Brothers

,

A Senior Toddler Update

,

I guess I should technically be calling him a preschooler now, but that just seems too old! I’m holding on to every bit of babyness I can at this point, even as he repeatedly tells me that he’s a big kid now. Which he mostly is, but he does still sleep in a crib…

Speaking of which, he doesn’t want to go to bed at night or go down for naps lately, so his crib is filled with books for him to read. He always falls asleep (and usually pretty quick), but I’m not minding raising a kid who reads himself to sleep every night. The other day he had his little trailblazers book and he told me he read the whole thing, but he couldn’t remember the word “trailblazer” so he used “trail mix” instead.

, ,

Picture Fun

, ,

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve gotten about parenting so far, is not to compare them. They’re going to be different. This close in age, they’re going to be as different as they can be in most ways. That’s just the way it works.

And so far, that’s pretty accurate. It seems like we have on introvert, who pulls into himself when he’s in stressful or new situations. He requires a lot of down time, and is a pretty strict rule follower. We also have one that seems like an extrovert who expresses himself outwardly, thrives on loud and busy situations and wants to be around people. Oh, and he thinks mischief is the best.

,

Ahhh

,

It’s always a toss up what rides home from daycare are going to be like. Some days G will be singing slippery fish to himself, hand motions and all while E is mostly quiet. Other days it’s the opposite. G will be looking out the window, oohing and ahhing at whatever catches his eye, while E tries to tell me stories from the day.

And then there are the other days.

,

Ten Months

,

So nine months snuck up on me, but I’ve been calling you ten months for the past few weeks. I don’t really understand why some months seem longer than others, or you seem seem to grow faster at some points and slower at others. I think because of this, it seems like you haven’t changed much this month, but you actually have!

,

Picture or it Didn't Happen

,

Twice Sunday there were moments where I wished I had my camera to capture what the kids were doing, but it was too far away and Tom didn’t have his either. At the time I get so torn between kicking myself for not having my camera, and just enjoying it as it happens. So as a compromise to myself, I’ll save the memory here so I won’t forget how awesome it was.

There was nothing special about Sunday, which is to say it was a typical weekend day for us. Lately we’ve both mentioned that we have so much fun staying at home and playing with the kids, that we don’t feel the need to go anywhere or do anything. The added bonus that they both get to stay on their nap schedule definitely helps. We’re usually awake and showered before E&G wake up, just because it makes the morning go smoother. Lately E has been into helping me “do cooking!” and so I got up early and measured out ingredients so we could make a zucchini casserole with minimal effort and maximum toddler happiness.

,

Baby Feet

,

When we first brought G home, E kept pulling the blanket off of him. At first we thought it was an attention thing, but we realized it was more that he needed to see the baby. The whole baby. He needed to see that it really was a tiny person we’d brought home, and not just a crying head.

And it’s continued. He loves to point out his own eyes/nose/mouth, and then point to the same body part on the baby. He’s learning that the baby is a person.

,

The Worst Part of Being Mama to Two

,

I’ve been dreading it since G was born. I knew there would be a time when they needed me at the same time, and I couldn’t be there for both of them. I’ve been lucky so far, just skirting by, getting one calmed minutes before the next one started crying.

My luck ran out this week. The night started off great, though. There weren’t any tears on the drive home from daycare, G slept in his car seat while I fed E his dinner. It was almost too easy. But then G got hungry earlier than I was expecting. A few days earlier when I had sat down to feed the baby, E was free to run around the house while I was trapped, and it ended with him happily eating food out of the trash. So I decided to try and avoid that this time, and hearded E upstairs. We have a baby gate across the hall that blocks off both of the kid’s bedrooms, which allows him freedom to run around but stay safe and not get into too much trouble.

,

TWO Kids

,

I have this weird thing now, where I’ll want to post a cute picture of either E or G, and then I think, wait… is it weird to post a picture of only one of them? Do I need to post two pictures? Do I need to have a running tally where I make sure I’m talking about each kid the same amount?

Same thing with blog posts.. I had things I wanted to say about E and how he’s doing lately, but then I think I should do the same thing about G! I can tell I’m going to be struggling with this for a while…

I absolutely do not have the solution yet, so instead I’m going to do a double update!