There just aren’t words really to describe how much I am loving spending days with Bean.  I know its only been two days.  I have spent more days in a row with him than this, but just knowing that there isn’t an end in sight makes my heart soar.  I mean, our days aren’t extraordinary.  We aren’t doing anything different than we would on any given weekend.  But it just feels…great.

I could take you through my day, but it would be pretty boring.  “We played.  We napped.  We ate.  We pooped.  We played.  We napped.  We ate.  We pooped.”  I think the pictures are better and more fun anyways!

And now I have to go.  My boss needs his diaper changed.  Again.

Today was my first day as a stay at home mom.

Holy crap.

That’s pretty much all I have to say about that.

Holy crap.

Let me start this post by saying that I do plan to go back to work. Eventually. When someone decides to hire me. But that’s probably at least a couple months away and so for now, I’m relishing these first new days as a stay at home mom. I’ll take them for as long as I can get them.

Howeva’… Holy crap.

It is NOT FREAKING EASY staying home! I know its just my first day and its not like I don’t know what to do or how to do it or when to do it. Its just that things have a very different speed than I thought they would. I initially thought that this time home with Bean would be time for me to get some things done. Maybe I’d write a little more. Maybe I’d get ALL the packing done. Maybe I’d do ALL the laundry in one day. I thought about how much I could accomplish in a workday and my head reeled at the ideas of what I could accomplish in a full day at home.

Let’s just say that I didn’t know what the hell I was thinking.

Bean woke up at 5:30 AM and I went into his nursery to get him up for breakfast only to find that he had pooped. ALL OVER HIMSELF.

Dear Pampers, You have one job. Really just one objective. TO KEEP THE CRAP INSIDE THE DIAPER. You might want to go back and review that objective just one more time. Thanks, Katie

It took me half an hour to get him clean, change his clothes, change his sheets, and clean up his changing table. Which meant that Bean screamed for half an hour because he wanted his breakfast bottle, like, yesterday. After he calmed down and I got him a bottle, we played for a while, ate some Cheerios, and by 7:30 AM, both Bean and I took a crazy long two-hour nap.

When we woke up around 10:00, I showered and got dressed for the day and I decide to get some blogging done. Bean, however, decided that he didn’t want to be put down. He didn’t want to sit next to me. He didn’t want to sit near me. He didn’t want to sit in the same room as me. Bean wanted to sit ON me. In my lap. And nowhere else. And in case you haven’t tried it, it is virtually impossible to do anything involving a computer with a nine month old baby on your lap.

Particularly a nine month old baby who likes to bang on things.

Finally, I gave up on trying to do anything online and played with Bean.  Within half an hour, I had run out of games and songs and Bean became tired and bored with every single toy in our house. Nothing we had could entertain him.  It was only 11:30 and I was out of ideas.  So, I did the only logical thing I could think of.

I threw Bean in the car and we went to Target to buy more toys.

I came home with this.  It is an activity table for babies.  They had a ton of them at Target in all different brands, ranging anywhere from $20.00 up to $60.00.  But since this was an unbudgeted trip to Target for baby toys that I knew Chris would insist we did not need, I went with the cheapest one.  The Target brand for $19.99.

Seemed like a good idea at the time.  And you know how I feel about Target and all things Target, so for me to say that I don’t like a Target brand item, you know there has to be good reason behind it.

For one thing, the sound doesn’t have a volume control or an OFF button.  So, whenever you hit something, you go deaf.  It even started driving Bean and Molly crazy after a while.

And that’s when Bean got frustrated and started throwin’ stuff around trying to get the stupid thing to just BE QUIET…

Which brings me to my next critique…  It isn’t very sturdy.  It is really light, so it flips over easily.  Bean Man can even pick it up, spin it over his head, and hurl it across the house.

Okay, so not really.

But he can flip it over really easily.

Chris and Bean spent a good part of an hour trying to figure out how to take the darn thing apart.  They broke one of the activities on the tabletop and then they got in trouble for picking apart the new toy.

And the last issue I have with the table is that it is really short.  The one they had at Bean’s daycare was a little taller, so babies could pull themselves up to standing.  But this one is too short for Bean to pull himself up on.  We have to stand him up and then he can hold on and balance.  It needs to be just a tiny bit taller and more stable so that it can be used as something for Bean to pull up on.  Now when he tries, he either flips the table over (not good) or he can’t get a grip high enough to get himself up.  Which means he sits next to it moaning until I stand him up (also not good).

All in all, it was probably exactly what I deserved.  You can’t keep a kid entertained by buying him stuff every time he gets bored.  I get that now.  And you also can’t expect a cheap version of an expensive toy to be as fun and entertaining.  However, for about half an hour, Bean was quiet and entertained and happy.  So, in my brand spankin’ new stay at home mom book, that’s worth $19.99.

“Bean?” I said.  “Where are you?  You’re not on your play mat…”

“…And your not in your high chair…”

“Hey, Mom!” said Bean.  “I’m right here!”

“Where?” I said.

“Right here!”

“What are you doing under the table, Beanie?”

“Well,” he said.  “I’m trying to get over to the couch.”

“How come?” I said.

“Because I don’t want to crawl around on the floor,” he said.

“How come?” I asked.

“Because, Mom,” he said.  “Big boys walk on their feet.  And I am a big boy.”

“Oh,” I said.

“And also because I have a dirty diaper and I don’t want to sit in it anymore,” he said.