It's the little things...

Sadly, my "maternity leave" is winding down.  Since I work as an independent contractor/consultant I did not have paid maternity leave. And since I had several months off because of bedrest with the pregnancy (and no paid medical leave or paid sick days), our savings is kaput. So...my buns are back in action in just one week. The good news is that I just have to go back to work part time for now (someone schedule an intervention if I top 25 hours consulting on top of my UC gig that runs through the summer). We did find a new nanny and she starts a week from today. The other good news is that I will still be working from home. The bad news is, well, everything that goes along with the fact that I have to go back to work. I've got more to say about this later but for now I'm concentrating on the simple joys of the past couple of weeks to get me over this emotional hump. 

Like finding this drawing of Josie's, asking about it and hearing that "it says I love you Roly Poly and it has a pink sunrise because pink is Roly's favorite color."

Or cracking up at a very upset Josie who yelled "Awwww man, it's WINTER again" when she mistakenly confused all of these flower petals in the yard for snow flurries.

Or checking every day to see what was going to emerge from the cocoon in the front yard and discovering one afternoon that it was in fact world's biggest, hairiest, whoa-who-knew-moths-could-be-this-scary biology lesson right in our own front yard. (Seriously, the pictures do not do this thing justice. It was every bit as big an adult hand. We have witnesses.)

And catching the first baby bubble on film...

And this...there has been lots of this...just figuring each other out...

And who can resist using an evening out as an excuse to don your favorite outfit and do a few ballet moves on the front porch?

So, hooray for the little things! Because I learned the first time around that the little things won't stop just because I have to go back to work.  

Cirque Du Soleil

On Friday the whole Schneider clan headed out to see Cirque du Soleil - Ovo. Josie wanted to see one of these shows ever since we watched a few of them on PBS during the membership drive.  Lou & I have seen Cordeo and Quidam but thought both would be a little too much for a kid to handle. Enter Ovo! It's all about acrobatic insects and it was totally kid-friendly.  Little Roly even loved the lights and colors (although the music was a little loud).

Oh - funny story - the night after we got home from the show, we were in bed and Josie said "I loved Circus Chic-Fil-A".  (We gotta start working on this girl's french.  I'll give it to her though, "soleil" and "fillet" do sound pretty similar.)

Spring Break, Cincy Zoo

Josie's Spring Break began on Good Friday and went the whole next week. Carissa was here from NY to keep us all company and we had so much fun! On top of the Butterfly Show trip that I already posted, we also took a family trip to the zoo (that was about a million times better than the post-Bea trip we took when I was way too newly-postpartum). This trip was great. See for yourself...

If you haven't been to the zoo yet this year, you might be as surprised as we were by the new covered parking lot.  It really is quite a sight if you don't expect it. As it turns out, it's a large solar array with over 6000 panels. I believe It's the largest array in an urban setting in the U.S. Pretty cool stuff!