Me + Maternity Leave

Me + Maternity Leave + Infomercials = Bad Combination!!

Seriously!  This happened to me when I was on maternity leave with Ryder too.  I wake up for those late night feedings, turn the TV on so I can have some light, and get sucked right in to every single infomercial!  They make me feel like I HAVE to have whatever they are selling.  By the end of my maternity leave with Ryder, I was the proud owner of the Turbo Snake Drain Cleaner, the Perfect Mop, P90X, Bare Minerals, Ab Circle Pro, Your Baby Can Read...I was out of control! 

And so it begins…

I bought the Shark Navigator Vacuum!! (With no loss of suction AND a detachable canister!)

 

I don’t know who was more excited, Me or Ryder!  Before I even told him what it was he said “Dis must be our new Shark Vacuum!”  I love this kid for getting excited about things with me!

AND it came with a free steam mop!  SOLD!

I’m really going to try to make this my only purchase…TRY being the key word here.  I can’t make any promises because I might need the Bender Ball if I ever want my stomach to recover from having 2 kids! 

Alan says I’m corrupting her -

No, we weren’t watching infomercials…we were watching the Real Housewives of New York. thankyouverymuch.

Newborn Pictures

Just got the CD in the mail of Maisy’s newborn pictures from the hospital:

Gosh she looks so different to me already and it has only been 2 weeks!  My sweet girl.

Visitors

This week we’ve been showered with love from all the people who came to visit us! 

Wednesday it was Nicki, Jen, Nana Sherry, and Jaxon!  Sherry made Ryder his very own GREEN blanket and brought him some other goodies, and Jen made us a yummy taco dinner plus dessert.  We were spoiled for sure!  The future Mr & Mrs got their first picture taken together, and then Jaxon took a special picture in Ryder’s Harley bed…just for Daddy! 

 

Thursday Patty & Luke came to visit and brought us lunch!  The boys played so good together and it was nice for us girls to get to chat.  Only 10 more weeks and Patty will be the new Mommy!

 

Friday Jennifer, Justice and Jenna came to visit.  Ryder loved having the girls over to play, and boy did they play!  I’m so used to Ryder being the baby, I can’t believe that he can actually play now, it’s so cute to listen to their conversations and watch them all get to enjoy eachother.  Jennifer was so sweet to clean up for me when they were done playing!

Saturday Aunt Megan came to visit and brought all of our favorite breakfast…”Chickalay!” (as Ryder would say).  Maisy propped up right on top of her cousin Connor who will be here in October! 

Saturday evening CJ, Angela & Carter came to visit again, and Ryan came with them too.  The boys actually played great together this time!  They put their hard hats on and said they were going to work fixing stuff in Maisy’s room, then we found them hiding under her crib.

Maisy was such a sleepy head through every single one of these visits!  I think Megan is the only one who got to see her with her eyes open.  She either thinks we’re all really boring, or really soothing!  Even though she wasn’t awake to enjoy any visits, Mommy did :)

Story Time With Ryder

I had to steal this video from Patty’s blog, I’m so glad she got this on tape when they came to visit today.  Ryder sat down with this book (it’s one of the collection of Maisy books I was given as a gift at my shower) and recited the whole thing to us.  We were both in disbelief, I don’t know how he memorized the whole book.  But luckily Patty got him to do it again and caught it on tape.  He did it again perfectly when Alan got home and he was shocked too! 

This boy is something else!

Daddy, Don’t Goooo!

Back to work that is!  Alan’s company gave him a week of Paternity leave, so he was off work all week last week.  This weekend we decided that it just wasn’t long enough, so Me & Ryder begged for him to stay home a few more days (I’m sure you know how much arm twisting that took!) and now the time has come that he really has to go back to work tomorrow…but not without some sad faces and whining from his favorite little Marshes that he’s leaving behind.  Dadddddyyyyy don’t goooooo!

Alan & Ryder have spent every second together for the past week and a half, they are both going to be having serious withdrawals tomorrow.  Ryder has enjoyed all of the playtime with Daddy…they’ve been swimming, shopping, hanging at the garage, rough-housing, it has been an overload of Daddy/Son bonding time.  I’ll choose not to dwell on how bath night has been stretched a little further than Mommy can stand, or how bed time has been pushed back, how milk is not the drink of choice around here anymore, and how the TV stays on all day.  Because on top of taking care of Ryder’s every need (and want!) all of the home-cooked breakfasts, errands he has run, trips to therapy he has made, cleaning he has done…I could go on and on, have made me appreciate this man even more than I already did.  Even if he is leaving me with a monster I’m gonna have to tame!

“Momma, Ryder got a gun in da holsta!”

“and BIG muscle arms!”

Such a Daddy’s boy!  Every thing that comes out of his mouth reminds me of just how much time they have spent together this week! 

They’ve even started dressing like twins…

And falling asleep together! 

I’m telling you, these two aren’t going to know what to do without each other during the day.  And I’m sure Daddy is going to miss his sweet girl too!

We’re going to miss Daddy lots, but I’m so thankful for all of this time we’ve had to be at home together and get used to being a family of 4!

Happy 4th of July!

We celebrated by going to Alan’s Grandma’s house which was our first big outing since Maisy was born.  We had a great day!  Ryder got to play with all his Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins…and even let them turn him into an Indian!

 

Maisy got passed around and slept the whole day away, waking up only to eat and get a diaper change.  I took that opportunity to get a picture of my cute girl in her very first 4th of July outfit. (still feeling guilty that I didn’t even think to get Ryder a special shirt for the 4th…oops!).

Happy 4th of July everyone :)

The Missing Piece

One week ago, I had no clue what a huge piece of our family was missing!

I thought we were complete and worried we wouldn’t be able to love someone else as much as we already loved each other. 

Now that she’s here, I don’t know what we did without her!  Daddy is in awe of her sweetness, Mommy just can’t get enough of her little girl, and Ryder is totally in love with his baby sister. 

All these little pieces…

Make up our missing piece that one week ago we didn’t even know existed!