A Good Day Is...

Sleeping in until 9:15 am.

9:15 am!!!!!

Awakening to this face:

And this face:

Eating 1300 calorie Fajita Nachos from Don Pablos for lunch.  (My choice for venue - I'm high class, you see).  

Happiness

There's nothing better than an unexpected good mood when you have been stuck in a funk.

Nothing monumental has occurred, I just woke up today feeling happy.

For one, here is a screen shot of the weather forecast:

Goodbye, seasonal affective disorder happy light.  I won't be needing you for a while.

Second, I have a night out tonight with an awesome friend.  And we are actually doing something other than getting dinner and drinks (not that I'm knocking that at all).  Instead, we'll be going to Lunafest, "a traveling film festival of award-winning short films by, for, about women."  Yay for something different.  And if it sucks, we'll just get dinner and drinks.

And there are so many other things.

The Answer

I am happy staying at home, you know.  Really.  Notwithstanding all my recent posts on my devilish toddler, my guilt over splurging on a pair of boots, judgmental attorneys who hate women, and the monotony of my daily life, I actually am happy with my current job.

I am the first to admit I've been a bit of a Debbie Downer recently.  I have a couple of excuses: First, it's cold and dark outside.  As I've mentioned before, this tends to bring on a funk each year, no matter my employment status.  Second, this blog is my place to vent.  For some reason, I have more of an urge to vent when I am sad than when I am happy.  So the "wah wah wah," "I'm bored," "feel bad for me posts" tend to outweigh the "what an awesome day," "my kids are the joy of my life," "you know you want to be me posts."  When I'm happy, I don't always want to write about it.  I'd rather just live in the moment.

My last post was a particularly depressing one, in large part because I'd just gotten back from vacation.  (Isn't everyone depressed when they get back from vacation?).  In any event, I suppose I can see why, to an outsider, it may seem like I am a miserable stay at home mom who regrets and laments walking away from my career.  In fact, a commenter asked me this very question:

"Why do you choose to stay at home?  It seems as if you don't enjoy it.  Every single thing you typed is the exact reason I work outside of the home (the need for something other than monotony, the need to be intellectually stimulated, etc.).  I have great admiration for SAHMs, and I'm not at all trying to judge, I promise.  But, it seems that so many SAHMs are not happy..."

I thought this was an interesting, genuine question.  So here's the answer:

Past Midnight

I find it funny when people ask me what I'm doing for New Year's Eve.  It's a perfectly polite and well meaning question, but really?  REALLY?

Let me tell you a few things about New Year's Eve:

Even before having children, I dreaded New Year's.  It was always this high pressure night when you had to make big plans and find dinner reservations and pay some price fixed New Year's special and then find a party or bar where you would fight for drinks and a cab home.

After years of concerts, trips to Europe, and overpriced Manhattan nightclubs, in 2005 we decided we were getting too old to venture out.  Instead, we decided to keep it more "low key" and have a party at our apartment in Manhattan.  Our apartment was actually on the bigger size by NYC standards, so we cleared out the furniture, cleaned, and had about 40 people over.  This was great, until I realized that we LIVED in the apartment and it had been trashed.  At 2am when everyone left, and I wanted to do some minor cleaning (aka, there are bottles of vodka spilling in our bath tub), my husband (then fiance) could not be roused from this position:

A Whole Lotta Holiday Card

Oh, the holiday card.  The way to spread holiday cheer, while at the same time saying "look how cute my kids are, surely they are cuter than yours."  Or, if you're not quite there, "look at my dog, doesn't he look funny when he wears an elf hat."  Or perhaps even, "we got married this year, look how stunning I look in my wedding gown, I lost 15 pounds to fit that thing on my body."

It's enough to make you sick.  Or get totally excited to check the mail to see what holiday cards have come.  Or get totally swept up in the phenomenon yourself.

Yes, I in fact have done all of the aforementioned holiday cards.  Shall we take a tour?

Pic of the Week - Oh Christmas Tree

It may be a bit puny.  Stubby.  Sparsely decorated.

