"Can't Get Enough of This Everyday Love"

My work schedule has been pretty wonky the past few weeks, leaving our family with next to zero together time and a tired mama missing her baby.  But...after a long work stretch (fortunately I love my job dearly) which included a plea for me to come in and close to avoid a peer doing a "clopen" (leave at 1am, back in at 7am...yes we do that sometimes...) even though I would have to be a few hours late...it meant that I had a 6-day stretch at home with just me and my girlie!  Better yet...I'll go back 2 days this week, leave for vacation for 5 and then work 2 more.  Now that's a pretty cush schedule!  So...with 6 days off you can imagine Carly and I have had some major lovin' time.  The time changed has rocked our worlds for two reasons: one is the hour of sleep we are missing out on per night (Carly just can't sleep past sunrise and now that comes an hour earlier...and our lives don't allow for an earlier bedtime) and the other being she goes bonkers in the evening being cooped up inside for a 3 and a half hour stretch (even after being outside all day long).  There was one night this week Brian and I looked at each other and wondered how we were going to fill the time!  So...I got out my craft bin and it was a success!

Carly made some lovely drawings and enjoyed dumping the crayons and markers all over the table and floor.

And I made this for Luke's room:

She also found some balloons in the bin and has gotten multiple days of enjoyment out of those!  She found all sorts of things in the tub...from glitter to crayons to markers...stickers, balloons and old photos.  I had quite the mess to clean up the next morning. :)

The bugs are so bad in our neighborhood if we desire doing anything outdoors in the evening it's gotta be on Disney property where they spend a pretty penny spraying the place.  So...one evening we hopped in the car and ventured over to Magic Kingdom for the Electrical Parade and fireworks. We were excited thinking it was Carly's first sight of fireworks, but then remembered she saw them laying in a hammock on the beach of the Polynesian on my birthday last January.  Nevertheless, she thought they were pretty cool and as always we had a lovely time stopping in for an hour and a half or so.

It's been lovely this week, with temps in the 60s during our morning runs.  Carly is in love with the playground and can swing on the big girl swing and also go down the big slide all by herself.  She also enjoys swinging on our front porch swing...but not nearly as much as the "wee wee" at the park.

Tuesday night after small group (we are thankful for evening activities that she loves) I picked my mom up at the airport and Wednesday was full of productivity!  Brian headed out early to get to the dentist while I ran and Carly & Nana headed off to the park.  He picked me up and we got the tires on our car changed, had lunch and ice cream together, ran some quick errands without a little one in tow and spent time working in the yard.  The afternoon consisted of working on Luke's room.  We got SO much accomplished and had dinner waiting for us when we were done painting for the day.  We would have never been able to do this design in Luke's room had Nana not entertained Carly all day! 

Today Brian hit the greens to play unlimited golf at 6am while I am headed to work and Nana will stay home with Carly.  My Dad flies in tomorrow and then we all head to Ft. Lauderdale on Saturday to cruise off into Belize & Mexico.  Can you believe I am going to go out of country during BOTH of my pregnancies (I went to Italy when Carly was in utero)?! I can't...that just seems crazy (it is).

Well this is my farewell before venturing into the unknown depths of the sea.  I'll post again when we return!