Like a lot of the country last week we experienced snow, cold weather, more snow and more cold weather. The cold weather wasn’t just your regular cold weather though. It was negative 40+ degrees outside. Yes, forty degrees BELOW zero! The entire city shut down, which meant our toddler stayed home for 3 out of the 5 days.
When Friday rolled around, I was ready for our toddler to go back to daycare. He needed to release some energy and I needed a break. I woke him up excited to get the day started, which was quickly met with resistance. As soon as he woke up, he told me he didn’t want to go to daycare. AWESOME!
I like to think I am a fun person to be around, so clearly my toddler must feel the same way and that is why he didn’t want to go to daycare. I am sure it had nothing to do with the fact he could watch TV and play on his iPad at home. We went back-and-forth. He told me he didn’t want to go to daycare and I kept telling him he was going.
Finally, he let up and said, “Ok. I want to wear pajamas.” I paused, and thought for a second and then told him “No.” He had been in pajamas pretty much all week. It was time to get dressed and join the rest of the world. However, he was persistent. If he was going to daycare, according to him, he was wearing pajamas. He opened his drawer pulled out his Spiderman pajamas with wings and said, “How about these?” At that point I was done for the day and it was 6:05 a.m. I told him, “Fine. Let’s go eat breakfast because you are going to daycare today.”
Once he was off to daycare, I settled in for the day with our 2-month-old. My husband and I went to the gym, grocery shopped and got organized for the weekend which included our toddler’s first soccer class and having friends over for the Super Bowl. As always, the weekend flew by. I cannot help but think it went extra fast because I am inching closer and closer to maternity leave being over.
Today marks one week until I am back in the office. I still cannot believe how quick the last few months have gone. How is it already February?! Our baby is no longer a newborn. He is quite the chunker rocking 3 and 6 month clothing at just 2 months. He is smiling, laughing and telling stories (cooing). His favorite person is his older brother, and I like to think I come in a close second. Our toddler has always been a daddy’s boy so I am hopeful our baby is a bit of a mama’s boy.
With one week left before I am 100% back to reality, my goals are quite simple. Get everything together for our little guy to start daycare and try to catch up on the sleep I have been deprived of the last 11 weeks. It may be wishful thinking on trying to get caught up on sleep, but I am going to give it a try.
My husband is taking some of his paternity leave this week to give me a chance to get organized and have a little space from the baby. We figured easing the transition from being around the baby 24/7 to not seeing him the entire day is a big change. I am currently welcoming anything to help make the transition easier. I feel coming back from maternity leave the second time is going to be harder than the first.
Day one of paternity leave for my husband is almost complete and he has already checked things off of his to-do list. Clearly an overachiever. He went through his clothes to see what brought him joy (thanks Marie Kondo). This led to two garage bags of clothes to donate. I tried to go through my clothes but quickly stopped. After having a baby trying to get rid of clothes when you are in between sizes is a really bad idea. There is zero joy in doing that, so I will save that task for another time.
With all of my mixed emotions of maternity leave coming to an end I asked my husband, “What if I became a stay-at-home mom?” He looked at me and said, “You do know the boys would not go to daycare. They would be with you all day.” I thought about what he had said for a solid 5 seconds and replied, “Oh. Well in that case, nevermind.”