Mom's Day Out

This week I've hung up the hat of working mom and are taking a much needed vacation from work. However, as all parents know, since we don't have a planned trip to Hawaii or something cool like that, did I really think I was getting a vacation by staying home all week? Um..........no.

It's OK, because I've been able to spend some more time with the kids. Especially CJ. Who, ever since we had Andrew last year, has had to reluctantly share all his time with us, after having it all to himself for over 4 years. Having another child has added a great amount of stress as well as a tremendous amount of joy from a parenting perspective, but I can't help but think about how the adjustment has affected CJ. It bothers my husband very little, who was 18 months apart from both of his sisters, both older and younger. So sharing for him as always been a reality. For me, though, I was the baby girl of the family, the "accident", as I was 10 and 8 years younger than my 2 older brothers. So I never had to share. But CJ has seemed to have adjusted appropriately and is now wearing the hat of an older brother well. Most of his tantrums occurred early on last year, and as for his feelings now, I would have to say that they run very deep for his little brother.

I think about CJ often because he is my firstborn. I don't say that to insinuate that I favor him over Andrew, but I think your relationship with your firstborn is very different than with your subsequent children. It's a little more raw. It's visceral because you sweated the early days of parenting with this child. They don't know that, but you do, and those memories are planted very deep into our brains. They don't go away.

Additionally, for our family at least, there seems to be a stronger connection between Dave and Andrew. Even though Dave was home with CJ as a baby, too, CJ usually favored me. Or, to put it more accurately, my best friend says that CJ has me wrapped around his finger. Either way, Andrew is much more attached to Dave than CJ ever was, which became very evident the other night when he was having trouble getting to sleep and he cried when I picked him up as he was pointing to Dave. Dave held him and he stopped crying and was back to sleep within 5 minutes. You give a kid life and then your boob for 9 months and this is the thanks you get?

Anyway, in the spirit of our relationship, CJ and I had a "Mom's Day" yesterday as he calls it. He's off school this week for Spring Break. It was a beautiful Spring day, and we took advantage of it by playing putt-putt and riding go-karts. Then off to Burger King for a quick lunch and more playtime on the indoor playground. We had a blast. CJ hasn't stopped talking about golf since.

CJ is an extremely loquacious and curious little boy. There is a constant stream of questions and observations coming out of his mouth as is demonstrated by some of the chatter that went on yesterday in the car:

"When was the sun born?"

Before the planet earth.

"What would happen if you 100 babies?"

I would implode. Or be mistaken for a rabbit.

"What happened to the dinosaurs?"

They died.

"When can I ride my bike?"

Soon, honey.

"Am I gonna be able to ride my bike today?"

Yes, honey, as soon as Mama makes a pit stop at Kohl's. (Hey, it's my day off, too, right?)