[It's the Little Things] Temporarily Being a Stay at Home Mom.

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

This Christmas I was lucky enough to get SIX WHOLE DAYS off of work! SIX. That's like nearly impossible with my job, but Christmas fell on the right day and my boss was kind enough to let me have 2 additional days off to stay home with Mason.

You see, Mason's preschool is closed for TWO WEEKS during Christmas. TWO. That is a lot of time for either Seth or I to take off work ourselves or to try to find someone to watch Mason. Thankfully both of our jobs were flexible and we had family who could watch him part of the time to make it easier on us. Papa took Monday and Tuesday of the first week, Seth was off Wednesday, Thursday was Christmas, and my work had a "floating holiday" for Friday. Monday and Tuesday of the second week I was off, Wednesday was Seth, Thursday was New Year's Day, and Friday was Seth's regular Friday off. So out of 10 days, we each only had to take 2 vacation days. Score!

For me, this was like heaven. I was off for 6 days with my little man and I was trying to figure out what fun we would have. Because, let me tell you, if I didn't plan something, I knew we would go stir crazy. And, also let me tell you, being a stay at home mom is HARD. I don't know how you all do it day in and day out so I give you total props! I mean, I assume if I was home all the time I would come up with some sort of routine and it would be more 'normal' for me, but still. TOTAL props!

My first day off (Thursday) was Christmas so that day was pretty much planned for us. Presents with just the 3 of us in the morning followed by family presents followed by nap time followed by dinner time.

Friday Seth was off to work and it was me and the little man : day 1. We started off the day with a fancy breakfast of milk and an Eggo waffle for Mason and some cereal for me. After breakfast, I built his new Little People Wheelies ramp, we went to the grocery store to get a couple things, to the park, ate lunch, I took down the Christmas tree and decorations, he napped, I built his new kitchen and we watched the new Planes movie that he got in his stocking (Planes : Fire and Rescue). 


Then Daddy came home and we went to the mall to meet our in-town and out-of-town family for dinner.


Saturday Mason had a make up swim lesson, we went to the mall to exchange some things and get him some new shoes, he napped, and we went over to our friends' house for dinner and a play date.


Sunday was our typical Sunday : swim lessons, Starbucks, lunch, laundry, grocery shopping, and all that jazz.

I planned a play date with my friend Lauren and her son Logan for Monday morning. And let. me. tell. you. It was GLORIOUS. (Seriously, if I was a SAHM all the time, I would plan a playdate for every morning. We were with them for maybe 3-ish hours and Mason was so tired that he took the most wonderful nap when we got home.) We met around 8am, walked about a mile down the street to Starbucks and a bakery where we got a coffee and a danish for breakfast. We chatted for a while, ate breakfast, and tried to coax the boys into sitting still in a chair for more than 2.7 seconds. Once we knew we had run out of time, we strapped the boys back into their strollers, headed down the street, and to the park. The boys ran and ran and played and played for at least an hour and I only had about 3 heart attacks making sure that Mason didn't fall off the play structure. 


We headed back to her house, let the boys play for about a half hour more, and then Mason and I headed home. It was almost nap time but he seemed to be doing ok so I ran to the grocery store to pick up a couple things and then we headed home for lunch and nap time. We watched Planes : Fire and Rescue for the tenth time since he got it and waited for Daddy to come home.

Tuesday morning was our errand running time. We ate breakfast and then headed out the door. Our first stop was Trader Joe's and the bakery next door to pick up some challah bread. It was my lucky day and the challah was on sale and it was Mason's lucky day because the nice, nice lady gave him a cookie for free (at 8am no less!). He chowed down on his cookie while I wandered through Trader Joe's. We headed home for a few and then were out again to run to Costco before it started raining. We ate our way through Costco and then were back home for lunch (like we needed it after all the free samples!) and nap time. While Mason napped, I caught up on the bill paying, some blog reading, and some planner note taking... and checked on Mason a million times on the monitor to make sure he didn't fall out of the bed.



When he woke up after his nap, I deemed it jammie day and we sat on the couch and cuddled and watched Planes : Fire and Rescue (yes, again) until Daddy got home from work.


And thus ended my stay-at-home-mom-dom.

it. was. PERFECT.

I wish I could have a day like this at least once a month! While I do enjoy my job and going to work on a daily basis, I do thoroughly, thoroughly enjoy my days off with Mason. Just me and my boy. I know it's good for me. It's good for him. And it makes us both SO happy! 

I do not take these days for granted!

Until next time...


***

Linking up with Jess.



Sadie Sky Boutique

And Tawnya.

Saturday Spotlight

14 comments:

  1. That's so great that you got some much time off work. I agree, I go a little stir crazy being home over break. Looks like you had tons of fun though!

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  2. Oh that's great you got a bunch of days off! Yeah I think the truth is being a mom is just hard, whether it's working outside the house or staying at home. I agree though, morning play dates are where it's at! We try to schedule things for each morning, play date, errands, Gymboree, music class, library, etc. then it's nap time, and the afternoon is just playing and relaxing at home. It's nice to do something each day but not get too over scheduled at the same time!

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  3. What a great week. I am SO jealous that you are still able to get outside and play. The high today is like 15, 15!!!! Holy cow, give me some sunshine and 60 degrees before I go insane.

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  4. How did he not fall out of bed?! Hahaha!! Cam sleeps on the very edge of the couch when he's sick...crazy!! I was home with Cam for two weeks, too, and almost went crazy. I love him, and I love our time together, but he needs structure and options and lots of room to move around, which we don't have (especially since it's way too cold to go outside)! I was pretty happy to pack his lunch and send us both off to school on Monday. :) However, I miss our lazy days of play dates, naps and movies, too! ;)

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  5. I love that you got to spend so much time with him over the holidays! That's awesome :) I love that you can still go outside and play at the park in December too- definitely jealous of that one. And Costco samples... yes please! I'm impressed that he didn't fall out of bed given how he was sleeping in that picture! :D Glad you had a great few days off!

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  6. How fun that you got so many days off! It sounds like you rocked the whole SAHM thing!

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  7. I love that you got so many days off! Gone are the days of getting 2'weeks off at Christmas and spring break! And SUMMER. I miss it!! Looks like you kids filled the time perfectly and had a blast!

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  8. It sounds like the perfect vacation! I'm so happy you got some good time with your boy. Yay for higher ed paid vacays! ;-)

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  9. what fun!! I'm totally jealous of your warm temps! It's definitely hard when you're cooped up inside!

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  10. What a fun "vacation" you had with the guys.

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  11. What a fun time with your boys! I get so spoiled any time my boys have time off work & school (since I work at home). I'm in a funk this week with both of them being gone. I'm looking forward to June & July...Mason will graduate PreK in May and then have two months off before starting Kindergarten (gasp) (double gasp).

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  12. That's awesome you had that time off, makes for very special days home together. :) Sounds like you guys made the most of that time. Especially love the pictures of Mason climbing at the park!! Scary as hell to just let them go, but it's awesome to see what they can do.

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  13. Aww, that's great that you all got to spend that much time together! It looks like Kane and Mason DID get several of the same toys, and my living room looks very similar to yours right now with all of them filling it up.haha

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  14. Love it! We only have the one car which Chris takes to work so it is me and Aria all day 5 days a week at home. It is so nice on the weekends when we can go places and tire miss out. We did the beach today and she went to bed almost perfectly.

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