It's a learning process.

We're almost three days into our new "Working Mommy" routine. I certainly don't mean to make it sound dramatic and as if it's unbelievably difficult to handle returning to work and having two children. Certainly, it's been done gazillions of times before. But the beauty of a blog is that I get to record how I feel and what I'm experiencing at this exact instant. I'm hoping someday when Joshua and Lauren are dealing with something similar, they'll be able to look back at this little peek into our lives and see how it was for me. Maybe they'll wonder what their old Mom, who likely can't remember what things were like so long ago, did to manage things. They'll probably make fun of me for recording the minute details that I do, but I hope they'll have something to look back on that will show them how deeply loved they are and how every decision we made was arrived at with full regard to their well-being and happiness. Or they'll think that it was so archaic to blog about such things and be embarrassed about the pictures I posted of them.

I thought that, since I now have three big days of experience at this new transition, I ought to share a few of the lessons I've learned. This is, after all, a learning process.

1. There's no promise what time I might arrive at the office anymore.

I used to be a pretty punctual 8:45 arriver. Judy would get there at 8:30 and I had it down to a science that I could be ready to get out the door after alerting her to anything new for the day and our normal catching up. Those days are history my friends. I believe I have arrived at 9:45, 9:10 and 9:35 each of the last three days.

2. I cannot be greedy.

This morning I was selfish and waited until the alarm went off at 5:00 to get out of bed. As it turned out, Miss Lauren was dreaming peacefully, so I did a little happy dance and got into the shower thinking I had hit the jackpot and was ahead of the game WITH some extra shut eye. Remember....5 am! And I'm thinking jackpot. Oh silly Megan...whatever is wrong with you? I emerged from the shower, still gloating from my victory, only to hear shrieks from the smallest member of our family. She was dying of hunger apparently. Unfortunately, said shrieks also woke up her brother. It was 5:41. I was in a bathrobe, hair not even combed yet but wrapped turban style trying to feed Lauren. She was so famished that she didn't even realize that what she was yelling about was RIGHT THERE! Joshua, at this point, was so awake that going back to sleep was not going to happen. However, in my madness, I attempted it anyway only to get frustrated. Why haven't I learned? After Lauren ate, I laid her back down in her crib to go back to sleep like she always does. Wrong again. She was wide awake and wanted to join the rest of the family, making finishing getting dressed and ready for work darn near impossible (nevermind the fact that I had big plans to fold laundry, pump and get dinner ready. Needless to say, things didn't go as planned. So to make a long story short, my selfish greedy sleeping until 5 am led to all manners of disaster this morning. I guess that's not going to work for tomorrow.

3. The crock pot will likely be the Dugan Family MVP of 2010. That is if we're all to be fed daily. I assume that's still an expectation.

And finally...

4. Take a peek at your shoes before you leave the house in the morning.

Today, after all the madness, I was about to walk out the door when I happened to glance downward. I was wearing two different shoes. I decided to change them because I thought that it might send the wrong signal to my clients if I wasn't even together enough to put on two of the same shoes. This was almost as bad as the time I showed up to a State Farm meeting in State College and found when I changed to go out to dinner with the group, that I was walking down College Avenue with two left shoes on my feet. The loving group of friends I was with called me "Lefty" for the rest of the trip.

I'll work on some pictures for tomorrow. Joshua still has a bad attitude about it, but I'll at least work on Lauren.