Learning to be a Mom again

So Friday, the 22nd I started my first full break: 4 whole days off for Christmas. I "gave" Chris the day off. When I woke up with Liam in the morning (for some reason(s) Liam is in our bed most nights, and I bring Kalian to bed to breastfeed her at about 5 in the morning, so we usually all wake up together - it's mostly very sweet - I think I'm resistant to kicking Liam out since I don't see him as often, so we have a sweet routine in the morning with Kalian breastfeeding on one side and Liam holding the other "ama" and we play bunnies - I'm the mamma bunny and the kids are baby bunnies - or when Kalian wants to switch sides in feeding, Liam and I make a Kalian sandwich, which is a nice little ritual we have)...anyway, I asked him what he wanted to do, and he said "bowling," so bowling it was. So after b'fast we all got in the car together and dropped Chris off at the gym, and I took Liam and Kalian to the candlestick bowling ally in Somerville, a very retro, though not intentionally - just stuck in the 50's - bowling alley. It's candlestick bowling (see Chris' blog post and photos) . We did a little bowling, a little snacking - most of the fun was resetting the pins and keeping score - oh, and throwing a few balls down, too.

I then took the kids over to the family dollar store to buy lights for our xmas tree and then to goodwill - it's a great store- i bought their xmas presents - a wooden toolbench, two trucks for Liam (which I later learned he asked Santa for - one for each hand), a few sweaters and a few books - all for less than $10.

We then walked back toward the car. I offered to take the kids to a cafe, but surprisingly Liam just wanted to go home, so home we went. Luckily for me, both kids fell asleep and stayed asleep in the car and I had a 2 for one special (nap that is) and actually used it to sneak in some work on my next paper I have to do between xmas and new year's.

It felt like a totally wonderful, uneventful mom and kids sort of day. It was scary how long it had been since I had taken both kids out in the car. I was afraid I would have forgotten how to be a mom, but for some reason it all came back to me.