Vacation | Before & After Children

A vacation for James and I three years ago would have consisted of the following:

• a flight to a tropical destination
• driving the countryside in a rental car looking for beautiful coastal cities
• stopping at various hotel/resorts and picking the one with the best ocean view
• sleeping til 10am and spending the day on the beach
• eating meals whenever we got hunger and filling the in between time with cocktails

A vacation now for us with two kids goes more like this:

• 6 hour car drive to the beach with mommy trying to entertain the munchkins when they are awake
• carrying two pack 'n plays and lots of toys in the Sequoia
• sleeping in the same room as the kids & waking up at 5 am every morning
  
• spending from 9 to noon on the beach with one kid who cries if sand gets on him and the other who is delighted by a bucket of water
• routinely eat meals and putting kids down for naps
• enjoying the one hour of quiet time after the kids go to sleep with your spouse before you pass out from the exhausting day of managing the kiddos

And the pictures below sum up our whole vacation at SeaGrove Beach - - -

My little baseball fan...

Mother of 2

Mother's day 2010 started off with a chill in the air and as the day has worn on the weather has gotten progressively more beautiful. I'm blogging from my lounge chair on my deck - how could this day get any better? Oh, my two beautiful kids could wake up from their naps and we could go to the park - that would be better. But I'm going to enjoy the breeze through my hair and the sun on my pale skin at this moment.

It's still crazy to think that I'm a mom. Some days I'm a great mom - patient, understanding, flexible, awake, alert, willing... And other days I'm not-so-great mom - short tempered, discouraged, dog-tired, disgruntled. Hey - we all have our good & bad days. Now, I just have my kids to tell me to snap out of it.

It's hard being an emotional creative and juggling all the duties of mom, wife, daughter, sister, friend, employee, manager. (There I go with the lists!) If I didn't have the juggling, what would I do with myself. Life would be boring and no one wants a boring life.

What I'm trying to convey is that I love my life & my family. Being a mother of 2 is the best. To see Jonah & McKenna grow and learn and interact with the world - it gives me purpose. It makes me want to be a better person. It's made me realize that perfection is not an obtainable standard. It's knock me down a few levels and enabled me to let go.

I appreciate having a specific day to celebrate "moms" and I want to thank all the mom's in the world. It's a thankless job and yet everyday you show up for work.

White Blankie

On Tuesday, I picked the kids up at Dan & Rachel's house in the evening. When we got home, Jonah walked through the door and immediately asked, "Where's white blankie?". White blankie has become Jonah's most precious friend. The blankie was knitted by my mom and technically is white with a blue border. Jonah takes nap with it, sleeps with it, plays with it and when he's in trouble - white blankie is who he wants to comfort him. I've had to come up with some inventive ways of trying to get blankie in the wash.

"Oh, blankie needs a bath."

"Let's watch blankie take a shower."

"Blankie's sad that he smells sooo bad."

Jonah may not look to much like me but his dependence on inanimate objects as definitely a trait from me.

"Oh, white blankie."

Train of Thought

I have found that motherhood has really interrupted my train of thought. Example - I will walk into the kitchen with great intentions to accomplish something or grab an item only to totally forget why I walked into the kitchen in the first place. Substitute the "kitchen" for another "location" and I have experience that same results. My solution - standing in the moment, trying hard to remember, not remembering and moving on to the next forgetful situation. It's really ridiculous how often it happens now. I use to consider myself pretty "together" before kids now it's just I miracle that I make it out the door with the my purse.

A Calm Evening

A typical evening at the Willard house usually consists of a two-year old whining about eating dinner while his baby sister devours two jars of food. Then somehow everyone ends up in tears as mommy & daddy try to give baths and lay everyone down for bedtime. Needless to say, evenings can be hectic & unpredictable. The kids moods change at a moments notice. A simple request turns a happy child in to a tantrum. A cute, content baby girl all of a sudden desperately wants to be held. Times have definitely changed.

I was nervous when James said that he had a Braves game tonight. I thought to myself, "oh boy how am I going to handle my two munchkins alone?" But luckily tonight, they were on their best behavior. I had one whine about dinner from Jonah then he joyfully eat his pizza and pineapple. McKenna happily eat a ton of green beans & pizza. I had no protests about bath time. We read books, kissed goodnight and they both laid down to sleep. It was an amazing evening with the kids and it was much appreciated. I got to see the sweet, precious side of my children. And through all the chaos in my life right now, I needed to be reminded of how wonderful it is to be a mother.