So Much To Celebrate

We're coming off of a family and fun-filled week. I think the busy-ness is part of the reason I love the holiday season. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, all in three short months! And after the family leaves, the calm is even more defined and appreciated.

Yesterday we celebrated my mom's Halloween birthday, a couple days late. We were originally going to spend the day at her house. But thanks to a crazy windstorm which took out my parents' power, the party was relocated to our place. All four of my siblings and our kids were gathered together. It was nice to all be in the same place.

We had a nice cheese plate for an appetizer and I made our family's favorite Spaghetti casserole. It's amazingly delicious and insanely easy! I always use whole wheat pasta and the kids never even notice, much less protest, the extra healthiness.

The kids showed off their cute costumes.

My cute niece was an adorable bumble bee! 

Ryan showed off his eating skills.

My dad showed off his wrestling skills.

I filled a pinata for the kids....but since we weren't planning on having the party at our house, we were slightly under-prepared (can you believe we don't own a single rope?!) So we all improvised.

Jacob body-slammed the heck out of that pinata.

All the kids with their buckets of loot.

Everyone at the party was at risk of being pummeled by bouncey balls as Ryan practiced his throwing arm on unsuspecting guests. The kid has an arm!

Then we all sang happy birthday to Grandma.

When the guests left, my husband and I sat on the couch to watch a movie and sip the left over wine. The kids, blissfully unaware of Daylight Savings Time, woke us up at 6:00 a.m. My husband and I took turns dragging ourselves to the living room to comply with their occasional demands ("Mom, I'm hungry!" "Baba pees mama!" and  "Ryan POOPED!"). Then we snuck back into the warm covers and drifted in and out of sleep.

As I was about to get out of bed, my husband pulled me back in.

Husband: "Happy Anniversary."
Me: [holy crap! Totally forgot! Play it cool CP] "Happy Anniversary sexypants."
Husband: "I got you something."
Me: "You shouldn't have gotten me anything." [no seriously, you shouldn't have]

My husband hands me a plastic bag which clearly contains the sole object of my desire for the past three months... A Seahawks Russell Wilson jersey. (Did I really want the jersey or did I want the man....hmmmm, that's a hard one).

Me: "OMG. Thank you!"
Husband: "Don't buy me anything."
Me: "I didn't."

Ooops.

But in all seriousness, I'm so fortunate to be celebrating six years of marriage with this guy.

Dating

We don't agree on a lot of things. Ok, we don't agree on most things. But we are able to respect each other (mostly) and, most importantly, learn from each other. He's made me more appreciative of details and order. I think I've helped him to embrace the big picture and to enjoy a little bit of chaos and spontaneity once in a while.We made a good team. And cute kids.

Today is promising to be an awesome day, although we have no real plans to celebrate our anniversary. I'm going to meet up with my sister to find a bridesmaids dress for her March wedding in Tennessee (plane tickets BOOKED! I love flying!). The Seahawks are playing a home game today. I'm going to have to find a way to keep up with the game in between pulling bridesmaid dresses over my head. And I have a brand new Seahawks jersey to celebrate!

Go Seahawks!

New Breed Of Dads

I'm having one of those periods of time where the pendulum of work/life balance is swinging more heavily towards work. I've been noticing little things that I'm neglecting with the kids. Luckily, due to my new work arrangement, these things are mostly little. But they still bother me.

For example, I've been picking up the kids a little later than usual due to some high demand assignments at work. When we get home, I'm almost too exhausted to resist Jacob's demands for more background TV. I'm too tired to fight battles over vegetables. I only half-heartedly listen to Jacob's long, drawn out stories. I lack the patience to remind him nicely not to throw the ball around the living room, jump on furniture, or throw stuff at his brother. And, I often decide to tackle a sink full of dirty dishes (we freaking don't have a dishwasher- can you believe it?!) instead of getting on the floor to play with Ryan.

Basically, I see plenty of areas where a more selfless and energetic me (or any supermom, for that matter) would respond to the kids more patiently and more enthusiastically than I do. It makes me feel a bit deflated. I promise myself that I will do better. But then Jacob dumps a boxful of Cheerios on his train table or bounces a ball off Ryan's face and my good intentions quickly fly out the window. I yell. Jacob whines. Ryan cries. In an effort to back me up, my husband joins the yelling . And just like that, we've turned into everyone's favorite neighbors.

I know all that craziness is (mostly) just part of a temporary life imbalance due to an upcoming trial. I know that if I really got desperate at home, I could scale things back at work. But that's not easy for me to do for a surprising reason: I simply don't want to. At least, not right now.

I'm having a hard time leaving work at work. I'm having a hard time not over-promising. And I'm having a hard time leaving the office at my normal time. All because I absolutely love all of my assignments, cases, and projects. This is not a bad problem to have.

At work, I've been doing a lot of motion writing, which is the kind of challenge that I love the most. Which is weird because during school, I always had the hardest time writing persuasive essays. I think my young self would be very surprised that my older self nearly implodes from excitement each time a partner asks me to write a motion.

So....even when the life versus work balance is hard and tipped, things aren't that bad for me. I'm still having a great time. I can thank an incredible boss and an incredible job for that. Really, it's the kids that get the brunt of my exhaustion. But luckily, my husband and I are a pretty good team of working parents. Whenever I seem to lose steam on this whole parenting thing, my husband is able to jump in and fill in the parenting holes. I'm able to do the same when it's his turn for a daddy melt-down.

All I can say is thank GOD for the progressive men of my generation. My dad is awesome and I love him. BUT I cannot remember him ever changing a diaper or washing a single dirty dish. Honestly, if my husband wasn't so involved in every aspect of parenting, there is no way I would be able to do this whole working mom thing. Some might say that it's sad and bothersome that we don't automatically expect fathers to do half the work. I'm not trying to make a profound statement or to even be politically correct. All I'm saying is that my husband is awesome. We make a good team. And I'm very thankful. Because things could have been a lot harder if we weren't on the same page.

Super Dad Saves The Day

Before my trip to Vegas, I had left my husband alone with both kids for maybe....a couple hours. Even when it was just Jacob, I think he maybe handled one overnighter without me. So, I was a little worried to be jet-setting out of the state for three nights and four days and leaving the men alone together.

I knew the kids would be fine. I was actually worried for my husband. Jacob alone can be a lot of work when you are doing everything on your own. Throw in a 6 month old baby who still wakes up 1-2 times per night and you've got one tough, tough job! I actually had imagine stepping off the airplane to a frantic husband shouting, "How do you do it!? You're so amazing. You're never allowed to leave again!"

That's not exactly how it went down. It turns out, I had absolutely nothing to worry about. My husband picked me up at the airport in a squeaky clean, freshly vacuumed car filled with two sleeping kids. The kids were alive. They were clean. They were fed. My husband looked happy and upbeat. Not exhausted and frantic.

When I asked how it went he said, "Oh, it was easy. Ryan only woke up once a night and went right back to sleep. On Saturday, I let Jacob and Ryan play in the living room and then I slept in until 9am." WHAT?! He wasn't supposed to say that. He was supposed to go on and on about how essential I am to the family. That he could never do it without me! How he hasn't slept in three days. That Ryan was in tears from missing me so much. Humpff.

The real zinger though was coming home to a spotless house. With the floors swept and vacuumed, the dishes done, and the laundry folded. I was absolutely floored! The house never looks this clean when I'M home with the kids. He totally put me to shame. I guess I can't really use the kids as an excuse not to clean on the weekends anymore....

I guess it's good to know that if I ever ran away or was abducted by aliens, they'd be just fine.