But it's ours.  And man, it smells good.

Just looking at it puts me in a good mood!  Yay for Christmas!

Three squared

Today is my birthday.  I am 33.

I'm not really one to freak out about getting older, and this birthday is no different.  So what if I'm 33?  I have a few more wrinkles, and a  few more pounds.  But overall, I don't feel any different than I did when I was 25 (except maybe a bit more tired - yes, a bit more tired).

It's funny how birthdays change when you get older.  Or maybe it's when you have kids.  I'm not sure.  But they just aren't such a big deal anymore.  Gone are the days where I rally all my friends together for a happy hour and secretly tally who remembered my birthday and who didn't.  At this stage, who cares?  Half the time I can't even remember how old I am.  I think once you get to the stage where you have to mentally subtract your birth year from the current year to figure out your age, the era of gilded birthdays are over.  So if you are reading this later this week, and you realize you forgot my birthday, and you feel bad - don't.  Really.

The overblown presents and parties may be a thing of the past, but that doesn't mean I won't try and make this day as close to perfect as possible. I might as well milk it!  So my plan today is to do the following:

1) Lay in bed an extra half hour while hubby takes care of the kids (check - thanks to hubby).
2) Put Casey down for morning nap, and return to bed with french vanilla decaf (check).
3) Continue reading the Hunger Games.
4) Go to the grocery store for Thanksgiving dinner shopping (this would normally suck, but I am putting a positive spin on it by allowing myself to buy a Tony's frozen pizza for lunch).
5) Pick up Braden and then allow Braden and Casey to watch as much TV as they want prior to their nap, so that I can finish the Hunger Games.
6) Return to bed during Braden and Casey's nap and watch last night's Real Housewives of Atlanta, and will them to sleep until at last 4:00pm.  Please.
7) Gather family together to go to my favorite restaurant of all time - Chili's.  I may charade as a foodie, but at the end of the day, there is nothing better than Chili's nachos.  (Each individual nacho has its own cheese and toppings!)
8) Blow out the candles to my birthday cookie cake.  Is there anything better than a cookie cake?
9) Relax with a glass of champagne and the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
10) Stop writing this blog so I can get to numbers 1-9 above.

It's going to be a good day!  And by all indications, another good year.  Here's to 3-squared.

My Journey to the Light

As I've mentioned on this blog before, I tend to get in a funk from mid-November until March.  This funk coincides directly with the onset of daylight savings time, and dissipates when the clocks spring forward.  So yeah, it's not a coincidence.  Classic seasonal affective disorder (self diagnosed).

I've been on the hunt for one of those "happy lights" - the ones that are supposed to mimic the sun and make all of the winter funk go away.  It's all a bit hokie, but why not?  Problem is, said lights are kind of expensive (upwards of $100), so I've been a bit hesitant on splurging for something that is probably psychosomatic in nature.

A friend of mine knew of my quest for brightness, and forwarded me an email that went out on her neighborhood list serve.  Someone was selling a happy light for the bargain price of $40.  This seemed a bit more reasonable.  I emailed the woman and arranged to pick it up last Wednesday.

I had ideally wanted to wait until my husband got home from work to go pick it up, so I didn't have to drag my kids with me.  But of course, with my husband's schedule last week, the chance of him getting home before bedtime was slim to none.  So around 5pm last Wednesday, I headed out into the darkness to find the light.

A Surprise Package

With Casey's recent birthday, we have been getting a lot of packages in the mail.  Cars and books and clothes from Gap Kids (love).  Even though the presents aren't for me per se, I still get really excited when we get something and tear the wrapping paper off in excitement help Casey unwrap the gifts.

A few days ago the UPS man paid us another visit, but this time the package wasn't addressed to Casey.  Instead, it was addressed to both my husband and I.

Now this was interesting.

Why would a package be addressed to the both of us?  This indicated it was not a purchase by my husband or myself (I tend to order things and then forget about it).  It also indicated it was not a present for either child, as even if their names are left off of an address label, usually only one parent is the addressee.  Not the case here.

