Rejuvenated

Twice a year, our office has CPE classes that we must take for purposes of keeping our license active. This year, both are at locations that require me to stay overnight for several days. I just returned from Round 1 of classes, and let me just say this, while I'm glad to be home, it was GREAT to be away. I mean, of course I missed my boys tremendously (all 3 of them), but I now regard these CPE trips as a personal mini-vacation.

Because honestly, it seriously was like a little piece of heaven. I did lots of shopping, ate at nice restaurants (with just adults), watched American Idol from the comfort of a king-sized bed, fell asleep at 9:30 pm, and didn't hear the slightest peep until the alarm went off at 6:30 am. I didn't even have to pay a babysitter to accomplish all of this. Instead, my company pays me to do this. Honestly, I never used to be a big fan of traveling for CPE classes, but now... I'm already counting down the days until my next mini-vacation. =)~

So me being away meant that Ben was flying solo with two tots at home. I wish I had some funny stories to share, but my husband was the Ultimate Daddy and did a fabulous job of managing Braedyn and Chase. They were fed and clothed every day, asleep by their bedtime, and Ben even remembered to pick them up from preschool. Also, we still have two cats and the house is still standing. I can't really ask for much more than that!

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I will be the first to admit, the two things we majorly slacked on with Braedyn was using a spoon and drinking from a cup. This was mainly because our dining room is carpeted, not tiled, so I was always terrified of the potential mess that could ensue. However, Braedyn's been using a spoon for awhile, and I'm excited to report that he can now drink from a cup rather well. Sure there will still be spills, but that's not the point. The point is that he doesn't just dump the contents of the cup upside down. Congrats to my Big Boy for accomplishing this!

And Braedyn's other skill he has recently mastered is playing kick ball with Daddy (minus the whole running-around-the-bases thing). And seriously, this kid has some amazing accuracy when he kicks (and throws for that matter).

This is Braedyn talking to Mommy on his toy phone. He was saying "Mommy Home, Mommy Home". Yep, that's pretty much all it takes to break my guilty heart!


And last but not least, here is Little Chasey enjoying his Big Boy Duck Bathtub. I just realized that we started Braedyn in this bathtub three months earlier than we did Chase. It's funny, I used to think everything would go faster with the second child. But in actuality, the pace is severely slowed down because we're of the mentality, "what's the rush, he'll eventually figure it out". So don't be surprised if Chase doesn't learn how to use a spoon until the age of 3!!