Easter Gladness

We have had a three day weekend starting with my birthday (39!) and ending with Easter. As usual, a three day weekend does not fill me with quite the glee that I remember from my pre-mom days. My children: they are cute but challenging.

Due to our continued nanny-less state (more on that in a bit), we didn't have a nanny for the whole day on Friday. I was pretty bummed about this because I was really looking forward to a day off of work WITH childcare. But Nicki helped us out for a couple of hours and we went to lunch at the Denver Biscuit Company and then picked up cupcakes to share later with the boys. After the guys got up from their nap we decided to take the Light Rail downtown and wander for a bit. We thought a choo-choo excursion would be a huge treat, but both boys seemed underwhelmed (I feel like this happens every time I present them with some Huge Surprise). We got off downtown and saw the big blue bear, visited a pop-up Denver store and then ate dinner at Maggiano's. It was actually a really nice afternoon- mostly low stress and by the time we got home it was time for bed. Bonus! I didn't really get anything for my birthday, but did stop to buy some "official" running clothes... now that I am consistently running it seemed it was time to run in something a little better than old stretched out t-shirts. Gray talked a lot about getting me my own monster truck but alas, we don't have anywhere to park it.

Probably the best thing I "got" for my birthday, though, was that the girl we had offered the nanny position to ACCEPTED. FINALLY! We were totally holding our breath, because after a really successful interview she indicated interest and then said she "had to talk to her fiance" which left us a bit puzzled. But I got the word later on Friday that it all was a go and now I am just eager to get the paperwork signed and get on with this process. We may have to piece daycare together for the next couple of weeks but I think we can manage. If all goes well, we may have this girl through the end of next year. This nanny search was particularly awful- the agency sent us three candidates before this one. Two were pretty unsuitable (one was an older weirdo woman who brought her guitar) and the third was okay but just sort of boring. This girl, Carolyn, is really active and interesting. I think our only challenge with her might be that she wants time off to do stuff, which isn't the worst thing. By the end of the process I felt like every phone call was a criticism on my job, family and lifestyle and it was just so frustrating. We will not be using her again for the next nanny search.

Gray and Eli are just nuts lately, and I know that the recent stress of the nanny/work situations have not helped at all. I really hope some more stability in the upcoming weeks will help. Gray is so frustrated with Eli- he does not want to share with him. Eli doesn't help things at all because he is SUCH an instigator. He knows how to push Gray's buttons and does so with such intent! It's funny and also a little sad to watch. Gray is at the stage where he likes to play pretend and Eli mostly wants to mess up whatever Gray is doing. I am not sure how to really handle this since this is probably going to go on for the next 10 years... Luckily they are also very cute. Eli is talking up a storm and regularly putting a couple of words together. He will say "Mama, water please" and "all done" without being prompted. It is adorable.

Next weekend is my 10k and I am so looking forward to getting to visit with friends and have a child-free weekend! Yay!