Back to Reality

Today is the last day of my winter break. Tomorrow the alarm clock will wake me with its shrill whine at a dark and ungodly hour and I'll be back to the grind. But before I go, here are a few parting thoughts:

This break has almost made me wish I was a stay-at-home mom. Sure, I tried it once and thought it wasn't for me. But Violet is so much fun right now, and I'm seeing the possibilities and potential of all we could do together (crafts! finger paint! cooking lessons!) that I can't help but wish. Of course, I know there would be a downside too (tantrums! too much tv! boredom!) so I'm trying to stay realistic. Plus if I wasn't working I'd be worried about money, so I wouldn't feel the freedom to go buy the paint and crafts, which pretty much defeats the point. And I'm sure we'd have to fire the housekeepers and that would suck. I guess it would help if I knew I loved my job, but honestly, I'm still on the fence about it. Although any other job would have earned me two or three days off this holiday, not the luxurious ten I had, so perhaps I should quit my whining.

My little Georgia girl.

For some reason she looks so grown up in this hoodie. Like a real little kid, not my wee toddler.

One fun thing about this vacation has been listening to Violet put herself to sleep at naptime. The girl chatters and sings to herself for many a long minute before she finally shuts her eyes. I need to go ahead and make her first dentist appointment, but I'm worried about the scolding I'll get over the pacifier. We have got to take that thing away from her.

I've decided, New Year's Resolution-style, that I want to visit Central Park this year. (Sorry for the randomness of this post). I've been to New York several times, but I've never just wandered around the park. Maybe I've been watching too much Sesame Street (they seem to film a lot of segments in a lovely green space I assume/pretend is Central Park). We're also toying the with the idea of making the annual Loughman summer get-together in Boston this year, so we'll see. It would be tempting to combine the trips, seeing as we'd be so close, but when I imagine wandering around Central Park, my little friend is not in the picture and I'm not sure how we'd get rid of her.

Central Park photos via EyePoetryPhotography

When I went back through the list of books I read this year, I was surprised to realize I managed to read 25! Not too shabby for a busy working mom. My favorites included The Hunger Games trilogy (which wins the prize for fastest page turner), and One Day (winner of best book to have an unfortunate movie adaptation that not only Anne Hathaway could save). And of course, you've already heard me rave about Kitchen Confidential, Bossypants, and Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me. If you managed to miss one of these, I definitely recommend you pick them up. Also, I'm coming to realize that as much as I love reading books, I'm really terrible at writing book reviews. Ah well. I'll stick to what I'm good at.

Anyway, those are my random thoughts of the day. I am blessed to have had such a wonderful two weeks off from work. Matt was able to take a ton of days off and we enjoyed spending time not just with our extended families, but as our own little family of three. I'm such a lucky girl. Don't let me forget it!