Last Hurrah

Today was my last day of maternity leave. Done. Over. Finito. Sigh . . .

So what did we do? I took my munchkins to the zoo. Luckily the weather cooperated. It was cool, but not cold and sunny. The animals cooperated for the most part and were out to be seen. And the field trip kids, while numerous, were well behaved.

Here's Alex & Laney are ready to see some animals.
Laney & one of juvenile the giraffes.

As usual, Laney got to take a ride on the carousel. Today she picked a tiger.

The obligatory I took it myself photo. Alex spent a few minutes in the front carrier but mostly he was in the stroller - I think he might already be too tall for the carrier! He was bumping my chin today.

I actually managed to get a family shot thanks to a nice lady on the carousel.

It was a good morning. The grind stone awaits.

Visiting Grandmama

Valentines weekend we drove a few hours to visit my Grandmother ("Grandmama" to Elena) and introduce her to her newest great-grandson.

We got the complete tour of Grandma's assisted living center (laundry room and all!). She had a great time showing the kids off to her friends and the staff. And Elena got to ride in style.

I post this for it's cute value. I tried Elena's Valentines outfit on Alex, after all he managed to wear some of her Christmas outfits. Not so much with this one. It was about 3 inches too long.

Statistics

Alex is now 2 months & 1 day old. We went for his 2 month well baby check up yesterday. He’s 24.25 inches tall and 11 lbs 7 oz. For those keeping score, he's grown 5.25 inches and gained 3 lbs 7 oz since birth.

The other statistics make me sad. I have one full week left before I return to work part time. I have a total of 1 Monday & 1 Wednesday left, 2 Fridays, and 3 Tuesdays & Thursdays left of maternity leave. Sigh. That's 3 more Story times and only 2 more Mothers of Young Children bible studies.

Turning away from feeling sorry for myself, some Laney pics. Here she is finally getting to make a pinecone bird feeder the way that Special Agent Oso taught her. We've had these pine cones since October, I think.

The finished product:

And on Saturday Elena got to do a couple of things she's been waiting for - first, I let her feed Alex a bottle. I nurse primarily, but he gets the occasional formula bottle for convenience. Also in this picture is her Build-A-Bear wearing her new Cinderella costume. Elena had purchased the outfit that day with her Christmas gift card.

We also caught up with Kayla, Elena's godmother, at last. Elena got her birthday and Christmas gifts from Kayla and we gave Kayla's son, Andrew his Christmas gift.

Kayla meets Alex.

And a Kathryn update, she brought home Honor Roll certificates for the second & third six weeks, which makes the entire first semester that she made honor roll. Right now much of her energy is focused on the Solo & Ensemble competition in 2 weeks. We'll see if she makes ones for the fifth year in a row.