I Have Returned!

Well, today was the momentous day... my first day back at work. Fortunately, I had a sort of meeting this morning, and I'm only working half-days until Friday, so my day was easy and fairly uneventful, work-wise. The day did have its moments, though. Wanna hear about 'em? No? Then quit reading now.

For those of you brave to continue onward through my post...

At 2:30 AM, Marcus awoke for his one and only feeding over the night. This is really good! I was pleased! He only munched on one boob, though, and this means that I had extra that needed to go somewhere. So instead of returning to bed immediately upon plopping el kiddo back in his swing, I had to hang around awake upstairs to be sure he was really asleep, then creep downstairs to pump. That takes about 10-15 minutes, but the set-up and clean-up add another 10-15... so I was back in bed around 3:30. While I was cleaning up, I heard much squeaking coming from our pantry. "Aha!" I exclaimed! "We have trapped that devilish mouse! Hooray!"

A little later, the three of us... Chris, Marcus, and myself... all managed to sleep through the 5:30 alarm Chris had so carefully set the night before. We're not sure how we ALL missed the alarm, but we are guessing that the volume was too low for us to hear. So, I woke up at 6:30. This was the time I used to rise when I only had one child, and she is pretty self-sufficient now. Basically, I had to do nothing for her in the mornings, as Chris did most of what she needed. In fact, often she was asleep until after I left. Marcus, on the other hand, requires feeding (something that does not allow me to multitask), bottle preparation for his day ahead, not to mention changing, dressing, etc. So I really needed the extra hour. And the proof of that is in the pudding. I was an hour late to work this morning. Again, fortunately, I only had a meeting, and I don't believe it was scheduled to start until 9, so all was well. I just stayed later than I expected to.

While I was showering, I sent Chris downstairs to tend to the little mouse who has been eating our Doritos and pooping on my cookbooks. Unfortunately, I came downstairs before Chris had finished his work. I had expected that the mouse would be part of our catch-and-release program. Instead, he met a very bloody end at my husband's hands. Although I do not blame him for terminating the rodent's life, I was caught by surprise. I did not see the actual end, but I heard it, and let me tell you, it broke my heart. So that was my first cry of the morning. Over a freaking mouse. One that had ruined a good deal of my food, mind you. Now we have to clean out the pantry AGAIN. Who knew there were two mice?! Damn cat.

I went to prepare Marcus' bottles, and the damn breastmilk was still frozen. I made bottles for Athena for three months with breastmilk two years ago, and they had ALWAYS thawed overnight. These were still frozen solid. So I had to thaw them on the stovetop, and naturally, they actually got warmed a little. This is not good for breastmilk. Hopefully, I haven't given my son food poisoning.

To further complicate my morning routine, I had to take the kids to daycare. It was my own fault, as poor planning on my part meant that Chris had to stay home to wait for some service people and let them into the house. And I don't really mind taking them to daycare. Athena sings songs for me, and Marcus... well, apparently he wails most of the way there.

Anyway, we get there, and you would not believe how complicated it can be to drop off two kids in two separate rooms. Each child has a bit of paperwork you have to complete each morning. And you can't wear shoes in the infant room. So I tossed Marcus and his carseat into the infant room and shouted to Ms. Penny that I would be right back to check him in officially. My plan was to then whisk Athena two doors down to her classroom and quickly fill out her stuff, then run back to the infant room to unload bottles and talk to the teachers about Marcus' feeding schedule. But Athena, as one might guess, had other plans.

"MAAAAAAAAAAAAAARCUUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS" she wailed. Apparently, the two have become rather close, and she just couldn't bear to leave him. She cried. She pled. She pressed her face up against the window to his classroom. It broke my heart. I cried. Again. After the teachers promised Athena she could come back later in the morning to visit, Athena grudgingly took my hand and allowed herself to be led to her classroom.

But once we were there, I was not permitted to leave. She asked nicely to be picked up, so I did, but then she clamped her legs around my waist so hard that had I let go of her, she would have just sat there, attached to my waist, sitting on my hip. Finally, a teacher was able to lure her away with promises of animal pictures.

I finally left daycare after a few more minutes with Marcus, and headed to work. I needed to stop at McDonald's to get something to eat, despite the fact that I was already late. Unforunately, the only place even close to on the way is THE McDonald's. You remember? The one in Cary? So naturally, it took 15 minutes to get through the drive thru.

Work was probably the easiest part of my day. The only bummer was that I found out the last interview for that job at the local library was at 3pm today. So I will probably have to wait until tomorrow (or later) to find out if I have been selected. Many people said they were pulling for me. Unfortunately, none of them actually interviewed me.

I got home and began chores. Laundry and organizing the clutter in the kitchen and dining room in the hopes of ridding ourselves of it. Now I have to start dinner. If nothing else, going back to work really picks up the pace of my life. I'm going to be exhausted tonight. Wait, I already am.