must mention that 

he insisted on going down the big boy slide all by himself.  

This kid has no fear.  God help us.

3.  Constantly chasing him around, for 9 hours a day by myself, making sure that he is not trying to pull the cast iron fireplace over onto his head, eat dog food (though, honestly, I gave up on this one for awhile), breaking our china, getting into toxic chemicals, stabbing himself with knives from the dishwasher, and making a ginormous mess from everything in the trashcan.  It's SOOO nice to only have to do this for 3 hours on week days.

Watching Daddy do yard work

4.  Feeling the absolute need to get out of the house just to have something, anything, to do.  And usually getting out of the house meant going to a fabric store or Target, so our bank account is glad I have somewhere else to  be.  My poor sewing machine is going to revolt though if I ever get to turn it back on.  I'm sure her feelings are VERY hurt.

Giving the cows What For

5.  Trying to figure out what to feed the kid, nevermind keep his nutrition up to par.  I'm so glad that we are only responsible for one meal on week days, because the pressure was starting to get to me.  I began considering it a success if he ate enough of anything to be considered a meal serving.  Icecream included.  Hey - it's dairy!  Finicky eater....

The Naked Piano Player, while clutching his otter...

6.  Having to invent things to do to keep me busy and entertained.  Cleaning the house never counted, and I'm talking about stuff besides playing with and managing William.  I mean, for me.  Not that I minded creating sewing projects but when I would run out of on hand materials or had no specific project that needed to be done, I got antsy and super bored.  And when I'm bored, I eat.  I don't miss that at all.  And hopefully the scale will reward me with happier numbers...

Like Father, Like Son - too too cute

7.  Taking William on lunch dates.  He's a great errand running buddy, but hates to sit still in a restaurant.  I was always completely exhausted after a thirty - forty five minute lunch, even with lots of back-up peeps to help.  When it's your kid acting a fool - it's awful - even if no one else minded.

Ok - seriously - I'm having a hard time thinking of anything else to put on the list.  I honestly miss being home with my sweet baby boy more than I thought I would.  Running errands at night just kinda sucks and on the weekend I just want to have family time and ignore that we are eating cheese quesadillas because there's nothing else in the pantry.  But anyway.  Back to work tomorrow....

Loves.

What I Miss

I've been at work for one week and two days and it has been an adjustment all around our house.  Poor pepito is probably having the roughest time but Sam says that the full on meltdowns have stopped during the morning drop off at daycare, so that's a good start.  We're hoping by next week he will think that school is fun and not us abandoning him.  We'll see.

So in honor of our (my) new life - this is what I miss from my old life:

1.  Staying in pajamas until lunch....or later...or all day.
2.  Big snuggly hugs from William after nap time.
3.  Baby laughter at 9am.
4.  Watching Dinosaur Train with a lap resident.
5.  Grocery shopping in the morning.
6.  117 phone calls to my bestie daily.
7.  Reading blogs so often that there are no favorites left unclicked.
8.  Sewing.
9.  Random and spontaneous hugs and kisses from the resident mini-person.
10.  Going to the playground in the morning and swinging with William.
11.  Knowing that I COULD go off on vacation at any time.
12.  Having free access, if we went grocery shopping in the morning, to caffeine.
13.  Playing "I'm gonna get you" with pepito.
14.  "MaMa MaMa MaMa"
15.  Feeling like SuperMom and William thinking so too.
16.  Watching William learn new and super fun things in real time.
17.  Being able to put errands off until I wasn't tired and sleepy the next day.
18.  Never having blisters on my feet because I was always either barefoot or in flip flops.
19.  Taking impromptu trips to Chill because William "wanted" some yogurt.
20.  William.
*The list is much longer in my head but it starts to get duplicate-y....just so you know - I absolutely miss more than 20 things of my life home with pepito burrito...

i love him - THE cutest kid on the block

I will say, I have missed being home with William a lot more than I had anticipated.  A LOT MORE.  Part of it might have been that I didn't have a computer at work until the end of the fourth day and felt totally useless, which is something I never felt at home.  I wasn't a peon in my house.  I knew things.  I was super mom.  Atleast, I'd like to think so...

running around the playground - and I MADE his outfit!!

And it's hard to only see him for two - three hours a day MAX.  So I'm very grateful that life hit us hard and I got to stay home for the first 14 months of his life but I don't know that I would say that I would do it again because it's not like we had a choice.  And that's something I really wish more of the people in my life understood.  I didn't choose to stay at home and if I had had the choice, I wouldn't have stayed home.  Financial stability and being able to give William what he deserves when the times come is important to us.  Though I will say that by being forced to stay at home I don't have any guilt about sending him to daycare and going to work, which is nice.  I could give a humongo rant on this topic because it seems to come up so often that people think I made a choice to stay home.  But, Sam wouldn't approve of my soapbox (love ya babe), so I'll stay off it for now.  Just saying is all.

he LOOOVVEESSS the swing

I'll be honest - I don't know how many times I've said in the past week and a half "I miss my old life".  Because I do.  I find myself thinking I can go get diaper creme tomorrow before naptime but I can't - because I'll be at work.  So last night at 8pm I ran to WalMart to get juice, diaper creme, and sinus infection medicine.  Thank goodness I'm still anonymous in this town - I'm sure I was a sight to see!  So, in times like that, I miss it.  I also wish that the day care had a video stream where I could just see that he was doing good and having fun because he plays possum when I come pick him up and pretends like he's upset even though he was having a great time 20 seconds before he saw me.  Oh well.  The time will come when he'll be upset I'm making him leave...

his first day of school - looking handsome

So this post is long overdue and probably way too random and babbly but it's part of what's been on my mind and going on over here in our house.  Next up - what I don't miss about being home.  haha - will probably be a lot more entertaining!!