Back to work

OK, another seemingly unforgivable delay in posting to the blog.

I'll start by posting a few pictures from a trip we made to the Discovery Museum last week. It was fun hanging out with Maya and Owen. Owen worked hard on milking the cows and playing in the climbing gym. Maya worked hard being afraid of the cows (she is actually quite fascinated with them, until you get close and they lose their appeal), and enjoying some of the levers she could flip herself.

Anyway, I'm sorry I've been so slow at getting things added to the Blog. The past couple of weeks have been pretty crazy, though. Here's what happened ...

Amy returned to work this week. Her first day was Tuesday and she worked part time through Friday. On Monday she goes back to a 40 hour week.

The timing was just about perfect. Amy was really feeling like she needed this kind of change, and the option of returning to a place where she'd been, with a good salary and a solid sense of the lay of the land have helped us feel like this is a good decision.

Thanks to Nana Aalberts for coming down to watch the kids as we started transitioning our schedules this week.

The other happiness is we all feel good about the day care/pre-school program we found for the kids. The center is very nice, with quiet yet engaging rooms for Maya and a five-day-per-week pre-school program for Owen, which he will love. It's going to be a change, as we've never both worked full-time since Owen was born, but I think it's going to be good in the long run.

We have been enjoying this final weekend. We did some work today prepping snacks and lunches for the kids (and us), but also enjoying some fun around town.

This morning I took Owen and Maya to the Pantagraph's Kids' Expo this morning, and Owen went to part of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band concert tonight at my theater. Both good options on a cold, windy day.

Some videos of our time at the Expo follow. It was fun, with lots of booths, some face painting (you'll be amazed at how fast she works), and, best of all, some bouncy slides.

Very fun! (And we all took great naps!)