Making the Most of It

My harsh return to reality is just eleven days away....

It's hard to believe I am approaching my last week of my (extended) maternity leave.  In some ways it will be nice to return to the challenge of work, but it will be very difficult to depart from my new routine of spending the day with Ani.  She is an amazingly easy baby (knock on wood), and her clockwork four-hour daytime feeding routine has melded perfectly with my Type-A personality and associated desire for organization and time management.  My little peanut and I have quickly formed a dynamic duo when it comes to running errands and getting things done.  Earlier this week, while Alexa was at her Monday gymnastics lesson, Ani and I were able to go to Babies-R-Us, Michaels and Costco....all within the span of one hour and ten minutes.  Not too shabby, especially when you factor in the time spent for strangers fawning over her.  Young babies, particularly tiny ones like Ani, attract a lot of attention in stores; I think I respond to the question, "How old is she?" at least twenty times a day.  I'm going to miss running these daily errands with Ani, although I don't think my checkbook will miss the frequent Target jaunts.

I will be making the most of my last week of maternity leave, as it happens to coincide with Alexa's Spring Break.  Alexa, Ani and I will be flying to St. Louis tomorrow for nearly one week; unfortunately it's high season in Scottsdale, so Damon is working.  Thankfully the weather in St. Louis is projected to improve dramatically from the snow and ice of last weekend, so it won't be as hard to leave behind the 80-degree and sunny weather.  Alexa was bummed that I will not be able to take her to a Cardinals game, but she had no problem creating a laundry list of other must-do items in St. Louis: the Zoo (to see Granty's giraffes), Magic House, ice skating, etc...  I think it will be a great week, and I'm really looking forward to being back in St. Louis.  By Connie standards, I haven't been there in quite a while; the last time I was there was for the World Series I would rather forget.

I'm keeping my fingers cross that Ani maintains her 'easy baby' status for the flight tomorrow.  I'm pretty confident that everything will go smoothly.  Alexa flew cross-country from Orange County to New Jersey when she was ~10-weeks old, so Ani's St. Louis to Phoenix trip at 8-weeks old should be a piece of cake!

My happy little peanut & great errand-running partner.