Mommy's Dirty Little Secret

So...I've been living a lie for the past 8 months. I've been masquerading as a stay-at-home-mom, but in reality I've been working in a variety of ways: taking on freelance work, working on a political campaign, then taking on projects as a consultant. I just couldn't stop! Poor little Max (and Karol and Patrick) have not really had 100% of mommy since we moved to New York.

I realize now that I may have been exhibiting early signs of workaholism. But today I am turning over a new leaf! I've finished my last project (okay that's a little bit untrue but the other clients are so small/easy, it doesn't really count) and I'm excited to throw myself full-force into my new role as Executive Director of Maternal Affairs at the Plomin Household (still debating between "Maternal Affairs" and "Family Affairs," actually).

Maximilian and I have a full day planned for tomorrow: laundry, bath for Max, grocery shopping, reading, cooking dinner, swings, a trip to Carters or Target for a couple new outfits in the 9-12 month range, and maybe even a nap with Max!

So be expecting cleaner, healthier, happier Plomin children from this point forward.

Army Strong Mom turns Stay-at-Home Mom: Day 1

First day of (banker) school!

Day 1 being home alone with the kiddies was looong, but it went relatively smoothly. Matt and I woke up around 5:30 to get ready for the day, and Matt took off to take the train down to Wall Street at 6:50. I was hoping to have some time to myself to work on stuff before the kids started stirring, but I only managed about 25 minutes before Karol and Patrick were ready to start the day.

After rubbing the sleep out of their eyes, the kids spent some time looking out window and observing our new world. We talked about the garbage truck and buses that were going by, and did some people watching as well. We've bought a bird feeder and set it in this window, but have yet to see any birds eating from it.

Before changing clothes and really starting the day, we got a little puzzle action. Matt and I set up a really handy shelving set that covers most of one wall to store all of the kids more engaging toys in the main living space instead of in their room, and it's really proven to be a great tool. Everything is visible and accessible to the kids, and that makes it ten times easier for them to put things away on their own, too.

After a little play, it was breakfast time - yogurt and blueberries and Cheerios - then it was time for getting dressed and brushing teeth, always a fun adventure.

By a quarter to 9, the kids were clamoring for Caillou, and since we don't have cable TV and it doesn't come on PBS until 2, we had to watch Caillou on YouTube!

After about 25 minutes of Caillou, it was back to playing with toys.

By 10 am, the kids were deeply engrossed in play and I was on a babysitter search, since I have doctors appointments all over the city next week and no one to watch the kids yet! I also managed to fill out a voter registration form and do the dishes before snack time.

Carrots and string cheese! Mommy had some yogurt.

Around 11:30 we read a couple of Bible stories, then it was time to make lunch - PB&J's and apple slices. The babysitting service called me back as well during lunch and we (hopefully) will have some reliable help by next week.

After lunch, Patrick got to pick the pre-naptime DVD, and he chose Holy Baby. I don't know why, but these kids will sit and watch a DVD that repeats long Catholic prayers 7 times without flinching once. It's kind of creepy. Luckily, this gave me some time to do some clean up of lunch and other household chores. By ten to 1, they were ready to start the naptime routine.

We wrapped up naptime just in time for me to catch a phone call from Matt. Since he's starting a new job, and my health insurance runs out (unless we do the COBRA thing) two days after Max is supposed to be induced, we're anxious to get Matt's insurance info. So after talking to him, I got started on a bunch of admin work. I tried to get into the human resources website for Matt, but he's still not 'in the system' yet. I checked email, checked out the forms for AFLAC for Max's delivery, filled out the forms the babysitting service needed and sent them back, rescheduled my chiropractor appointment to follow directly after my OB check up next Tuesday (so we'd only need the sitter for that day), uploaded a bunch of new pictures to Facebook, and I even had a chance to vacuum the couch and rug in the living room, which was desperately needed, and broom-swept the hardwood floors in all but the kids' rooms.

Around 3, Patrick woke up but was clearly not really ready to be 'up.' So he and I laid down in mommy's room for an extra half hour. I'm kind of glad that we had that time, because I probably wouldn't have taken a break on my own!

I tried to convince Patrick that it was still naptime, but by 3:30 he was asking for 'Thomas' (the Tank Engine), so, in lieu of popping in the video, which I wanted to save for later, we printed out some Thomas coloring pages, and that seemed to do the trick. We had some strawberries for post-nap snack, and Karol was up and participating in the fun by 4.

This is Patrick's picture pose face. I love it.

Just as I was thinking I really needed to throw something together in the crockpot for dinner, Matt texted that he wouldn't be home until late. In a way, that saved me from putting together a crockpot experiment meal, but since our stove is broken (they're replacing it soon, hopefully), there weren't a whole lot of options for cooking outside of the microwave.

After coloring, we made paper airplanes which, between making, decorating, and flying, occupied them for an hour.

