One Good Day

Oh man do I miss sleeping in....Ryan woke up at 6 a.m. today.  I fed him and hoped he would do his usual thing by going right back to sleep. He fought sleep for about 30 mins and right when he was about to finally drift off, Jacob's bedroom door opened and he rushed down the hall, grinning widely and stomping his feet loudly.

Sigh. I was up for the long haul.

So what to do next? I decided to make bagels. And just because I'm an insane person, I decided to make them from scratch. I had made bagels once before and they hadn't turned out so well. Ever since then I've been determined to make them again. I pulled out my recipe book, glanced down the ingredient list, and quickly realized I didn't have bread flour, the staple ingredient.

That should have been a sign to abandon my little morning project. But I had already made up my mind and, dang it, I really wanted some pizza bagels! So I packed up both kids (husband was sleeping and Jacob refused to be left behind) and off we went, to the grocery store, at 6:45 a.m. Never underestimate a mom's desire to carbo-load at the butt crack of dawn.

My hair was greasy, my yoga pants had the just-been-slept-in smell, and my sweatshirt had a huge spit-up stain in the shoulder area. I should have changed but...wtf...I decided my chances were very slim of running into Jon Hamm at Safeway and convincing him to run away with me after throwing provocative glanes (ducklips anyone?) his way. Especially if I was pushing a cart containing one poop-grunting infant and one shoe-less child (I didn even realize he wasn't wearing shoes until we got there!). "People of Safeway at 6:45 a.m." is giving "People of Walmart" a run for it's money.

When we got home, Ry was crabby and ready for a nap. But I had come so far in my goal of making bagels to let something silly like naptime get in the way. With Ryan on my hip, I one-handedly mixed the dough, shaped the bagels, set them out to rise, boiled them, topped them with pizza ingredients, and plopped them in the oven.

They were well worth every freaking effort! Hmmmmm, carbs. Since I know so many people on the Paleo diet right now, I decided to enjoy a bagel for each of those people. That's just the supportive kind of person that I am. Yes, I know I'm kind. You are very welcome.

I didn't have an agenda for the rest of the day at all. I spend the day totally present with my kids. Jacob helped us re-arrange and organize his room. We set up his big boy bunk beds and somehow managed to fit bunkbeds, crib, dresser, bookcase and toy chest into his tiny room. Things ended up fitting with just centimeters of extra space. Phew! Jacob is now ready to share his room with Ryan. I am so excited for them to go this one step further in becoming best-bud brothers.

Jacob had a freaking ton of toys that he never played with. He refused to let me take them to Goodwill so I told him we were going to put the extra toys in a bag and take them to Grandma's house. Poor kid, he had no idea he was an accomplice in a bold act of toy-knapping. When he fell asleep in the car, I rushed to Goodwill and dropped those toys off faster than a hot-potato. Mommy win!

Before we went home, we took a spontaneous trip to a nearby creektrail. Jacob, Ryan, and I took in the scenes and explored some nature. We played "Pooh-sticks" over a bridge, helded caterpillers in our hands, made up some songs, and enjoyed some spray-paint graffiti ("Mommy what do those words say?" "Oh, they say....um....'I love rainbows'!"). I need to remember to do stuff like that more often. Nothing beats good, old-fashioned outdoor fun. Especially when it is free and doesn't involve puke-covered arcade games (looking at you Chuck E. Cheese!).

Today was one of my favorite days in a long time. This is true even though I fell asleep 20 minutes into the movie Inception during date-night-in with the husband. (Don't worry, I've seen it before...it's very good.)