Finding the balance-an ongoing struggle

I seem to be struggling so much to find a balance with being a mom, working full time, taking care of our house and everything else that comes with being an adult. I am out of the house well before Lucas wakes up and when we finally get home, it is 5:15pm and I am off to start dinner. some days it feels like I don't stop moving until well after 9pm. How do other working moms do it? What do you sacrifice-do you let go of ever having a clean house, getting some exercise, staying in touch with friends, actually having a relationship with your partner? Weekends are just as busy and not with fun things. That is when I get to catch up on all the things I don't get done during the week-putting away laundry, prepping meals for the week, clearing the dining room table of all the junk that landed there during the week.

And now I am doing a job search on top of everything else. Ugh!

Our Amazing Lucas

For those of you who came here after reading my update on Facebook, sorry it took so long to update the blog. Some other things happened that got in the way of writing this entry.

Counting-this weekend Lucas was watching Sesame Street and the Count came on. He was counting to the number of the day. I wasn't really paying that much attention until I heard Lucas' sweet little voice counting along! He was about 2 seconds a head of the Count and made it all the way to 13. He loves to count the stairs as well.

The Alphabet-Marc was writing the letters of the alphabet on Lucas' new Aquadoodle. We haven't really practiced the letters yet but Lucas knew about 60% of them as Marc was writing them! Ya gotta love Sesame Street and all the reading we do.

Mr. Improv-Last night Lucas came into the family room carrying his Fisher Price popper sideways. He was mumbling something but as he got closer to me, I realized he was saying "Guitar" He was pretending the popper was a guitar and he was holding it pretty close to how you would hold a real guitar. Marc was watching the US Open yesterday when Lucas got up from his nap. when we came into the room, he immediately said "tennis". Then he picked up his frying pan and started to pretend to hit a tennis ball:) And finally, when Marc was playing on the Wii, Lucas picked up the second remote and put it on his wrist like a pro.

Internal GPS-one of the joys of living in Pittsburgh is being able to travel through tunnels. This past weekend we went to see friends south of the city so we went through not one but two tunnels. As we approached the first one, Lucas started calling out for "tunnel! tunnel!" He knows the road we take to get there before we can even see the tunnel. And when we drive by the street that our nephews live on, he immediately starts yelling for "my seany, my seany." Hopefully he will have a better internal sense of direction than Marc does:)

We are off to his 2 year well child visit tomorrow. I can't wait to get all his stats.

Happy 2nd Birthday Lucas

Lucas today


Lucas as a newborn


When and how did we get to this point? How is it that my little preemie boy who had to fight to breath is now a toddler who runs whenever he can, talks to me in full sentences and has a stubborn streak? It really is incredible. I always held to the fact that by the time preemies are two, you generally can't even tell they were early. They have usually caught up developmentally with their peers. I can now say that is in fact true:)

Marc recently posted videos to his facebook profile from last August. They were of Lucas just starting to crawl. His verbal ability was mainly to make squeaks and squeals. That was just a year ago. You would think it was more years than that when you now watch Lucas tear into the kitchen, try to move Jeff and tell me he is going to cook.

I can't wait to take him to Chuck E. Cheese tonight for dinner and celebrate with cupcakes at home. And maybe, just maybe I will get to squeeze him a little longer tonight and get a nice hug:)

Happy Birthday Lucas-we love you so much!!

First day at the new center

Lucas started his new daycare yesterday. I knew it was a good sign when I pulled into the parking lot and saw him running around their play ground smiling. He gave me a big huge and the late day teachers (who aren't in his room normally) said that he had a good day. There was a little crying in the morning but that ended as the day progressed. He seemed to get right into the flow of their activities, ate a good lunch and napped. I was worried about those last two things. He had so many people thinking of him-my mom said last night she was worried when she didn't get a call at 5:30pm with a full report on how things went. I hope today goes as well. I think that the second day is a little bit harder because it is settling in that this is the new place.

When Marc dropped him off this morning, he got to talk with his regular teachers and he got the same good report. They said they can see how much he comprehends things and mentioned he is a smart one (the key is to get him to focus on using that for the good) and can't believe he is only just turning two!

I know this will be good for him and we made the right decision.