Siblings

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Car Convos

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I’ve been spending a lot of time solo with E in the car, which means we’ve been having some good conversations. A few days ago I had my GPS on (which isn’t unusual for me - with so many distractions in my life I like the reminders on where to go) and he was telling me how he likes to hold up fingers for G, so G knows how many minutes until we arrive at our destination.

I told him that was really nice, and that it must be hard being little and not knowing how long we’d be in the car for or where we were going. Following that thought, I decided to ask him a question I’ve seen a lot of people asking their kids lately: “What’s the hardest part of being a kid?”

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Barely Two

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My alarm has been going off at 5:30 recently, which is actually sleeping in for me. I get up, make breakfast for E and G, shower and get myself dressed, and then I’m on kid duty. It becomes a very loud and wiggly assembly line as each child needs to be changed and dressed and chased around the room. So many wiggly feet to capture with a sock.

I was halfway through dressing the smallest, and trying to corner the middle since he was next, when E caught me yawning one morning. “Mama are you tired?” he asked me.

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Halloween Halloween!!

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I’m actually shocked that Halloween is still so far away. We’ve been leaning heavy into all the fall/Halloween activities for a while now, so I’m having a hard time believing we’ve still got over a week to go. The kids are loving it, though, and we still have a lot of fun things coming up. Now that we have three kids, I’m afraid I’ve found my weakness in matching PJs. I’ll admit it’s a bit too early to pull out the Christmas PJs, so I’m going all in with Halloween ones.

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My Third Baby

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I never expect to bring home a baby just because I’m pregnant. I know too much, have seen too much that it’s not always the case. I always hope for a successful outcome, but I know it’s not guaranteed. Which is maybe why I’m always left is such shock when a baby is placed on my chest. It’s the best possible surprise and shock, and even two weeks later I’m still just amazed that she’s here. I can’t believe I’m lucky enough to have another beautiful baby.

I’m not sure if it’s the fact that my hormones are less messed up (since there was no massive blood loss this time) or if it’s the peace of knowing this is my last baby and I can focus on enjoying everything instead of stressing over it, but I am definitely in a happy baby zone. I might be tired, but I have this head to smell and it’s intoxicating.

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Let's Do an Update

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So here’s what I’ve learned about iron infusions (which I’m still in the middle of - not done yet!). They’re amazing and have given me a lot of energy back. I can actually stay awake for most of the day now, which I couldn’t say before them. They’re also super weird, and do things like make my limbs heavy and feel odd as the iron flows through my body - and yes you can feel it. My arm was getting uncomfortably heavy and feeling a lot of pressure when the nurse was inserting the iron one day, and she flushed the IV with saline and I could feel the iron leaving my arm.

The iron also sucks all the water from your body, dehydrating you like crazy. (Which is also what the baby is doing). Knowing this, I drank about 60oz of water before my appointment, and still needed to drink another 60oz after until I finally felt hydrated again. It’s a lot of water.

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St. Patrick's Day

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Someone clued E in that leprechauns are supposed to hide treats or something all over the house on St. Patrick’s day, so he ran around looking and was quite disappointed to learn that his parents had no clue, because I’m pretty sure that wasn’t a thing when we were growing up.

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Road Trip

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We recently took a long trip in our car (more on that later) and it was the longest that G has ever been in the car in his entire life. I was worried it might not go well, of course. When you’re that young it’s easy to not be hyperbolic when you say something is the worst thing you’ve ever experienced. It literally could be. And it would be easy to see how being trapped in a car for a long period of time, when it had never happened before, being one of those times.

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Just a Bunch of Monkeys

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Now that I have two little children, I feel like I’m finally understanding all of my friends that grew up with siblings close in age, and who are used to fighting about things being equal. My boss tells stories of his siblings and him fighting all out wars to reach the kitchen every night before bed, in order to have first pick at their evening drink of juice (even though his mom had painstakingly poured them all equally). Or I understand why my two older sisters had so many duplicate toys – buy one for one of them, and you better buy one for the other.

I haven’t exactly reached the stage where I believe everything needs to be equal, but I’ve at least witnessed the jealousy, and I understand it now.

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A Letter from Mama

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Dear G and E,

I wonder when you grow up, if you’ll remember this time. Is this one of those things that is so life changing that it will forever be one of your earliest memories? Or will you only repeat stories you’ve been told over and over. Although you’re young, you’re aware that things are different now, even if you don’t understand why.

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Then and Now

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Who wants a fun post, full of pictures, to take their minds off all the crazy stuff in the news lately? I know I do!

We’ve obviously seen how quickly life can change when big things happen. Everything seems uncertain now, and we’re not really sure what’s going to be happening in the next few months. Instead of speculating on that, I’m going to focus on how life changes slowly, over the course of a year.

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Ahhh

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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.

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Sibling Love

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We were driving home from daycare the other day, and E was happily holding G’s hand in the backseat. See, every day he makes me slide their seats together after I’ve strapped them in, so they’re close enough to touch. E was talking as he does, about 50% words that I can understand with lapses into his own made up talk. One thing came through clearly though: “My G. He’s my G.. FOREVER. Brother. My brother.”

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Where We Are

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I remember when I used to pray for 30 seconds. 30 seconds where I could slip away, unnoticed, and change out of my work clothes. It would never come – I’d either end up carrying two deceptively heavy children with me, or I’d listen to their panicked screams from down the hall where I’d left them, while I quickly changed my clothes.

Last night, though, it happened. I left them playing in their rooms, and slipped down the hall to change. When I got back, they were still laughing and playing, and hadn’t noticed I’d left. It wasn’t until I was putting E to bed that he realized my shirt had changed, and asked me about it. He likes to play with the buttons on my work shirt, and I wasn’t wearing it anymore.

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Starting Off the New Year

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Phew.  We made it. 

A first birthday and Christmas all at once was a lot.  Plus daycare being closed and no work and what day is it?  We’re all back to our normal routines now, whatever that is. 

Because normal changes.  A new year means new work assignments and schedules, new car challenges, new teachers, new projects to tackle…

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Seven Months

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I knew it was coming.. in my head you were 6 months, but 7 was coming soon. Still, when Tom mentioned this morning that we should have taken the month pictures this past weekend, I was floored. 7 months today? Already? HOW?

I guess that means I’m not counting down days anymore to when things will get easier, because we’re here. We’ve got a schedule and a rhythm and although we are tired and busy, it’s more fun than not. You’re happy more often than not. You’re sleeping at night, and even most days at daycare. Which, by the way - DAYCARE. You started this month and you’re rocking it. It was so easy I almost forgot you haven’t been there that long.

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Picture or it Didn't Happen

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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.

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TWO Kids

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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!

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Missing Pieces

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When you're younger and you think about your future, there might be a hypothetical family.  With some fuzzy, undetermined number and gender of kids running around.  It's all purely theoretical, so I never worried too much about it besides to know that I'd like to head in that direction.  

I’ve officially moved from the “I’d like to have a family and kids someday” to being in the middle of making it happen.  But I’m not on the other side yet, where I’ll know what that family looks like.  It’s a weird place to be.  A short period of your life when things change very rapidly.  I’ve gone from being single, to married and living with someone, to having a kid, in a relatively short period of time.  But even with all that, there’s more change to come.  Our family is unfinished, and there’s no way to look ahead and know when it will be finalized.