Saving Daylight

February 7 I've been doing the stay-at-home-mom thing for about six months now.  And I absolutely love it.  I love the amount of patience and focus I can bring to it that I don't have to share or compartmentalize with working full-time, and I remind myself daily what a luxury that is.  But today was one of the very few days that felt hard.  I didn't really get any minutes where I wasn't needed, and immediately.  There was no shower, no real meals eaten, hardly any water consumed, and I was generally running on fumes.  It was just one of those whiny, needy, tantrum-y, exhausting days that, when you're in the middle of one, feels like it will never end.  But this picture was taken early in the day, before I realized that it was gonna be that kind of day.  After our stressful doctor and cardiologist appointments of last week, it was refreshing to see him joyfully pretending to give his teddy bear a checkup.  My cue to move on officially from the stress,

January is for Joy, Volume III January 22 We recently started going to a weekly tiny tots music class at lovely Frying Pan Park.  You might remember that I am a music teacher, and you might think it redundant to pay money to attend someone else's music class with my child.  I will confess that I am enjoying this little covert operation and joyfully flying under the radar.  I have no plans to ever tell this sweet woman that I, too, can operate the remote on a boombox sound system to cue the next song while also remembering exactly how many ducks came baaaaaaack.  I love that the only thing I need to worry about for those 45 minutes is whether Arthur will indeed lick the egg shaker, or if he will instead spontaneously hurl it across the room.  Part of the routine within the class is that each kid gets to have a turn to request a song that everyone sings and everyone plays a little instrument to accompany.  Most kids are requesting things like "If You're Happy and