A New Chapter

Well, maternity leave is over. All of a sudden, my life seems very different. It isn't all scary, but it is very different.

My in-laws are living back in the house, and Owen and I are starting new routines to accomplish all the little things that must be done in order to work, like regular day-to-day people.

So things seem very different than even a week ago.

When we went to Seaside a few Saturdays back, I knew it was one of the last summer flings for us...so I took pictures, because that's what you do when you want to capture and remember things like that.

That's Joseph and I in front of Zoltar, the Fortune Teller...like in the Movie "Big." And here's Joseph looking totally dazzled by all the neon and noise at the arcade...

That's my boy on the boardwalk, with Mr. Monkey in tow, watching all the people walk by. I enjoy people watching, too.

When we got home, Owen and I played some Scrabble. Then Owen and Joseph played some Madden...

Ahhhh...My boys.

Once this week started, I realized how great it was to have these past five months with Joseph. By the time we all get home at night, things are a little tense for us all...I think this picture captures about how we all felt by Wednesday evening...

So now, I guess, I just keep rolling with the punches. I just have to put my head down and do the best that I can at my new job, with my new life. It isn't all bad: there are just new challenges that I have to face, and there's this new saddness that I get when I miss Joseph terribly and just want to walk out of work and get in my car and go get him...and I realize that I can't do that. But saddness makes us all stronger, and that's why working mothers, I think, are such strong people. Not that stay at home mothers aren't, just working moms have to be strong in a way that I never fully understood, but I'm starting to. We do the most painful thing you can do- we leave our children- and we do it for them, to make their lives better. Sometimes the best thing you can do is painful. That's growing up for you.

What all this change does mean is that I appreciate the little perfect moments of giggling and clowning and feeding and playing even more. Like this little gem...

What a boy. My boy...