Since Casey was sleeping and Braden was watching the Halloween episode of Yo Gabba Gabba for the TWENTIETH time this week, I figured I would play a little game with myself.

What do I want to be in this package?

My imagination started to run the gamut.  Out of every possibility in the world - what do I want to be in this 1 foot by 1 foot box?  The rules of the game were that it can't be money (too boring), and I had to narrow it down to three options.

I came up with the following:

All Grown Up

Do you ever have those moments where you have a sudden realization that you are a real grown up?  And it is shocking to you?

I've had some of them - much more so lately.  Whenever my husband and I discuss our mortgage or interest rates or 401ks, I have this sensation of: "Woah, I'm old.  This is real grown up stuff."  Or when I hear myself giving timeouts or urging Braden to eat vegetables.  I think, "Wow, I'm really a parent.  Listen to me!"  It's just a gentle reminder of the nail in the coffin of my youth.  That, and the minivan that I drive.  

I had another one of those moments a few days ago.  It was this past Sunday morning, the first morning in our vacation house in Cape Cod.  Though I have come up to Cape Cod every summer of my life, until this year, we have always stayed at my dad's rental house.  But now, the four of us are quite the gaggle, and are a bit more conspicuous than your typical house guests.  So this year, we decided to get our own house.  After all, we are grown ups, right?

The Rundown

Want to know why I'm in such a good mood today?

1) It's Friday.
2) It's sunny.
3) I'm not at work.
4) Slight hangover this morning was well worth the extra glass of wine I had last night meeting up with an old friend.
5) I was able to stay in bed for an extra half hour this morning with slight hangover, since Braden agreed to watch Yo Gabba Gabba in my bed instead of the living room.
6) It was one of my favorite Yo Gabba Gabba episodes ("Eat," with guest star Elijah Wood).
7) Braden kissed Casey on the head this morning, and actually looked at him once.
8) Casey took an hour and a half morning nap, allowing me to return to bed and watch last night's Real Housewives of New York episode, which was excellent.  Just excellent.
9) Casey is the best baby ever.
10) I had 3 leftover empanadas at 10:30am this morning, made from scratch by my neighbor.
11) I am having a night out with the girls tonight for my friend's birthday. 
12) As of today, I have made $18.14 cents off of this blog - enough to get at least two margaritas for night out with the girls.
13) My sister and her boyfriend are coming in from New York to visit, and will be arriving just in time to drive me home from night out with the girls.
14) My husband has been home early (aka, before 7pm) every night this week.  Thank you to my husband's law firm!
15) We are officially using part of my husband's "spring bonus" money to redo our patio.  Thank you to my husband's law firm!
16) We purchased tickets to the Beer, Bourbon and Barbecue Festival, coming to DC on June 17.  Oh yeah.
17) We're going to the pool tomorrow (the fact that I am horrified at myself in a bathing suit does not negate the fact that I am elated that it is finally pool weather).
18) My best friend from London will be staying with me all next week, and he doesn't even care that he has to hang out with a bunch of kids and structure his day around nap times.
19) Both kids are currently napping.
20) When they wake up, I'll get to hang out with two adorable, amazing, hysterical, smart, precious boys all afternoon.

That's why.  

Happy weekend, everyone!

Sunny Days

Since starting his blog, I have detailed some of the difficulties of staying at home and the internal conflicts involved in leaving a career.  But I haven't really discussed the perks.  

One of the major perks of my new "career" - the hours of 9-10:30am.  This is when my older son is at school, and my younger son is napping. 

You know that feeling you have when your alarm goes off, and all you want to do is stay in bed in your pajamas and relax for a few more hours?  Well, I have that!  For now at least.  Though I am up with both boys at around 7am, I don't mind at all because I know my bed awaits my return.  And when I put Casey down for his morning nap, I close his door and make a sharp left back to my bedroom.  I usually have already prepared a cup of coffee which is at my bedside.  I put on the TV and watch the Today show or some DVRed reality show trash program from the night before.  And I play on my computer.  There is a reason why a lot of my posts are posted around 11am.