Week "Off"

Duane has been on vacation this week, and I must admit, it has been really nice to have him around. I think I have a pretty good handle on this two-kid thing, but I will freely admit to losing my patience a little more than usual with my overactive 3-year-old. She has a tendency to crave attention, and it can be hard when I am tending to Gavin and she is asking me to look at her run in circle for the 100th time in 5 minutes.

Having Duane around really helps with that, because he can wear her down by playing with her while I tend to Gavin. Then when Gavin goes down for his nap, I get a little bit of quality time with Rachel, and occasionally I can slip out to run errands with her while Duane stays at home to watch Gavin. It's also nice to have the adult company and to spend some nice quality time with my husband. We are so blessed that his job is going very well and they value him, but when he is home from work, he still isn't really "home from work." He is out of town 2 nights a week, and when he is home, he gets several calls at night and occasionally has to run into the Columbus plant. I am grateful for the added income his promotion brings, because it is allowing us to give our children nice things and to get ourselves in a better situation to where maybe we can get a house with some property down the road, but having him home (and somewhat relaxed) has been really refreshing.

Tuesday was my birthday, and Duane took Rachel to the store in the morning to let me "sleep in" (read: sleep until 8 a.m. rather than 6:45 a.m., which is the time at which Rachel's internal alarm has been set since Gavin's arrival). He also knows the key to my heart, because he returned with a Tim Horton's coffee, flowers, a cake, and a card.

Later in the day, when I was able to get ready and get Gavin situated, we went bowling at Gahanna Lanes, our favorite bowling alley. Rachel wasn't really interested in whether she knocked any pins down, but she really liked throwing the ball with all her strength and running back to watch it come up the return. And I bowled very well (ahem, using the bumper lanes).

After that we headed home for everyone's naps. I didn't take one, and I need to get back to doing that, but I didn't want to spend any of my birthday knocked out. I used the quiet around the house as an opportunity to tend to some things I have been meaning to do. And then my parents came by to watch the kids for us while Duane and I escaped to dinner. It was a really nice birthday, overall. Rachel has been doing so well with Gavin. Aside from some general frustration at having to wait a little longer to get what she wants when I am nursing him, she is very attentive. I feel like I have a side-seat mommy with me when she is home -- she does not like her little brother to cry, so she makes sure I know he is crying until he stops crying. She also runs to get me things I need when I ask her, watches almost every diaper change, and kisses his head several times a day. She is a delight to watch with him.

Wednesday, my friends Kim and Lawrene stopped over with their kids. We are all mommies of two now, so it is interesting to watch the interaction. Kim gave me this wonderful birthday gift:

Lawrene gave me a ton of boy clothes, and I let her go through the first bin of Rachel's clothes. It is pretty apparent that I spent way too much money on clothes for Rachel over the years. I have roughly 8 bins of clothes!

The rest of the week, we have tried to relax with each other at home. Duane has worked around the house, and I have had to convince him to take time for himself to relax. It will be sad when he goes back to work next week, because the company has been nice at home. I bought myself the book The Help today because I saw the movie with my mom and sister last Friday, and maybe it was just my hormones, but I LOOOOVED it. It was funny, sad, inspirational, and depressing all rolled into one big lump of emotion. So I figure I will read the book while I sit at home alone with Gavin.

Friday, I ventured out with both kids to have breakfast with my mom and sister. Rachel was very well-behaved, and Gavin slept almost the entire breakfast. But I will say, I had my first baby boy experience. Gavin pooped through his diaper...this I am used to. Rachel did it several times. However, when I went to change him, he began to pee. I quickly covered his little doodah with a wipe. After many seconds, I removed the wipe to continue cleaning the poop. He began to pee again. This pattern continued four times. I just laughed and shook my head. I finally got the little guy cleaned up, and then he spit up on himself. It was comical for me, but luckily I didn't have to go anywhere directly following the breakfast!

I also picked up Gavin's newborn pictures Friday. I love them! As you can see in my new header, Rachel was quite the character for the session as well. I wish I could post them all here, but here is one of my (many) favorites:

I also have a lot of cakes to make in the next couple of weeks, not the least of which is a wedding cake for a friend. It is a small wedding, and that is the ONLY reason I agreed to make the cake, because that is a LOT of pressure on me. I am already stressing about it.

And I can't believe it, but next Saturday kicks off the 2011 NCAA College Football season! I won't be in town for the first game, for good reason -- I am headed to Kentucky for my friend Lori's bridal shower and bachelorette party! I actually went to KY on Monday this week to plan and address the invitations with her friend Bethany. I am taking Gavin with me for the bridal shower and then my brother and his girlfriend will be babysitting for the bachelorette party.

Monday is my follow-up appointment with my OB/GYN. It is a little earlier than the typical 6-week follow-up, but I am hoping she gives me the go-ahead to resume exercise. I only gained 30 pounds with Gavin, which was my goal and a LOT better than the 42 pounds I gained with Rachel. However, I also hadn't lost the last 10 pounds of Rachel weight when I got pregnant again, and I still have about 12 pounds of Gavin weight on top of that. So all-in-all, I have about 25 pounds of weight that I would like to lose, and while I realize I just had a baby, my goal is to at least get close to my pre-Gavin weight by Lori's wedding in October. I have just about 7 weeks to do this. Then I would like to lose another 5-10 pounds by Christmas and be down to my pre-Rachel weight by the beginning of next summer. So not only am I eager to get back to exercising, I am probably going to join Weight Watchers as well. The problem with dieting and exercising too vigorously is that I have to take in extra calories and not burn too many calories while I am nursing Gavin, or my supply will dwindle. Gavin's nursing is another blog entry, but I don't want to do anything to jeopardize my nursing abilities until he is at least eating baby food around 4 months, so I have to balance my fitness goals with my mommy goals!

Stay tuned -- the next 2 weeks are going to be busy, but after that, I have about 6 more weeks of peaceful leave to enjoy before heading back to work. *Sigh* I never thought I could be a stay-at-home mom once I started liking my job, but now that I am home, I wonder...