Bonding Leave, Mini-Van, and Home Alone w/ 2 Kids

Robbie's paternity/bonding leave finishes this week and he starts back to work on Wednesday. My how the time flies! It was so great having him home for 5 weeks straight. The first two weeks were in Colorado, so it really did seem to go super fast. During Robbie's time at home on top of spending time with Abby we managed to finish painting the 1/2 bath and do final touches to the dining room paint job, take Owen to the pool, have Jaime and Stephanie come visit, and buy a mini-van for me.

Yes... that's right... it's official... I'm a Mommy... with a capital M. Sigh. I swore I would never, ever, ever drive a mini-van. But the second we had Abby and had to squeeze two huge car seats in my Tribute, we realized that we needed a vehicle with more seating space. And mini-van seemed like the best answer. We bought a 2007 Honda Odyssey - tan w/ tan interior which is great cause I admit to not washing my cars all that often and tan doesn't really show dirt. It's fairly loaded... leather seats, back up camera, dvd player, sun roof, automatic doors on both sides, hidden 8th seat (stored in the floor), voice activated commands, built-in navigation system, etc. Like my friend Jenny who drives one said, "Who ever thought our first luxury car would be a mini-van." So true. Since, in the course of our marriage, Robbie has had a 350-Z and a fairly loaded Toyota Tundra (both "cool" cars), and I'm "getting" a mini-van (albeit decked out), we agreed that in 5-6 years when the kids are both only in smallish booster seats and we trade in the mini-van, I get to pick whatever I want (within reason). I'm thinking Jeep - so instead of "Mommy" I'll be "hot mama"! ;)

So with Robbie going back at work, I will now be home alone with both kids two days out of the week. We have Owen on part-time daycare. He loves it so much we didn't want to stop completely, but at the same time, while I'm home we wanted to save a little money. So he's at home on Wed and Fri. We did a semi-trial run this Friday when Robbie spent a good chunk of the day at the dealership buying the mini-van. Went fairly smoothly - but Robbie was around to watch Owen while I got Abby down for her morning nap. That's the part I'm nervous about. Owen doesn't do "left on his own" well yet, but he's too loud and chatty to have in the room with us when I'm putting her down. I have a feeling Abby may be napping in the swing a lot on Wed and Fri. That or Owen will be watching a lot of the movie Cars while I'm putting Abby down for naps. Cross your fingers for me! Jenny said of her experience learning to deal with a newborn and a 2-year-old at the same time, "Every day someone cries and sometimes it's me." Ha! I already anticipate this happening. You do what you can, right? Any suggestions and tips are welcome!

Picture of the mini-van pending.