The bright side of weariness

In the past month I survived my first vacation with a toddler, a tropical storm, and an earthquake. To be honest, I didn't notice the earthquake, perhaps because I'm too shaken from dealing with a toddler...who wanted to go outside the entire time the tropical storm was going on.

My little son, who I adore more than anything in this universe, has decided to showcase his personality this past month. He's sneaky (loves to hide), funny (love to make faces and weird sounds), head strong (knows what he wants and isn't afraid to do anything to get it), and very strong and tough (fell off a wall yesterday, stood up and brushed himself off). He also has developed a strong mommy attachment that prevents me from leaving him in the gym daycare for an hour while I work out. I was asked to leave, but I'll go back once he calms down a bit.

The work/life balance is hard for me these days as work becomes heavy heading into conference season. There are many days where I should be working late but have to do daycare pick up, and I've gone into the office at 7 AM to get stuff done far too often. On some weekends my son is like a child who is visiting...I give him extra special treatment because I haven't seen him most of the week, then spend the next few days worried I am spoiling him and that he sees the daycare people are his "real parents."

However, yesterday he showed me in a very public way that I'm doing OK.

I work from home on Wednesdays, which gives me some time with the little guy. We walked down to the library for a story time, where the kids are given free reign to wander around the room as long as they are not too disruptive. He sat in my lap for the first story, and during the break headed over to the rug where some of the older kids were sitting. But instead of sitting down he went to the adults and said "my mommy" and pointed over at me. He said this to each adult in the room then returned to my lap for the second story.

I have to be honest, my heart melted.