well, i'm back from my sister's long weekend away to california!  the kids survived, my husband barely (lol!), and i'm refreshed and ready for anything!  good thing, since both boys decided to come down with a nasty cough, nose, and fever gig!  needless to say trying to adjust to the 3 hour time change, while listening to the orchestra of coughs throughout the night and dealing with 5 am fevers, i can officially say i'm back to where i was before i went!  only kidding!  it's not that bad and i am so happy that i had the chance to get away from my groundhogs day routine and have a little adult time; white wine lunches, shopping and wondering the streets with a latte and no 'snack traps' or 'sippy cups in hand!' leaving was hard for me since i don't often do it.  therefore took extra care to have everything lined up for the team of adults coming in to take over!  between the sitter, my mother in law and my husband, when he wasn't at work, the household ran per usual!  i did my best to have has much organized before i went to make it easier on everyone here.  i had a typed schedule with all the important information like pick up and drop off times.  who was in charge of what and most importantly what my chubby 10 month old needs to eat:)  once all my ducks were in a row i was set to go.  at that point i just trusted that all would be okay and that in the end everyone would be better off for my mommy get-away.  as it turns out this was exactly the case!  my husband felt more in tune to the daily in and outs of the boys and had a great opportunity to get some good daddy and son bonding time in!  my mother in law who isn't in town all that much got some really good nana and grandson time.  the boys adore her more than anything so this was a definite perk to mommy being MIA.  on top of the crew being perfectly fine here, i now know that all will be okay when i go away especially because i have a solid routine and household organization in tact! it was so nice to get home and hug and kiss all 3 of my boys!  after telling me all of the funny things that went on while i was away...my husband said to me "thank you!"  he said that it was so easy for everyone helping out to be here with the boys because of what you do with them day in and day out.  he explained to me how because of my routine and organization the boys run like a smooth oiled machine!  they are calm, relaxed and okay even though mommy wasn't around.  sure they got sad from time to time, but by having everything so scheduled the boys had way less anxiety about my absense and were more easily adjusted to the change in their environment!  my hubby often thanks me and compliments me for being the mommy i am, but it is always nice to hear!  everyone likes a little reinforcement from time to time that what they are doing makes a difference!  i'm happy to say going away was easier for everyone than i imagined so looks like i better start planning my next get-away;)  only kidding!! to subscribe to mommy secrets click here....