One kinda day

Here are some things I accomplished today:
Ran three miles
Showered!!
Attended a brunch with the kiddos
Washed diapers
Washed dishes
Helped a favorite cruising client with her air reservations, floor seats to Cabaret on Broadway, and excursions dotting the New England coast
Went to my other job, even though I'm six hours over for the pay period
Packed a suitcase for the kids for their weekend at nani & Nana's

Packed up all of our baby books for baby cousin Dominic

Drove to buccees

Here's where I failed. I didn't:
Bring my wallet
Ensure I had enough gas to get to Houston
Or enough gas to get back home
Have any money in my car to get me anywhere

I am lucky to have a husband that understands that I look like I can do it all simply because I have a wonderful man who'll drive to Luling to bring me my wallet. And while that alone is great. Here's the best part. He didn't say a word about it.

French fries on daddy!

My Montessori Schoolhouse

Today was Z&Z's first day at Montessori Schoolhouse. They were both eager to get up and out the door this morning after very successful meetings last week in their classrooms. 

I will admit that she was hysterical when we dropped her off and he burst into hysterics when we got there. (He was playing fine until he saw my face...suspicious.) All of that aside, we started the morning off all smiles and cooperation!

Here is my favorite of Zahra:

And Sam's favorite:

But then there are THESE too!

And these are maybe actually the cutest of the bunch. 

Here is Zayd literally skipping to the car. :) 

At Summer's End

Last Wednesday I started to write this post, but didn't publish. Some things take time.

Joe just walked out of our house on his last official day of nannying. I don't have a house full of pictures of him. He's never even been pictured on the blog. Most people assume Joe is a Jo, unless they hear him referred to as the manny. All the same, he has meant more to this family than possibly anyone else in the world for three years. He has been our nanny for 1000 mornings. When we go on vacation he misses them like mad. He gave into their nearly every whim for 41 consecutive months and they still went down for nap without so much as a whimper. When I got home from work first, my kids have always smelled like Joe.

There was some crying, more on my part than on his. I tried to let him know what he means to us still. Zayd's parting directions were the best, "Joe! I want to be sure you don't get lost. I will tell you where you are going. You go, left, right, straight, straight, straight. And you'll be there." I am pretty sure those were directions to Gold's Gym, but it was adorable and tear-jerking all the same.

Here is what Zayd looked like on Joe's first day.

Joe took a two week vacation before coming back to work with me through my maternity leave for Zahra. While I could have handled both kids, we believed in being reliable employers. He didn't need maternity leave, so we didn't make him take it. We would switch kids and pretend to be single care givers for those three months. 

He is the only one who knows how to get Zayd to eat potatoes (besides Bill Miller), he made my kids homemade tortillas that I will never be able to replicate, they had daily outings to the "store" for Gatorade (whereas I find the store terrifying but figure it is a good experience to see the inside of a gas station with openmindedness). There is just so much Joe has brought to their lives.  On his last day I consoled myself with baking a cake. Here are the kids on Joe's last day, standing on the counter onto which they climbed by themselves, eating pretend cupcakes from the silicone baking cups.

Now, after all of that, let me make a little fun of myself. Joe will be here tomorrow to clean our house and he is already scheduled to work Sept 4th. So, I think we are going to manage. But there is nothing like knowing that your kids are OK, and I always had that with Joe.