happy mother's day... in sweden...

so, on the actual US mother's day. i was sick. to my stomach. ugh.

caleb and i had plans to hang out in boston together. we had a babysitter lined up. but then i was sick. so i cancelled. quite anti-climatic and not what i was expecting for my "first" mother's day.

so we rescheduled our date in the city. we rescheduled it this past sunday. i know, everyone leaves the city for memorial day. except us. we went into the city. and it happened to be mother's day in sweden. fitting, eh?

well, i didn't end up capturing any pictures IN boston. i wanted to get sandwiches at some small sandwich shop and walk boston taking pictures but i didn't know that's what i wanted to do (more on that in a minute). we ended up having lunch at stephanie's on newbury. have you heard of the place? it's yummy. i had french toast. caleb had a cobb salad. we sat outdoors. we people watched. we talked about architecture and church. we talked a little bit about being parents. then i realized i wished we hadn't eaten at stephanie's on newbury. not for any other reason than i wanted to walk boston w/caleb, my camera and some sandwiches and snap shots of life happening on a sunday afternoon. now i know. so next time we won't eat at a fancy newbury street restaurant. we'll find a hole-in-the-wall sandwich shop somewhere in back bay, north end or somewhere else. we'll bring our cameras. we'll eat our sandwiches on a bench in a park and snap pictures of life as we see it. that's our next date. hopefully before caleb leaves for india.

ok, well, i promise. that wasn't complaining about mother's day. caleb and i had a date. it was beautiful weather in a beautiful city. sam was with my friend sam having a grand old time in a grand old city. life is good.

after boston, we drove to ipswich. we used to live there. i LOVE ipswich. i miss it. i miss my crane's beach sticker. i miss russell orchards being 5 minutes from our place. i miss walking to the train to go to boston. i miss walking to the library, to the bank, to the market. i miss the neck (those of you who know ipswich, know the neck). i miss our walks along the ipswich river. i miss bradley palmer being close. heck, i sometimes even miss the long windy drive down 1A.

anyway, we went to strawberry hill in ipswich. with sam. we had fun. walking. taking pictures. carrying sam. showing sam strawberry hill:

hanging from trees

chewing grass

 

sitting on rocks.

note: sam representing caleb's alma mater thanks kim :)

 he loved it all.

 

we ended the day with ice-cream at downriver in essex.

as you can see, sam loved the spoons. and maybe there was a hint of ice-cream on the spoon.
overall, a fabulous day with my fabulous husband and happy-go-lucky little boy.

i'm a mom.
more on that later...
on that note, some more pictures.

timed shot w/our camera sitting on a rock

crawling around on strawberry hill

walking back sam gets a plane ride through the grass

mother's day reflections

i know i'm a little late on this, but humor me...
my first mother's day i spent in bed... sick. talk about a downer...
caleb & sam wished me happy mother's day, caleb made me breakfast, but i didn't really want any.
i insisted upon going to church b/c i wanted to. we had plans to enjoy a lunch date in the lovely city of boston and walk around. that didn't happen. instead we came home from church and i laid on our couch watching CSI & Little Fockers (funny movie if you haven't seen it), then, i went to bed early. NOT what i was expecting for mother's day, but caleb & i decided to have a "redo". hopefully next sunday :)
this time last year i was somewhat a mother. baby "alpine" or sam as he's now known was baking in the oven.
1) i've found energy i never knew i had to keep up w/my energetic little guy
2) loved in a capacity i didn't know i could, seriously, my heart practically hurts b/c i'm bursting with love for baby sam.
3) appreciate my own mother so much more, how did she raise 4 kids and stay sane?! she was amazing and still inspires me to this day.
4) sleeping-in has a whole new meaning: if sam sleeps past 6am OR if he wakes up, eats and then goes back to bed till 8am or 9am
5) down-time is not the weekend, but when sam's sleeping or quiet

this past saturday morning, sam woke up and i fed him. caleb and i were wide awake and sam drifted back to sleep. caleb & i proceeded to watch "saturday morning cartoons" in the form of CSI. how is it that SAM was sleeping and we couldn't sleep?!

happy mother's day.

weekdays

a working stay-at-home mom... is there such a thing? well, that's me.
before sam was born, i worked from a home office. last march i had the opportunity to become the controller for my company. i decided to take the position, after disclosing to my boss that i was pregnant to make sure he didn't want to change his mind. the new position required i travel to the main office on cape cod two days a week. i accepted the challenge.
caleb and i had our lives turned upside down in a matter of months...

• we find out i'm pregnant
• i get a new job, travel required
• caleb's working 25-40 hrs per week at REI
• caleb's going to school full-time for his master's degree
• we find out our landlord is selling their house... we need to MOVE! (which was obvious with a baby on the way anyway)

there was so much more going on in the background... but i won't bore you with it. after sam was born, caleb and i knew i had to go back to work - which as a mom is struggle. i love baby sam and would LOVE to stay home with him ALL the time, but i love my job - which is a career. sure it can be stressful, difficult, hard, and so forth, but my job is so rewarding. how can i give up what i love doing? well, i can't, because i have a husband in school... so therefore, hi ho hi ho back to work i go.
since my position was a "work from a home office" type of position i was "lucky" enough to be able to work from my home office once sam was born.
now i travel to the main office every other week and i'm in the office for 3 days. the travel is difficult, but sam gets to spend time with his grandma (my mom watches him while i'm in the office), i get to work in the office, and i get a break from 24/7 sam. don't get me wrong, i LOVE him and am so  happy i'm his mom. but moms need a break... so they don't lose their marbles...
well, the rest of the time i work from a home office. i have to say, i'm lucky to not have to put sam in daycare, i'm lucky i could exclusively nurse for the first 6 months and not really worry about pumping (nursing moms know what i mean). i have a love/hate relationship with my pump. i'm so thankful for it... but ugh. just think about it... it's like "hello, my name is sara, and i'm a cow..." not exciting. not comfortable. but for sam, i do it because sam means the world to me. i love him unconditionally, most of the time ;)
so, i work from a home office, with a 6 month old. it has been difficult, challenging, rewarding, fun. sam is such a great little person. he's so happy most of the time. so no complaints in that department.
here's a quick synopsis of sam:
7am: wakes up and talks to himself for 30 minutes (i shower, eat breakfast, get ready for the day)
7:30am: go get sam and he's so happy to see me. breakfast for sam, get him ready for the day
8am: work begins, and sam hangs out on the floor or in the exersaucer (or w/caleb ie dad if he's not in class)
9am: sam goes down for a nap, literally, i put him in his crib and he goes to sleep, i continue to work
11am: sam wakes up and eats, he plays on the floor or in the exersaucer
1pm: i break for lunch; sam & i sit at the kitchen table and talk about the day
2pm: another nap for sam, i continue to work
3-5pm: sam wakes up, eats, and plays, i work
4-6pm: i take sam for a walk (no not for 2 hours, at some point from 4-6pm depending when he wakes up)
5-6pm: finish work
7pm: dinner
8pm: sam's in bed - for the night

now i know i won't have this schedule forever, but as a working from a home office stay at home mom... it works for now. and i have to take it day by day. sure life brings you curves balls, but you bring your bat and your A game and somehow at the end of the day, you've gotten it done. i'm so thankful for life right now.

disclaimer: for all three of you who read this blog... i'm terrible at keeping a babybook, so i blog, and then i can look back and see how life was. and since before this week, i hadn't posted since december, i guess i'm terrible at blogging on a regular basis too... but i'm cutting myself some slack since there are only 24  hrs in a day... and during non work time i want to spend with caleb & sam and not sit in front of a computer...