Back to life, back to re-al-i-ty...

I have thought about blogging several times in the past few weeks.  I have thought of a few things that may or may not be interesting to write about.  I have wondered if anyone has checked the blog and wondered why there isn't a new post.

Then I realize that it is 8:00pm; I have just gotten Trey down to bed; I still have to clean up the kitchen, get coffee ready for the morning, get a few lunch things together, and possibly do a few other housekeeping duties; and all I really want to do is go to bed and read.  Often times I am too tired to even sit down and watch tv.  So there you have it, back to the grind as a full time working mama.  

I was thinking today, at about 5:25pm when Trey was wailing in my lap for no apparent reason and I couldn't get him to calm down, that what sucks most about being a working parent is that daycare gets all the good stuff, and we get all the crap.  From what I've heard from my friends with older kids, this does not change much as they grow up.  Awesome.  

But then, as the night went on and I got Trey to eat a few bites of yogurt for dinner, his mood switched on a dime.  He played with the toothbrushes and toothpaste in the bathroom as I worked in the kitchen, and then we spent the rest of the evening in his room with him playing in his crib with his stuffed animals and us reading books.  

And then I felt the joy.  

One of my favorite books to read to him right now is Good Night, Gorilla.  

When I used to work at Annie Bloom's and people bought this book, I thought it was a really lame book.  Now I love it more than most of his other books (I just realized last week that the colors of the keys match the colors of the cages, and has anyone else noticed the family photos in the zookeeper's house?).  And what I love most is listening to Trey "read" the book when he's looking at it on his own.  He repeats several of the words and phrases I use as I read it, and sometimes he makes up his own.  

Tonight he also was "reading" Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

and he even wagged his finger at me as he said what the doctor said.  

I love that Trey loves books.  I hope this lasts forever.  

One thing I have been working on since I've been back to work is meal planning and making dinners that are easy and healthy since my window of time between getting home and getting dinner on the table is limited and happens really fast.  Right now I LOVE Martha Stewart's Everyday Food.  I can't believe I just discovered this magazine last year.  I asked for her cookbooks for my birthday and Julie got them for me.  I have used them a lot, and I highly recommend them.  

I have also really been enjoying the books I have been reading (one of the reasons I am so excited to go to bed at night).  I just finished Street of Thousand Blossoms by Gail Tsukiyama (love her), and I am really enjoying the Chaperone by Laura Moriarty.  But, since I'm back at work driving around Clackamas County, I am once again listening to audiobooks.  

Right now I am listening to Wild by Cheryl Strayed, and I can't say enough good things about it.  It makes me want to hike, it makes me think a lot about my mom (maybe that's why she's been in my dreams the past few nights), and it makes me want to be a strong, independent woman.  I could probably recommend this book to almost every reader in my life and for a variety of reasons.  There is a very strong chance that I will buy a hard copy of it and read it again down the road.  

Randy, Trey and I have had a busy few weeks and I have a lot of cute pictures.  I will do that in a different blog post, hopefully later this week.  Right now it's time to go to bed and read my book.  I have about 150 pages left and it is due at the library tomorrow.  Yikes!