Help from Nonna, Poppa, and GG

In August, my employment status changed from "part-time, limited term, as many hours as I wanted to work each week" to "full-time, regular employee, 40 hours per week." I knew the transition was going to be difficult so invited family to come out to visit (and clean the house, cook us dinners, watch the kids on the days that they couldn't go to school, help get them ready in the mornings on the days they did go to school, and otherwise earn their keep). Fortunately, the "40 hours per week" part of the job was short-term: I had to work full time for only two weeks before I was able to transition back down to a very comfortable 60% time (24 hours per week). Even more fortunately, I have wonderful family members who were willing to put their own lives on hold for two weeks to help my family get through this difficult time.

My mom came out first, and stayed for a full two weeks. She cooked two dinners for us every night: one to eat that night, and one to put in the freezer to eat later (and we've been burning through that stockpile over the past two months!). She had dinner on the table every night when we came home from work, and did dishes and cleaned up after three messy kids every evening after dinner. That alone was worth an extra half-hour of sleep for me every night!

And more importantly than all the cooking and cleaning she did, my mom spent two weeks loving on my kids, playing with them, reading them books,  and listening to their stories. Here is Estella sitting on her Nonna's lap.


For the second week of my full-time job, my mom was joined by my step-dad and grandma. This was especially good timing because the kids couldn't go to school on Tuesday that week, and keeping all three kids at the same time is stressful. I'm their mom, and even I am exhausted by spending an entire day with them! So, I'm glad that my mom and grandma were both here to keep the kids that day.

Adelaida was pretty pleased to have her Nonna and Poppa here!


This is a precious photo that captures just how much GG loves to love on her great-grandchildren. Estella just pressed her little head into GG's shoulder and she was enveloped in a comforting "Grandma Betty hug." Estella was going through a particularly bad case of stranger anxiety in August but within a day of Grandma arriving, Estella was asking for GG to pick her up and hold her.


Nonna, Poppa, and GG: thank you, thank you, thank you!