Well, duty calls, this week it was time to go back to work. I remember when my maternity leave was ending, I hated that I had to go back to work, I mean I wouldn’t be normal if I had been counting the minutes til I had to go back to the crazy life of the corporate world, but in some ways, I just wanted to be back in the routine. Its kinda like pulling off a bandaid – the anticipation was almost worse then the reality. In reality, I get tremendous satisfaction out of my two day jobs. I love being with my kids and watching them grow up before my eyes (I wouldn’t trade that for anything, which is why I am crazy enough to try and do both) and yet I also love being creative and influencing the world of web. And ya know, once things ramped back up this week (thankfully, this was a week with very few conference calls), everything just fell back into place (as much as is possible with two kiddos).

My news year’s resolution is to just live in the moment. I have a tendency to always be counting down to the next big event or the weekend. Sometimes its as simple as looking forward to naptime or 5:00. And even though that won’t entirely change, I have realized that so many good things are happening in the moment and I need to take the time to enjoy those things – even in the midst of back to back calls, or a cranky baby, and a tireless toddler.

Here were some of the highlights of this first week in January, things that made me just step back and smile (or laugh).

Cailee has not been taking the best naps these days – I know she still needs one because if she doesn’t get any shuteye, she will crash about 6 and fall asleep in the car or just get extremely cranky. Nevertheless, this week it was hit or miss, thankfully, even when she doesn’t sleep, she will take some quiet time in her room – and only the Lord knows what she does while she is in there. Sometimes it looks like a bomb went off when I go visit her. This week – I was welcomed with this surprise.

I asked her what was on her face and she told me it was crayon, purple crayon. She just said it so matter-of-factly, like “duh, didn’t you know that it would be crayon all over my face – purple crayon actually.” Well no, I didn’t realize you could color your face with crayon. You learn something new everyday. I mean, at least it coordinated with the purple princess dress she had put on (during her “nap” as well).

She was quite proud of herself – and liked checking her masterpiece out in the mirror.

Connor-man was all smiles this week, I think it was because he had a week off from teething. I shouldn’t actually write this – it will probably come back to haunt me next week, but, for now, all is good. I mean, look at this face!

Even more reasons to smile, Connor was upgraded in the bathtube to the inflatable ducky (same kind Cailee had but we had to retire her tub, so Connor got a spankin’ new one). He was loving it (previously, he had been laying down in the tub on his back). Now he can really splash around in the water and kept trying to stand up.