I Wanna Hold Your Haaaaaand

As any Mama of 2 can likely relate, during maternity leave I feel like I spent 80% of my time holding and/or attending to Brynn's needs.  I am not sure this bothered my little Daddy's Girl in the slightest, but it did sit tough with yours truly.  While I love taking care of my youngest nugget, I found myself missing getting to have some true quality alone time with the dollface who made me a Mama.  I told Ryan that when I started back at work I was going to try to devote some of my Fridays off to spending time with Miss Em.

I put this plan in action right away on my first Friday off after returning, February 27th.  What better place to start on a cold, blustery day than the Children's Museum?  A high school friend of mine, Ava, happened to have a son 2-3 weeks younger than Emery and then another son 2-3 weeks younger than Brynn.  Clearly this fateful fact means that our kids are destined to be BFFs.  We attempted to have a play date with the little 'uns while I was still out on maternity leave but due to yucky winter sickness, we never made it work.  As an olive branch we asked if they wanted to join E & I on this adventure.  They accepted because they are just as crazy brave as we are.

We had a great time!  Emery was exactly how I expected her to be- completely skeptical and cautious of the entire thing.  Poor Princess inherited her father's extreme skepticism and my total aversion to risk.  If she couldn't do it with a firm grasp on her Mama's hand then she wasn't doing it.  She also was too shy to talk to anyone except me until we got in the car to leave, of course.  Then she said all their names about 37x before falling fast asleep.

It was genuinely such a fun day and I'm so glad that we did it.  We will definitely be returning some other time in the near future.  I think there were a few places we both wish we could explore again.  Maybe next time Brynnie Boo and Daddy can even join us!

Many thanks to Ava, Silas & Asher for playing with us.  We look forward to some more play dates in the future.  Hopefully with less lines for the changing table!  ;c)

"Emmy do it furst!"  This is a common chant around these parts.

The car was a hot commodity in the Tot Spot.

It took approximately 50 times of me telling her I couldn't go with her on the slide before she attempted on her own.  Then she loved it.  Note evidence of smile above.

How adorable is Silas?

I wonder if when our parents were watching us play volleyball they ever thought that some... uh... let's go with 10 (haaaaaa) years later we'd be watching our own kids play together.

Showing me how train conductor-ing is done.

"Cooookies, mommay!  Cookies!"

Proof that Ava & Asher were also there.  (Hey, being the photographer when it's 2 against 3 is tough.)

You know what goes great with chocolate milk?  Onions.  Or Orange juice.

The best pic I captured.  I should win an award or something, right?

Breaking bread.  Nothing says "ok, I've finally warmed up to you" like trying to share your croissant.