In need of structure I think

William and I spent the last 12 days together. I had a FABULOUS time. I thanked God more times than I can count for allowing me to be the mommy to this amazing little boy. I thanked him for our special time together with no agenda and no obligations. I thanked him for making William so cuddly and loving and smart (ok brilliant) and hysterical. I thanked him over and over and over.

But this morning I was also very thankful that I could take him to school. I think he was missing his routine and his daily structure - and by the time yesterday rolled around he was clearly stir crazy.

There was no church for new year's day (anyone else find that odd???) so we went to kohl's to spend our $50 kohl's cash, grabbed a few groceries at target, then came home for the texans. In our 12 days together I believe William napped 6 days, and those naps started anywhere from 12:00 to 3:00...his school will surely be happy with me :)

Yesterday he was getting tired and cranky at 2:00 so I took him upstairs, read to him and laid him down. He didn't cry or fuss and just laid right down with doggie and dada. So 45 minutes later when I turned the baby monitor on and heard him quietly moving around his room(meaning he climbed out of the crib again) and listening to his yaya and papa book, I was shocked he was up. But he was quiet and I was working so I thought 'surely he will soon go to sleep'

But around 3:00 I heard him scream so I went up to see what was the matter...



I don't know how he managed to make this much of a mess without me hearing, but there was powder EVERYWHERE.



I assume he either breathed it in or it got in his eyes or somehow bothered him a that's what made him scream. So - instead of naptime we had cleaning time!



Right after he vacuumed he closed ME in his room, saying 'night night mommy' as he shut the door. I guess he wanted a little role reversal???

So I decided to turn Thomas on in my room while I did laundry, thinking that the only substitution for naptime is downtime. I brought a load of laundry in and laid it in the foot of the bed, then went and put the next load in. When I came back the laundry was no longer on the foot of the bed - he managed to move the entire pile underneath his pillow and lay back down, innocently watching Thomas.



At dinner time we had a bit of a fight because he didn't want 'agna' (lasagna) he wanted onions. Onions????!!! Yes, he repeatedly asked for onions. I didn't entertain this - i told him lasagna or nada, and he opted for 3 bites of lasagna then a temper tantrum then nada. But I wasn't about to give him onions. Ok maybe I would have just to prove a point, I just didn't have any :)

So - this morning when he asked to wear his paw print 'oberballs' and asked to see 'a-I-ana' (arianna) I knew he was glad to get back to the routine he knows so well. He was delighted to ride in Melvin 'to schooooooooool' and sit and eat his 'cheeios milk' and wait for arianna to show up.

We enjoyed our 12 days and I have plenty of stories to write about, but we are 2 peas in a pod when it comes to structure: we crave it and gladly welcome it and will be glad when we can finally have dada home and get back to our REAL routine.

- manda