These last 12 weeks have been the best twelve weeks of my life. I started maternity leave with no baby (which is why I am going back to work a smidge before she turns 12 weeks), but was blessed with a few extra days snuggling my first baby.
There are so many things I loved about maternity leave. I loved the extra morning snuggles that I got with Everly. I loved being at home when Emma wakes up every morning. I loved the extra kisses that I was home for. I loved reading Goodnight Moon in the middle of the day. I loved lunch dates with my husband once Emma was in preschool. I loved dropping off and picking up at preschool. I loved being able to feed Everly whenever she is hungry. I loved watching Emma's vocabulary develop. I loved being able to drink wine again. I loved that the weather finally cooled down. I loved that we got in the rhythm of being a family of four. I loved coming down the stairs every time hearing Emma say 'wee' as she jumps in my arms. I loved hearing Emma ask for baby every morning. I loved watching Emma give her sister kisses. I love loved loved watching Everly smile for the first time. I loved bath time and how excited Emma would get for her baths! I loved watching Everly giggle. I loved making treats. I loved enjoying my coffee every morning (even if I would have to reheat the same cup of coffee 5 times). I loved being able to spend time swimming with Emma. I loved home cooked meals every night. I loved being caught up on laundry.
I am not going to lie, it was not all a cake walk. For the first week of Everly's little life, she had her days and her nights confused which was tough. We wondered if we would ever sleep again. Emma has been a terrible sleeper since Everly was born making the nights extra tough. We have changed more diapers than I care to count. We have kissed away more boo boo's than I ever thought possible. We have cleaned up spit up (and sometimes Emma's throw up) every single day. Emma has hit me and tried to bite me while I am nursing Everly. We have had both girls screaming at the top of their lungs in the car. But I still loved every single minute of it.
We did so so so many fun things while I was on maternity leave. So many fun things that I still have to make time to blog about. Here is my maternity leave to do list- updated!
... take Everly's newborn pictures
... celebrate Wes's birthday
... find Emma's Halloween costume (an elephant), Everly will most likely be the monkey
... take Halloween photos at the arboretum
... go to the zoo with Wes's family
... Central Market Hatch Festival
... have my mole removed
... eat at the Fort Worth food truck park
... take Emma to a splash park
... visit the park by our house at least five times (5 out of 5)
... on hot days take Emma to the parks at the mall (3 times)
... celebrate 3 years of being married to my hubby
... take Emma to bouncing babies at the library
... take Emma swimming in the afternoon (at least 2 days a week)- she loves this!
... order pictures of Everly
... take Emma and Everly to Fort Worth Day in the District
... frame the prints I bought for the dining room
... visit Bobbob once a week (so far we are 3 for 3)
... take Emma to her first day of preschool
... order 75% of the prints for the gallery wall in our newly designed living room
... share those prints I ordered on the blog
... write Everly's birth story (remember this took me nine months to complete for Emma)
... keep up with Everly's weekly pictures and posts (and figure out if I am still going to do the calendar pictures)
... take Emma on a pony ride at the church picnic
... finish the other half of the family gallery wall
... order a new engineering print with Everly in it (as soon as we get the cd's from our family shoot and Everly's three month photo shoot, I am going to order new engineering prints)
... keep snapfish up to date
... go to the state fair
... lunch with my sisters in Dallas
... take Emma on a 1:1 frozen yogurt date
... celebrate Everly's baptism with a bar-b-que at our house
... take Emma to the petting zoo in the stockyards (we didn;t go to the petting zoo at the stockyards, but we went to one at our church and one at the arboretum so I am calling this a success)
... go to one outdoor concert at the Levitt each weekend
... squeeze in one non-anniversary date with my husband (Everly came with us because of her bottle issues, so I am not sure whether you would count this as a date :/)
... get quotes on repainting the cabinets in our kitchen (we are going to table the kitchen project until Everly is in preschool)
... in the same light, research and scout cork flooring options for our kitchen (see above)
... take Emma to toddler time at the trampoline park (we didnt make it to this, but we will be going on Saturday for a birthday party)
... have our family pictures taken
... have Everly's three month old pictures taken
... paint the inside of the front door blue
... take Emma on a train ride at Trinity Park
... enjoy the extra time that I get with my husband and my two babies :)
The last one is the one I am most proud of. I made a conscience effort to snuggle my babies as much as possible and inundate them with kisses every single day. Ahhh- I loved maternity leave.
