still here. busier than ever.

the last few months have been so hectic. we were in albuquerque for 3 weeks visiting friends and family. the visit was both really long and way too short. 3 weeks is a long time to be away from your house with 2 small children but not long enough to catch up after a year away.

we stayed with my parents and mia and gideon shared the walk-in closet of the guest room. people think we're nuts for putting our kids in a closet for 3 weeks but i can assure you that they loved it. their own quiet space in an otherwise crazy household? they were in heaven once they settled in.

we had weddings and graduations to attend and the kids were superstars. mia is still pretending to be a "congratulations girl" (pretending to graduate like her uncles did).

mia fell in love all over again with her uncles and aunt. and it was amazing to watch them play with her. she tells me almost daily that she misses them, how much she loves them, and that they should come and visit her. and because her cousin, anthony, couldn't make it to grandma's to visit like we promised her she reminds me that she didn't get to play with "my cousin antony" and that she misses him.

her great-grandma moser gave her the softest teddy bear ever and she has been snuggling it non-stop. she also taught mia to give "smackeroos!" and that's what we get instead of kisses now. a month later and still with the smackeroos!

gideon spent most of his vacation on his back in the middle of an old ottoman, watching the world go by. josh and my dad would play the wii while standign over him and gideon would go nuts kickign and giggling with grandpa. fast friends, those 2. he even got a lesson on debating. sigh...

we came home with 2 weeks of maternity leave left. 2 weeks to soak up the kids and get out as much as we could before we were locked back into a real schedule. 2 weeks to get gideon to take a bottle.

i never dreaded coming back to work when i had mia. i knew i had to, knew she'd be ok at daycare and wasn't all that concerned. with gideon i knew what i was going to be missing and dreaded the end of every day because it brought us one day closer to the end of my leave. and gideon still wasn't taking a bottle.

we started the daycare/work routine on a friday just to test the waters and it's a good thing we did. mia had a great time - was beyond excited to get back to her friends. not gideon. gideon refused the bottle. refused to nap. we both cried. and as i sat there nursing him on my lunch break i looked around the room and realized that these tiny babies? they were going to be his friends one day. that he was going to grow up here. learn to roll* and crawl and walk and talk and play with other kids. these kids. he was growing up right before my eyes.

so that's where we're at. back to the grind.

* gideon did roll over for me right before he went back to daycare. but hasn't since and that's just fine with me.