Home again

I had a good trip to DC, but it was equally hard and nice to be away from the family.  I appreciated having less responsibility - or at least being responsible only for me.  But I missed the hugs, the "bwess you mommy," the hopping and jumping and everything else that comes along with having a two year old.  I did get to go for two runs and I also got to see a few friends, which was really nice.  Oh, and the whole reason I went there, the consumer law conference, but also pretty great.  If I can figure out how I can find the time to implement some things, I got some great ideas.

One of the highlights was Friday at lunch, when we had a guest speaker:

Not the greatest picture, all I had was my phone.  And I wouldn't have recognized her anyway, since I'm so bad at recognizing people.  But this is Senator Elizabeth Warren who is a total rockstar in the consumer law world.  The place was packed and I think she got something like 867 standing ovations.  She was very inspiring.

I got one picture from Carmen to hold me over:

From Thursday morning breakfast.  

In case it makes any of you feel any better, he doesn't speak to me on the telephone either.  I only got to talk to him a couple of times, but both times he would whisper answers, but never loud enough for me to hear.  Carmen had to repeat the "hi mommy" and "wuv you mommy" and "yeah" so that I knew what he said.  It made me sad.  But I did get to hear him talk to Carmen a little bit, so at least I got his voice!

I flew home ridiculously early this morning.  I woke up at 1:15 am pacific time.  I slept on the plane, more or less, but it's not exactly sleep the way it would be in a bed.  I landed by 8:30 and was home by 9:30 am.  When I got home I got about the best welcome a mama could ask for: Jayden came in from the backyard and began jumping up and down for about a minute saying "mommy, mommy, mommy!" It was very sweet that he was so excited; made me feel missed. It was nice to get the whole day, but because it was Sunday football day, Jayden and I were back out the door by 10:10 am.  I had big plans to take us to this kids science center place, but as we were on our way there Jayden said "go pahk!"  So I exited the freeway to find a park and lo and behold, there was one exactly off the exit.  And it was a great park.  So we hung out there for an hour or so.  It was rather warm and Jayden was getting really flushed so we left to get lunch a little earlier than normal.

This is one of those bouncy-type toys that is on a spring and rocks back and forth.  In the past Jayden has been too scared to ride these, but today he was having a great time on the "moto-cycle."

He took his nap, shorter than normal of course, and woke up in a terrible mood.  He only wanted me to stand up and hold him or go in mommy's car.  So we went in mommy's car.  He ate his snack while I drove for about 15 minutes, when he finally said, somewhat cheerfully, "go pahk!" again.  So off we went to another park.  This time we went to a park that is really more of a wildlife preserve.  We walked/ran up and down some trails for 45 minutes or so, talked about holes in the ground where animals live, learned about logs on the ground and why they're actually not scary and watched a bunch of people bicycling on the trails.  It cheered him up until I had to put him in the car to go home.  Of course.

But by the time we got home he was still cheerful (luckily) and we went out to the backyard to throw the ball around, ride in the car and generally run around.

Checking out the drain in our patio and learning that animals do not live in that hole in the ground.

This is the reaction I get when I ask him to smile for the camera.  Not exactly the opposite, but certainly not compliance either.

I am happy to be home, but it is an adjustment, especially when you're thrown back into mommy-ing.  The only meal he ate today was breakfast, which was before I got home.  Every other meal, including snacks, was a fight.  It is so exhausting to beg, offer, promise, cajole, convince, trade, etc. just to get a kid to eat two bites of bread that he has drenched in applesauce.

Luckily tomorrow I have the day off - but so does Juju!  I have a lot of work to do, so we're probably going to go into my office for a little bit and then go to the grocery store and some other errands.  Then maybe the park again in the afternoon, depending on how demanding he is.  Because I can already imagine my action-packed day tomorrow I am about to head to bed even though it's not even 8:30 pm!

Hope everyone had a good weekend.  And I hope everyone can take a minute tomorrow to remember and thank our veterans who have given so much for our country.  Coming from a family filled with former and current military members, I am eternally respectful and grateful for all that they do.