Back to Reality

At the end of last week, I attended a Family Business Conference. About a year and a half ago, our business hired a family business consultant to help us transition the business to the 3rd generation, and they invited us to this event. It was great! I went with Steve and one of my uncles, and we were pampered for a day and a half with great food and great company and tons of information that was pertinant to our business! We actually met a couple of guys from Wyoming who are a few years younger than us and who work in a metal shop that deals with HVAC (a little different than Astro, but it's still a family owned metal fabrication shop).

I was very eager on Friday to get home to spend time with the kids. It was probably the most beautiful day we've seen in several months here in Dallas, so Brian and I decided we would pack up the kids and have a picnic and play at the park. This is where it gets interesting!

Andrew was acting like his tummy was bothering him before we ever left the house, so I knew what was coming; I just didn't know how much! After we ate at the park, I took him back to the car to change his diaper. WOW! A major blowout was awaiting me! It amazes me how he can do that and very little actually makes it into the diaper. So it was kind of a big deal to clean him up. If we had been at home, I would've given him a bath. Then Jacob had an accident while we were eating dinner. Since I took care of Andrew, Brian took care of Jacob. He was soaked! Then we played for a while. It was really fun! The kids seemed to enjoy getting outside for a while. Then it was time to go home. Andrew was a little fussy because he was so tired. So he had barely drifted off to sleep when Jacob spilled water on himself. Not a big deal except Jacob acted like it was hurting him and cried and whined about it. All of the commotion woke up Andrew. So both boys cried all the way home and made a competition out of the entire trip home trying to out-cry the other. Brian and I just laughed in the front seat. We gave ourselves an A for effort, but decided we should've left the park about 10 minutes earlier.

Saturday morning both boys were awake and ready to go at 6:00 a.m. (side note: this morning it was 5:30. WTH?!?!). It was one of those days where once one got settled, the other had to do something to get attention. Jacob has an accident, Andrew spits up. Jacob spills milk, Andrew has a blowout. They were actually very good all weekend, but it was definitely a harsh welcome back to reality!

Now I'll brag on them! I mean, it's not their fault that I hung up my mommy hat for a few days and was completely unprepared to put it back on! :) Jacob is still doing very well with his potty training! He had quite a few accidents on Saturday, but he and Brian had gone shopping and got some cool underwear. So we let him wear some of his new underwear yesterday and told him he would have to wear white underwear if he had an accident. It worked! And I'm hoping it works again today at school. He still wears a diaper at night, and we put him in a diaper yesterday for nap time. One step at a time!

Andrew completely surprised me this weekend! He loves to look at himself in the mirror (he never gets tired of it). So I decided to give him some tummy time in front of the mirror on Saturday. He could get his little knees underneath himself and then he'd scoot backwards. Then he started practicing getting up on all fours! And then, for a special treat for all of us, he showed off how he figured out how to throw his body weight forward! So maybe we'll have a crawler soon. I also spent time helping him sit up in front of the mirror. His balance is better than I expected! I just sat there to catch him when he fell over. He will be 6 months old on Wednesday, and I just can't believe it! He still seems like the little 2 month old baby that I had when I went back to work. For his 6 month birthday, he's getting some shots including his flu shot. Oh...and Jacob gets one, too!