Afternoons with my boys

People have been asking me what I have been doing with myself in the month since I left my job. My initial answer is to shrug and wonder myself. Really my days have been busy and go by faster than I ever would have thought. I thought I would give a run down of a day in the life of this stay at home mom.

7:00 James wakes up in his bed and starts crying to get out. Once out he wants to watch Thomas and have a snack. Neither of those things happen. He then gets my chap stick and starts smearing it all over the lower portion of his face.
7:30 Zach gets up and comes in (Alex is usually showering or doing something by this time). I rouse myself and get them both breakfast. They play and get dressed until around nine when we mosey up to school.
9:30 I head to the gym in an attempt to be a skinny SAHM I see all over town. Lulemon top - check, four year old running shorts - check.
10:30 head home to shower (maybe) and straighten up the house from the morning
12:00 eat lunch. Maybe with a friend, maybe in the kitchen, maybe on the couch. I can't really say.
1:00 - 3:00 go to the grocery store, pet food store, return hideous top to Target, etc. Some light cleaning, prep dinner or work on my Junior League sewing project.
3:30 pick up the boys from school and our afternoon begins.

Some days Zach just wants to come home and play. The boys have really started to play together and it is awesome. Oh they fight of course, someone always starts crying after about 20 minutes (usually James saying "Zaaaach. Zaaaach mama") but on the whole they are great together.

However today Zach wanted to go to the science museum. Vince became a member last year so we can go for the member rate and it is nice and cool. It is also open until 6:00 p.m. in the summers so getting there at 4 gives you plenty of time to visit. I might note though - it takes us an hour max to see anything. Museum, aquarium, pools, a hour is always the most we stay. So you have been warned if we have an outing planned with you.

Zach loves to ride the Bronocosaurus which is a mechanical dino that roars and bucks slightly. James is terrified and clutches me the entire time. I usually say no but Vince let's him ride it and I was not in the mood for a battle that day.

We wander through the dinosaurs, which are really very cool, but avoid the mummy section. Apparently Vince and the boys stumbled upon them one day and Zach was very scared of the "dead bodies just laying there". Valid.

I get in trouble in the dinosaurs section when James decides to bang on a Plexiglas picture of monkeys. A security guard rushes over to tell me that he can't touch that. My response, "Yeah, I am on it." Which I was, sort of. Zach had taken off to see the giant sloth and at least I knew were James was thanks to the banging. I mean he had not crawled up into an exhibit, calm down.

We then go through the Africa exhibit which has stuffed animals (real ones) in a variety of poses. Personally I am slightly terrified of the gorilla but have to pull myself together as my two year old is trying to make out with it.

They also had a section on shells (snore) but it included a small fish tank was in the back with a few crabs. James proceeded to yell "MAMA FISH" about 25 times until I persuaded him to leave with some illegal goldfish. Zach is fascinated by the giant shells hanging around him.

There is also a McDonald's in the museum which Zach so sweetly told me, as if I could not smell the fries and read. I decided that we all needed a treat, me for getting in trouble, Zach for being a good listener and James, well, James just got it by default.

I stupidly let them get ice cream which we had to rush outside to eat. We switched cones about four times until everyone was happy with the cone they had.

This is James saying, "Cheeeese".

And I am done. Home for bath time, brushing teeth and bedtime. Then some alone Mommy time until Alex comes home. Or I get to watch the Real Housewives in peace.