I do. Glad all is well with poor Riley. I hate that you have to be away from home so long, but at least you have some help. Personally, I’d die before I willingly left the house with my two!

Get out, enjoy yourself. Have a latte for me.

*firsts maybe!* Yeah I can agree with you on the maternity leave.. despite the fact that I have no kids. They seem like such little parasites and then as soon as they start to show some of that silver lining.. you go back. I think in other countries, Maternity leave is like.. mandatory.. 6 months. Congrats on the car trip and a relaxing 10 days!

dude, who’s gonna watch your baby when you have to go back to work? nice beach :) enjoy your time with the inlaws.

That photo of you and Riley, with the grinning-ness — EXCELLENT, dude. Have fun and don’t think about work; I read somewhere that thinking about work adds, like, ten pounds to your thighs.

Yep, I love the dual smiles as well as the dual high kicks. Y’all are so damn cute!

Awesome photos, specially the one of you and Riley! Enjoy your 10 days :)

i think jb missed his calling as a rockette…

love the yellow wellies, binoculars and your fabulous grins. enjoy the change of pace!

Dude. JB is *flexible*.

Yep, totally with you on the going back to wk the wrong way around…..

Hey maybe I’ll run into JB in Shanghai, I’ll be there on Thursday, enjoying the second half of my maternity leave!

Lovely pictures as always and damn woman you are thin!

Ah, beaches. Now I have the answer to the burning question “why in the name of fuck didn’t her in-laws just come to her?”

Love the high kicks!

I remember my Mum screaming at me when I was 10, because I was acting like a brat too when we were out at a musical. Turned out I had the mumps, and she felt really bad.

Hey, my mom didn’t believe that I had broken my arm in two places while we were on vacation (we thought it was just sprained) and she spent an entire week hissing at me to “stop that dying calf look around your grandmother!”

See, it could be worse. I *remember* that and still use it to torment her. ;)

JB and Riley are looking like they just did that “crane” move from the Karate Kid. Cool shot. You look great and love that pic of you and Riley with the big smiles! Hope your trip is a good one.

Wow, good for you getting a 2 week membership to a gym!
Also I am glad Riley is better,last night I was Mommy Dearest when Eric was coughing and gagging like he was going to throw up, I was half asleep and actually yelled “What the hell Eric!” I felt evil after he said, “I’m sorry Mom”

I love that picture of you holding Riley, how cute!

Riley looks like he is feeling much better! Love the beach shots. Gawd do I miss living near the water… sigh.

I agree 100 million per cent (is that possible?!) about maternity leave. I felt the exact same way. I was a little bitter that someone else got to enjoy all the fun things as my son grew bigger. I do wish I lived in Canada where I could take a year of leave or I had a more flexible position where I could take 6 months but that is the way the cookie crumbles…

My husband was home with us for six weeks and I was just thinking the other day, I wish the six weeks were *now* when the baby is three months old. Oh well – really what I want is for him to have to stay home with me the whole time, til they’re both 18. ;)

Aw, have fun (yay, gym membership — although I must say, yer lookin’ mighty slender there). No kids here, but methinks you have a point about maternity leave — that blows.

I’m so glad to hear this, but more importantly: JESUS H CHRIST you look GREAT!

Two week guest gym membership. Totally awesome and also totally something I would do. Gym rat high five.

You do not look like a person who just had a baby!

I’m glad you all arrived and are enjoying the Oregon coast. Now on to the inquisition – did you MEAN what you said about rather working right after the baby came? I ask because I am 6 months pregnant and I work 100% remote and we have live in help for the baby (a cousin of mine) I keep thinking that it’s more reasonable for me to come back to work part time 3 or 4 hours a day and be able to do that pace for 6 months rather then be completely OFF for two months and then completely back ON. Am I crazy? Is this like the craziest idea ever?

That pic of you and Riley is GREAT. It’s so rare to see that smile out of him in pics. :)

Amen on the maternity leave. I’d have gladly paid for daycare while he was still a bean that did nothing and THEN gotten him now that he’s a little person.

AND.. AND.. you look fabulous. Although I’m all proud of you in a sisterly way, I’m TOTALLY jealous of you in a bitchy way. :)

How long is maternity leave in the US? I’m so naive I just assumed that you folks also had a year off for leave!

Laura–a year off? In what utopia do you reside? That’s awesome.

