We Are Back in Business!

Maternity leave is over and I am back to blogging!  Feel free to give a round of applause, maybe you can do the wave?

 I believe I sopped writing early in the summer; about the time the pregnancy began to really kick my butt.  I remember I was worried about keeping my daughters busy and enriched all summer long.  And I did!  Does not mean I managed to blog about it, but between summer camps (Starwars, Lego, Pottery and Art), park, library, tutoring, pool, friends, and a wonderful helper at my house we managed to make it to late summer with only two weeks that were not scheduled to the max with activities.  My sister and her boyfriend helped out too.  Oh, my!  I still hear about my sister’s boyfriend and how amazing he is.  He kept the energy in the house nice and up.  ;-)  We had grandparents out helping too.  We hit up the Airshow and Jazzfest.  We went to a rocking 4^th of July party with close friends and their children.  Summer was very, very good to us. 

If there is one event that stood out from the summer, for my whole family it was hatching ducklings.  Sure, I also had a baby too.  For my family the major summer activity were the ducks.  My girls and my man went through each stage of duckling hatching together; building an incubator, getting the eggs, incubating them, rotating them, watching/helping them hatch, trading off midnight cuddles, taking them outside, building them a pond, and eventually a duck house.  These ducks became the summer – it might as well be called “the summer of the maffeoberry ducks”.  Ducks or no ducks, I did have a baby this summer. 

My little man was born late – this was a complete shock to me, as both my girls were born early.  A week late, almost nine pounds and delivered without any pain meds.  Now, he is three months and a total charmer.  I might have been afraid I would crawl into the oblivion that is 3 months postpartum.  That notorious three month bracket of time that is impossible to recall later in life, a time when nothing gets done and sleep is scarce; socializing is completely nonexistent.  However, I surprised myself again, I guess the third time is a charm: we are running low on sleep nowadays, but we managed to make new and exciting memories,  plan and attend events ,  visit with friends and family regardless of the our new addition.  In fact, we hit the Midwest Ren Fair twice AND the Mall of America twice!  My dad and sister visited.  My man’s mom visited.  We threw a party for friends and attended a couple parties thrown by friends.  I still made it to book club! 

And of course the gluten free life style continues.  I managed to keep up with my daughters’ school events – both in attendance and in dietary needs.  I not only made GF treats for their Halloween parties, but managed to attend both parties, and on the same day made chili and smokies (GF) for the Halloween party that night at a friend’s house; plus, even though it was a mid week Halloween this year, we trick or treated till the kids complained their feet hurt!  I felt like a rock star and not just a rock star that had a baby recently, but a gluten free mom rock star that provided snacks, treats and food to all events (and I am telling you, that is not easy with a new baby).  This house of course suffered, it might be a mess right now.    There might have been times we were zombie like in doing so, but for the most part we managed to even appear rested!  Again, feel free to applaud, maybe the wave.