Every weekday, without fail, at 12:30pm, it looks like a storm came through my house and trashed everything.

Seriously - no matter how organized it is when I get home at 11, there's something about that hour and a half where all hell breaks loose. Maybe I'm just so excited to see Sammy that I don't pay attention to the trail of mail, half-eaten lunch, shoes tossed on the floor, toys thrown every which way, cushions piled on the floor - you get the picture. And the picture? Not pretty.

Still, while I might not feel like Good Housekeeper, today I feel like Good Mama. I know that really, every day I'm a Good Mama, but there are definitely days I feel like Bad Mama - the ones where, when I put him to bed at night, I feel like I'm somehow missed the whole day, that I was really disconnected and never really present in the moment with him. Today? Good Mama all the way.

First, we went to the train station to pick up Jay's parking pass, and instead of running in and out, we explored the train station, and then waited on the windowed overpass to watch the train come into the station. While we waitede practiced saying, "Open sesame!" for the "magic doors" (motion sensitive, but he doesn't know that :-)) and then took a walk down to the platform and peeked onto the train. Then I let him press the button and we took the elevator back up - much excitement for a toddler, apparently.

Then, post-lunch (peas! peas!), he insisted on watching Dora - this one was about a King, which meant that Sammy walked around saying, "Castle! Crown!" for half an hour. The light went off and I got some oaktag and made a crown for him, which he colored and we covered in stickers (my favorite is one of my scrapbooking stickers across the front which reads: "Here comes trouble!")

Then we went across the street to see Deb and the kids and I didn't breathe down his neck the whole time - he's really getting into playing WITH other kids, which is so freaking cool. Now? Naptime. And naptime for mama, too, even though this house is absolutely and totally completely trashed. Being Good Mama is exhausting!