Vacation's over

My last day of vacation, for this stretch anyway. That last day before I have to go back to work is always so bittersweet. On one hand, I'm glad that I've had some time away and will enjoy the last day as much as I can, but on the other hand, I find myself constantly anticipating tomorrow - what happened while I was out, are all of the projects moving along, has anything slipped, should I check email so I can get a head start in at least going through them?

My first day back at work when Gracie was born was the day I decided I wanted to move back to Texas. Stephanie had wanted to long before then, but I was really happy and excited about the life we had made there. We both knew that we didn't want to raise a family in New York, but realistically, that was at least a few years away. It really doesn't matter where you are in the infant years, at least to the child. That day, we woke up to news of the London subway bombings. The day was sweltering in New York, where even in the morning, your clothes stick to you. I had to stand on the subway, the whole ride in. Standing next to 100 other people whose clothes were sticking to them, asking myself, 'is this the life that I want to live? More importantly, is this the life that I want my family to live?'

I'm not anticipating such a drastic change tomorrow. I expect to go back to the whirlwind of work and do my best not to get immediately swept away.

There are so many perspective-getting moments throughout life, especially after big life events and especially for me, after children are born. You look at this new being and think about all of the miracles that had to happen for them to be here and how you are tasked with molding them into the best person possible and my breath is just taken away. Nothing that I have to do at work is even close to that responsibility and importance. I find it hard to remember that all the time, but this week off, as most week's off do, has renewed my purpose and my mind.

Stephanie has gotten the feeding-at-the-same-time, aka: 'tandem feeding', down pat. Like me, she's even got a couple of different techniques.

We tried watching The Kite Runner but couldn't even make it through the first 15 minutes. SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW.

Gracie is clamering to play games on Noggin so I won't make her wait anymore. She just gave everyone kisses through the monitor. :)