{"id":41,"date":"2012-03-23T05:41:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-23T05:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/2012\/03\/reunited\/"},"modified":"2018-04-21T17:22:22","modified_gmt":"2018-04-21T17:22:22","slug":"reunited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/2012\/03\/reunited\/","title":{"rendered":"Reunited."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So last week my babies were gone for Spring Break.&#160; We dropped them at my Mom\u2019s house and started off my birthday week with a staycation in Dallas with my hubby and an amazing meal at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecapitalgrille.com\/locations\/plano\/main.asp\">The Capital Grille<\/a> (a Chicago fave) with sweet friends.&#160; I was treated to a pedicure (thanks Meesh!), bought myself some new shoes and a facial, and then spent the next week pretty much doing whatever I wanted to do.&#160;   Stay up till 2 am and watch the entire \u201cSex and the City\u201d DVD set?&#160; Check.&#160; Sleep till 11 am?&#160; Check.&#160; Go shop in all those stores that are impossible to take a stroller or toddler in?&#160; Check.&#160; Flip through all the magazines I never get to read?&#160; Check.&#160; Truthfully, yes, it was bliss having all that sweet freedom.&#160;   But about halfway through the week I started to really miss them.&#160; And as I drove back to my Mom\u2019s house I found myself grinning from ear to ear just thinking about reuniting with them.&#160;   Charlie was waiting for me \u2013 and promptly wrapped herself around me \u2013 all spindly legs and soft, olive-y skin.&#160; \u201cMommmmmmmeeeeeyyyyyy, Mommmmmmmeeeeeyyyyyy\u201d she repeated over and over as she buried her little face in my neck.&#160; Ah, if felt good to be needed again.  About a half hour later my Dad got Ella up from her nap and she came running in on the pads of her feet, screaming \u201cMommy!&#160; Mommy!&#160; Mommy!\u201d and flashing that gap-toothed smile I love so much.&#160; I snatched her up (forgetting that at 2 she is still less than 25 pounds) and held her close, taking in that still baby smell and kissing her tiny features.&#160; Her first words to me were \u201cI\u2019m Minnie Mouse!\u201d, which she said over and over again in her post-nap gravelly voice.&#160; Sweet girl.&#160;   We had a pretty uneventful drive back and of course they were both thrilled to be home, back in their rooms and beds and ready to play with all of their favorite toys.&#160; And somehow, they both looked so much bigger to me.&#160; You know how that happens?&#160; It almost takes your breath away \u2013 all this time I wished and prayed for Ella to talk and now she\u2019s saying full sentences and I can actually converse with her.&#160; So strange, and beautiful, and bittersweet at the same time.&#160;   So I\u2019ll always be the one who recognizes the not-so-pretty sides of being a Mom.&#160; I can commiserate with the best of \u2018em.&#160; But I can also appreciate when my heart is full and my family is healthy and home and asleep in these beds and oh, how good all of that feels.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So last week my babies were gone for Spring Break.&#160; We dropped them at my Mom\u2019s house and started off my birthday week with a staycation in Dallas with my hubby and an amazing meal at The Capital Grille (a Chicago fave) with sweet friends.&#160; I was treated to a pedicure (thanks Meesh!), bought myself [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1161,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions\/1161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}