The Grind

Hi ho, hi ho. It's back to work I go. And go with a smile. I just returned from the first day of my new routine, and it feels pretty darned good. After a nice long weekend at my folks' house, I feel rejuvinated and ready for the real world again. My parents took baby duty during the nights so I could catch up on sleep, and oh the glory!

DW woke up early on Saturday morning, apparently appreciating the good sleep, and headed into town while the rest of us slept in. Well, most of us, but not my mom, bless her. Anyway, DW was going to look for some new sandals and to check out a specialty wood store he'd recently heard about. At about 11, he called and told me he was on his way to pick me up to test drive a car. I asked what it was and he said a 2007 Camry. My heart leapt! For real? The dealership was willing to give us what we paid for our crappy Chevy, so why not, right? I had to tease DW that he went shopping for sandals and wound up with a new car - certainly not how we'd expected to spend our Saturday. But how exciting!

When we returned home, my dad, sister and brother-in-law picked us up at our dock and we set sail for a couple hours. Talk about relaxation. We stopped at the sandbar and DW made his own little island and even wrote his name on it - then invited us to come visit. It was great to lighten up and get silly again. Family came over in the evening and we had a fun visit. My mom got a real taste of what it's like to care for two infants at once and her eyes were certainly opened. Poor dear. But she did enjoy spending the time with her grandbabies who didn't sleep at all - all day long.

Breanna shocked us all and slept 8 1/2 hours that night, though. We credited it to the "magic sleeping hat" that she wore to bed. On Sunday, my pen pal stopped in and met the girls and we had a really pleasant visit. Then off to my dad's folks' house for introductions. While we were there, about a bajillion of my dad's sisters and their kids and friends and grandkids, etc. stopped in. Talk about chaos - so we got the heck out of there right away. We're still on germ restrictions with the girls and that was just too many people at once.

Once we got home last night, we tried the magic sleeping hat again, but darn, no luck. Back to the usual up every 3-4 hours. At least with me going back to work, DW gets up to help, so it doesn't take so long to tend to everyone and then get back to sleep.

We prepped as much as we could last night for our big day today and it seemed to help. DW came into the bathroom to say goodbye and shoo me out at 7:10, and told me that he had the girls all ready to go, buckled into the car. I appreciated it, but reminded him that the earliest they can be at daycare is 7:30, so we'd have to wait a little bit. I took my makeup bag out to the car and applied it in the driveway in the meantime. Whatever works, right?

Anyway, the day went great for all of us. Our daycare mom said it got hairy a couple times, but it was manageable. I guess her 7-year-old son has a magic touch with Lillian. They put her in the infant seat and he jiggles it just so and she calms right down. And the daycare's helper has a way with Breanna that soothes her, so that's good too.

I really enjoyed being at my new job. The people are so genuinely nice and I think I'm going to like getting back into real client work again. I'll be in an account executive role, so less writing time and more strategy time. It feels like a nice shift back. The agency's biggest client is in town this week for 2007 planning, so it was great to be "on stage" right from the bat. The client guys seem pretty decent, too. Yay! I've officially hit the ground running.

Things really are going great all the way around. Our girls are growing and getting cuter each day (Breanna - 10 lbs., Lillian - 7.5 lbs.). And I have hope that someday we'll get more sleep. Who could ask for more?