By then it was time to make dinner, so I gave in to the Thomas video requests. The no-stove solution? Cheesy scrambled eggs cooked in the microwave and corn and peas. I thought it was going to be a big flop, but the kids LOVED the cheesy eggs! I had to make a second batch and they literally ate about three eggs each, plus a decent helping of veggies. They both actually both ate very well all through out the day; I wonder if they're having growth spurts. During dinner I actually had a chance to read an article in the newspaper! It was the paper from the day before, but whatever.

After dinner, bath time. The kids soaked in the tub for about a half hour, brushed teeth, and put on pajamas.

I read about a million books for story time, and when all was said and done the kids were down and out by a quarter to 8. So, I ran some dishwater, put away the few things that were still out around the house, checked my email, then started this post.

Matt finally got home around 8:50 and we told each other all about the day.

Moved In

My oh my, it's been a busy week and a half. We've been making the move to NYC, which in a lot of ways took a lot longer than we expected. We're still not completely out of boxes, and Max's room is kind of a temporary catch-all for the stuff we can't deal with at the moment, but for the most part we've turned this little three bedroom into a home for Karol, Pat, Matt and I. I think I'll tell the story in pictures.

Patrick and Karol are playing in the courtyard of our Arlington apartment, waiting for Mimu and Grandpa Plomin to arrive last Friday. Matt & friends spent the whole day loading the U-Haul and I had my last day at work.

We got a late start and some hiccups in the plan for driving up Friday night, so we stayed at a hotel just south of Baltimore and woke up at 5 to drive up to NYC.

Here's our U-Haul and one of the moving guys we hired to help us unload, bright and early at 9:30am.

Here's our new apartment! No, not in the Sushi shop, four floors above it.

Working on unloading...

Matt has gotten a LOT of handyman experience. He built a bunch of new furniture (this is Karol & Pat's new bed), and hung shelving and pictures.

Our new kitchen table! It has leaves to fold out and we found it in the 'As Is' section of Ikea. I think it was a display model. We got lucky, because this table (that I'd already decided was 'the one') was discontinued, so you can't get it new anymore.

Karol and Patrick arrive on Monday! Here they are exploring their new bunk beds.

Patrick's on the bottom and Karol's on the top. Thomas the Tank Engine sheets for Pat and Disney Princess sheets for Karol.

First bath in the new - much smaller - bathroom. Mommy is not a fan of the faucet being in the middle.

Karol helped me unpack some of her clothes.

K & P 'sort' hair clips while I unpack stuff in our bedroom. They made a mess, but it occupied them for quite a while.

Patrick tested the new freedom of his big boy bed for a couple of nights, getting up and sneaking into bed with mom and dad at 3am. We were too tired to put him back! These boys were so adorable I just had to snap a picture.

We've spent quite a lot of time at Ikea and Home Depot. Here's K & P working on their math skills in the children's section of Ikea. Mmm, gotta love the Swedish Meatballs for lunch!

We spent a lot of mornings at a diner a few blocks away because it took us days to get the kitchen set up. Groceries in Manhattan are ridiculous (think $8 for a small box of cereal), luckily the day before Matt started work we were able to drive out to Ft. Hamilton (about 1 hr each way, in Brooklyn) to the commissary and stocked up. The money we saved was WELL worth the drive.

Here's Karol enjoying some eggs and pancakes.

The living room is very kid-centric. Matt built all these little white shelves and all of the kids' toys now have their own special places, which makes clean up MUCH easier. The kids are getting used to putting away Toy A before getting out Toy B.

So now it's time to test out our new system with Matt going to work and me (eek!) staying home. I'm fearful that I will lose my mind, or spend every minute entertaining the kids, or become TV mom and let them watch PBSKids all day. I'm striving to find balance. I guess we'll see how it goes!

A New World Order

This was week 1 of Daddy Duty. Since Matt's completely done with school, we've set the childcare tech free to pursue bigger and better things, and now Matt is stay-at-home-dad...I know what you're thinking - I'm scared, too!

No, just kidding. The kids survived and Matt's actually got them on a pretty tight schedule. I've been trying to help out as much as I can before work and at lunchtime, other than that, he's on his own. No surprise here, Karol is eating it up having Daddy around 24/7. She is such a daddy's girl.

Last weekend we both GRADUATED!!! And now we have Master's degrees. It still hasn't sunken in yet. Matt's got his post-grad job, now I have to figure out what I'm going to do with mine, after Max arrives, of course.

Speaking of which, he's been a pain in the back recently, literally. I've always had a little acute lower back pain during pregnancy, but in the past couple of days its been debilitating. It started Friday, and luckily, being at work is actually easier on the muscles than being at home is (Patrick loves his mommy but he's heavy!).

So now it's back to work on Monday. Only 11 1/2 more weeks of lugging this kid around the hard way!