Sundry–the Oregon coast looks awesome. And as far as yelling at your kid right before he barfs, don’t you know that’s protocol?

Your pictures are beautiful! We just can’t get stuff like that here in Kansas. Enjoy the trip as much as you can!

Oh man I hear you. I was so jealous of my husband because when I returned to work after 12 weeks, my husband took a month of paternity leave. By that time Steamboat (what we call our kid) was smiley happy fun time baby, when I had scream all day, puke in your hair, no sleep, crap ass baby. Suck.

Wow, it’s been a long time since I have seen an OR beach! So beautiful. The pictures are fantastic and you look incredible.
I hope you do enjoy your time there and that JB’s trip is a safe one.

You finally got the picture you’ve always wanted of you and Riley!! How awesome :)

I LOVE the picture of you & Riley! So sweet~he looks so happy to be with his momma!

I am with you on the work thing – baby was born 2.12, and I was back at my desk on 4.1. Now she’s smiling and playing and FUN and oh it’s hard to leave every morning.

Enjoy the vacation, and the rest of your leave!

So glad things are on an up-tick and the drive was event free.
Enjoy your time with some extra help before going back to work.

I do think it would be more fun to have the time off when the baby was more enjoyable. However no one caring for an infant would have as much patience with the pooping crying fuss-hole blob as the momma. That or its just another form of population control….

Awesome pictures! I’m glad Riley is feeling better so he can enjoy this great trip and time with his grandparents!

man, those are some kick-ass yellow wellies! What a cute little beachcomber he is!!

Great pics and I’m glad that Riley doesn’t have some freak ass flu. You, of course, look fabulous!

oh man, that photo of the two of you is SO ADORABLE. not a hint of suspicion anywhere.

Actually, I think maternity leave should be from the time they are about 2-1/2, 3 years old through kindergarten. It seems like this is the age that my boys really NNEEEEEEEEDDDDDDDD their mom. (At least that’s their story).

Riley in yellow wellies?
Hands down the cutest thing EVER.

Looks like the Sundry boys have some pretty serious high kick ability – hi ya!

I think that the US needs a better maternity leave policy, period. Ours currently sucks. Our neighbors to the North have a pretty sweet deal. I think we’d have happier and healthier babies and mamas if we had better maternity leave. (stepping down now…)

When I had meningitis and was complaining of a terrible headache in high school, my parents (both health care professionals!) insisted that I was just trying to get out of a babysitting commitment. Nope, definitely not!

I love the pictures! Enjoy your time on vacation.

I totally agree…R turned into the smiling happy baby on DAY ONE OF WEEK 7..you know the day I WENT BACK TO WORK…I HATE the US maternity leave policy…it just SUCKS!

I’m with you on the maternity leave issue. I was really jealous of my husband because he took three months off paternity leave when I went back to work, so he got cute regular-napping, almost-sleeping-through-the-night, solids-eating little boy. I got hell. Next life I’m seriously considering coming back as a man (or a house cat because their lives are awesomely lazy, but that’s a topic for another day).

Great photos, it looks beautiful. I’m glad he’s feeling better. WOW, a gym membership, now that’s commitment!

I am so glad you posted and that you survived the drive! I was worried about you. I hope this 2 weeks will give you a break from simultaneous baby-toddler-wrangling and that you’ll feel recharged at the end of it. Also, IMHO, you shouldn’t hesitate to switch out all the toilet paper in the house with 2 ply, reverse the forks in the dishwasher basket just before the cycle starts, and take long, long walks by yourself. ;-)

Beautiful pics! Glad that drive is over! Sorry the baby was sick. Enjoy your time away from the norm!

=)

Those pictures are all fantastic. And you look fantastic, too.

You look great, Linda! It seems all your hard work at working out is really paying off – congratulations, that’s really an accomplishment!
(Could I please say ‘really’ one mroe time?? kthxbai)

Wonderful picture of you and Riley – frameable!

Our Canadian mat leave (not from personal experience but from working with young moms) – something like 52 weeks mat leave and mom and dad can now ‘share’ the leave.

Those high kicks are amazing! Sign them both up for dance class!

Love the picture of you and Riley (smiling! not suspicious!) too.

I am glad to hear that Riley is feeling better – I know how sucky it is to take a trip with a sick kid.
And OMG – can he look any more like JB in that pic of you and him. That firece smile is all JB!
And AMEN on the Maternity leave – Linda style…..