Max and Ben

Jeff, Tyson and I enjoyed ourselves in Maryland. We stayed at Jeff's aunt and uncle's house (Bart and Ellie). As you could see from Jeff's post on Friday, they have a view of the Potomac River from their house, so it was very cool. Sandy and Denny flew in from Memphis and Jeff's cousins, Becky and Mike, with his wife Jill, also came up for the weekend with their two boys - Max and Ben. In addition to all of the Thanksgiving festivities and family bonding, it was a great weekend for Jeff and I because of the boys.

Max is a little over 2 years old and Ben is 5 months. I know that having kids is hard work, but I understand now that you don't really know what this means until you actually have the kids. For example, everyone tells us that the sleep deprivation takes it's toll, but I think somewhere in the back of our minds we think that our kid will sleep through the night from day one and only other people have to deal with this. Mike and Jill probably thought this too, but they didn't know that Little Ben is going to be CEO of a major corporation one day and requires very little sleep. Unfortunately they still need the minimal 5-6 hours a night. Thank goodness for the Baby Bjorn because they spend many night hours pacing the halls with Ben strapped to their belly. Ben loves this and is all smiles and baby coos...as long as they are walking around. He lets you know that he's bored if you stop to take a break.

Little Max is a sweetie...all boy and very active. He runs around constantly, so he requires a monitor at all times. He seems smart for a 2 year old, so I can only imagine how much time Mike and Jill spend teaching him his ABC's, 123's, manners, etc. It's non-stop teaching.

So the weekend was great because we got to see first hand the energy that having kids requires, but I also got lessons in bathing, changing diapers, putting on clothes, etc. Maybe I can blame it on the pregnancy, but it seems that taking care of kids is exhausting.