Thoughts on my final day of maternity leave. Oh the places you go.

Tomorrow I start work again, after 11 months off.  I left grumpy and giant and very pregnant.  I'm coming back happy and tired and very not pregnant.  The last two weeks were not the exciting recovery period I had hoped for, and I'm certainly not "refreshed and ready", but I have done some fun things, culminating with an extremely fun day of mountain biking.

How fun?

This fun

I don't feel like I can or should really "sum up" 10.5 months of twins.  But the last few weeks were pretty extreme for different reasons.  Bedroom moves, weather, summer, childcare, school, teething, birthdays... it was (and is) a lot.

Lilah got a copy of Oh The Places You'll go for her birthday.  I forgot just how great a book it is.

I'm going to stick some of it in here, because I think Dr. Seuss was writing this book for nearly 40 year old me.  The kids are a bit meh.  I am loving it.

You'll be on your way up!
You'll be seeing great sights!
You'll join the high fliers
who soar to high heights!

You won't lag behind, because you'll have the speed
You'll pass the whole gang and you'll soon take the lead
Wherever you fly, you'll be best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest

Except when you don't
Because sometimes, you won't

I'm sorry to say so
but, sadly, it's true
that Bang-ups
and Hang-up
can happen to you.

You can get all hung up
in a prickle-ly perch
And your gang will fly on.
You'll be left in a Lurch

You'll come down from the Lurch
with an unpleasant bump.
and the chances are, then,
that you'll be in a slump

And when you're in a Slump,
you're not in for much fun.
Un-slumping yourself
is not easily done.

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Today, on my last day of maternity leave, I did the following (with Andy's help, because he was off today too):

• Moved the babies into their new bedroom
• Organized baby toys and furniture in the new baby bedroom (including moving the baby bookcase out of our bedroom!)
• Went for a walk with Andy and babies in backpacks
• Had lunch with Andy and babies at a local coffee shop
• Took a bath
• Read during the day
• Used the hydrating face mask I was given when the babies were born.
• Replied to all outstanding texts
• Paid the painter for painting the babies room

It's currently 7:30pm.  I am going to spend the next hour potching in the house, putting things back in their right places, listening to podcasts.  At 8:30 I intend to read, at 9:15 I intend to be asleep.  And tomorrow morning at 9am I'm turning on teams and concluding my last ever maternity leave.