Someone recently lamented to me how they’ve never had the glorious free time afforded by a maternity/paternity leave.

First of all, HAH! While yes, 6 weeks without the daily grind of the nine to five sounds like nothing but time for all those extra tasks around the house or a nice vacation, the truth is these leaves exist for a reason. In reality, babies take SO. MUCH. TIME. It really is a weird time warp. The constant feedings, various doctor’s visits, soothing fussy baby, trying to figure out what works, even a simple diaper change takes extra time in those early weeks as their little bodies adjust to life on the outside. It really has to be experienced to truly understand how such a little person can absorb so much attention.

That said, there certainly are perks! Jonathan was able to accomplish a few house projects. (Not nearly what he’d hoped. In his words, “I realized just how much you do–how much time kids take up.” Thanks, honey! See? I don’t just sit at home eating bon bons. Too bad there’s no maternity leave for full-time stay-at-home-moms 😉 ) And we did our best to squeeze in some family bonding time. You know, an afternoon at the zoo (LA zoo is great because it involves so much walking; the boys were so exhausted they fell asleep in record time that night!), and a trip to the Natural History Museum.

Which was fun! The big boys had fun exploring the animal halls, zooming through the dinosaur bones (turns out, you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all, at least at this age) and especially enjoyed the interactive exhibits.

And, yay! They had a family care room, perfect for nursing the little guy, right off the bird species hall. Side note, I have never seen so many different birds so up close. Birds are crazy diverse!!

The bummer was good ole LA traffic on the way home. At least the baby only screamed for part of it and the other two were placated with Chick-fil-A, so we weren’t hungry.

Oh, paternity leave! Memories were made. I think. It’s a little foggy, but that’s probably just the sleep deprivation.