Things to be Happy About on a Monday

As much as I love the holidays, and as much as I loved our cocooned-up-with-daddy three day weekend...

...it's a bit of a relief to get back to a routine.  Two + weeks of no storytimes, no playtimes or playgroups, places closed, and erratic schedules is a bit much for those of us with small children just itching to get out of the house -- anywhere out of the house, please, though we only have so much money so we probably shouldn't set foot in Target again.

Musical Mondays for a bunch of us mommies and a whole lot o' kiddos under the age of 2 this morning?  Check.  I think all of us were relieved to be out of the house again, and Caden and Brooklyn were THRILLED to play with someone else's toys and sing some songs. They were also perfect angel children this morning, (well, besides the fact that Brooklyn was up at five am, but since daddy is home (!!!) it became Tyson's problem, not mine), who ate all their breakfast, didn't throw a fit over changing out of their PJs, played perfectly with each other by themselves until it was time for us to leave (!!!!!!!!!! x infinity), didn't fall asleep in the car either way during our 15-minute drive to and from music time, and went down willingly for a nap without my intervention even after playing with each other in their cribs for awhile, including a couple of pretty strong giggle fits.

Other things that made my Monday morning:

• Hearing Brooklyn count anything and everything, but only with the numbers three and five.  "Twee, Fiiiieee, Twee, Fiiieeee, Fiiieee!!!"  Sometimes she'll even throw a two in there.  "Brooklyn, how many choo choos do you have?"  *Points emphatically to one train car, then another* "Tweee!  Fiiieee!"  *Proud look*
• Morning frost patterns on the windows as the sun greets us for the day.  At about 8 am.  I know the days are getting longer and all, but let's hurry it up a bit.  Please.

• Seeing chubby little thighs and feet at the breakfast table this morning, that don't actually look so little anymore.  When did they get so long?  I'm not even sure why we came down without pants and socks this morning (I'll have to ask daddy later), but it's been so long since I've seen their bare legs and feet for any period of time longer than what it takes to wrestle them (quite literally) out of pajamas and into their clothes.  They also do get bathed regularly, but between the 3957 toys in the tub + bubbles + towels + let's hurry up and get your jammies on cuz it's freaking COLD, I hadn't realized how long their sorta-chunky little legs and toes had gotten.  Also, they're obsessed with socks (they were the most thrilled 22-month old kids you ever did see with all the socks they got at Christmas), so we're rarely without socks for more than 3.4 seconds at a time.  

• The fact that the lone Cheerio between their chairs in the picture above was the ONLY stray Cheerio that wound up on the floor this morning.  With two almost-2-year olds, that is quite the parenting WIN.

Happy Monday!