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A Slow and Small Return to Normal(ish)

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Not a ton of time has gone by, but the last post I made had snow on the ground. It’s slow, but things are changing, and for the better. After a year of stagnation, it’s both amazing and unsettling to witness change again.

The weather is definitely warmer, which means more time outside, and with that comes playground dates again. Such a simple thing that we’ve taken for granted in the past, but makes the kids so happy, and tires them out like nothing else. Combined with spending the rest of the day outside at home, they sleep so well too.

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Out of the Mouths of Toddlers

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The older E gets, the more interesting it is to talk to him. It’s gone from demands to short sentences to stories. Sometimes they’re true, sometimes they’re completely made up, and sometimes I’m left confused wondering.

E: Mama look at my boo boo
Me: Oh no!
E: I told it to my teachers yesterday
Me: Oh yeah? And what did they say?
E: The scooped me up and threw me in the trash!
Me: How did that make you feel?

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Another Pandemic Birthday

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Not that we would have done much different, but they are all starting to blend together a bit. Overall it was actually really nice. As we were all sitting down at the table and eating dinner together, I had a moment when I looked around and felt such contentment. I was truly enjoying myself and my family. It wasn’t stressful, I wasn’t jumping up to get something every few minutes or correcting any behavior. It was just a really nice family meal.

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Easter

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So as E tells it, “Our Easter Mouse comes and hides all the eggs!” I’m not sure when it changed from a bunny to a mouse, but either way, eggs were hidden. I saw a tip from a different mom who bought eggs in two different colors for her children, to ensure there was no fighting during the egg hunt. Of course it was after we had gotten out all of our multicolored eggs, but I figured if there was a lot of conflict this year, it could be a backup for next year.

Instead, both G and E were pretty cooperative. Tom and I had to help G a bit to make sure he was finding eggs, but if we told E that a certain egg needed to go to his brother, he was okay with it. By the end, I think the count was 15 to 19 or something like that. Close enough for me.

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Bunnies!

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It was a tradition I hated to miss.

Last year we were lucky and did our photos early enough that the pandemic wasn’t a though yet. This year, though, you couldn’t pay me to set foot in that mall. Knowing that, I decided to look elsewhere. Luckily a photographer that lives in town was offering bunny mini sessions!

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Curtains

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Confession: I felt like a failure last weekend.

I’ve been feeling guilty that I’m so tired and sick that I’ve mostly taken to watching the kids play while Tom takes the lead. Last week I decided to change that, and came up with a bunch of Easter crafts we could do, and spent time prepping them. I had big plans for the weekend. We’d make muffins to use up the bananas that were sitting on the counter, do some crafts, and even cut everyone’s hair.

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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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Hope One Year In

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E is starting to learn about superheroes, thanks to a few of his friends. It’s all second hand knowledge since he’s never read a book or watched anything with a superhero in it, so the translation is kind of funny. When asked to pick out what superhero he wanted to dress up like, he obviously said Cookie Monster hero, which is how he ended up with a Cookie Monster cape. He’s also been told about “bad guys” so anytime Tom or I say no to something he wants, we’re labeled a “bad guy.” Which at least makes sense, but not all of his uses do. Every morning when I go to work, I tell both kids to “Have a good day!” and E has started replying “Have a bad guy!”

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Second Trimester

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I’m at a weird stage in pregnancy. I guess you could call it a good stage, though. My nausea has pretty much subsided to a manageable level, and I was actually able to wean off the medication that I was on until 22 weeks with G. It came on harder, faster and way worse than previous pregnancies, but didn’t stick around as long, so I’ll take that. I do still feel off every day, with something or other just not making me feel 100% well. It’s fairly common for me in pregnancy, though, so that’s not too bad either. I’m still a bit too early to feel the baby moving yet, and I’m really not that big, so I’m in that in between space where I could forget that I’m pregnant. All of the symptoms I have are odd, and related to pregnancy, but don’t make me feel pregnant. I’m starving but nothing tastes good and almost everything upsets my stomach. I’m exhausted all the time and take lots of naps, but I have major insomnia in the middle of the night. Etc, Etc.

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Another Week

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I sat down with the intention to write an update about what we’ve been doing lately. Time has been passing, but since time has no meaning anymore, it’s hard to quantify. I have a lot of half started projects going, that’s for sure.

First I decided it was time to sort through everyone’s clothes. I moved E up to 4T and G up to 3T (they’re honestly the same size, and they weigh the same, but for my sanity this is what we’re doing. Close enough. Except I also decided that they should share a closet now, and the baby will take over G’s closet. Which meant Tom might as well pull out all of the baby clothes from the attic so I could start going through those.

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Pregnant in a Pandemic

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Time seems to be moving quickly so far, which I think is a good thing. I’m starting to pull out maternity clothes (not so much a bump yet, but definitely bigger), and trying to wean down on how much nausea medication I’m taking daily.

E & G have started to talk daily about the new baby, which is interesting to watch. We never sat them down to say that a baby is coming or that things will change, we just sort of keep it as part of the conversation. When E is passing out things (something he manages to do almost daily), he often will name family members. “This one is for Mama, this one is for me, this one is for G…” and he’ll often name one for Maia, our kitty who died almost a year ago. So it’s not that weird to suddenly be naming one for “baby.” A sort of hypothetical entity that can be named.

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Bird Watching

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E’s favorite bird has always been a cardinal. Don’t tell him that you think it’s red, because he calls it the “orange bird.” Luckily we get a lot at our bird feeders, so he’s always happy.

I keep waiting for a goldfinch to show up, because obviously G would love that, but I’ve yet to see one at our house. Instead, we recently had some Chickadees show up. I was super excited, because I’d been mentioning to people that I thought it was weird we don’t see them AT ALL in Massachusetts. I mean, it is the state bird and all..

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Pandemic Life

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It’s an old joke at this point in the pandemic, but it’s definitely groundhog day over here. It’s hard to write about anything new, because there’s really nothing new. As our risks increase and the virus has gotten more contagious, we’re leaving the house even less than before. We’re now ordering groceries online and having them delivered to the house, we haven’t seen anyone in months, and while we might have braved a trip to Target occasionally before (okay I’ve gone twice in this pandemic), we’re no longer doing that.

And while I’m cheering everyone I see get the vaccine, since they’re little bits of hope to hold on to, it’s hard too. We know it’s going to be months and months before we’re offered it, and it’s not easy to watch others move on with their life and get to see people and do things that we can’t. And won’t be able to do.

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Again With the Snow

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Snow, snow, so much snow.

The most in the state, to be exact. I’m not sure how that happened. We were right on the edge of predictions of “a lot” and “not a lot” of snow, and we ended up with 5” more than the upper limit of predictions. Towns next to us got half as much as we did. Apparently we live in a snow pocket. A wonderful place to be when you have a broken snow blower, and a driveway that a plow truck can’t clear.

Is This Your First or Second?

I think we surprised a few people with our decision to have more than two kids (although I think those who know us the best saw it coming), because I’m definitely realizing that most people expect you to stop at one or two. Two is normal, one is understood, but and more than that and you start getting questions and looks.

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The Last Night

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There are a lot of parenting choices that split parents into one of two camps. Team pacifier forever or team take it away quick. Team potty train early or team wait until they’re way older. Team switch them to a bed at 18 months or team wait for years.

I don’t know many parents of littles who don’t have strong opinions on these. We certainly do. And if you know us, it’s probably not a surprise that we’re team wait it out on a lot of things. Including the crib.

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Scatterbrained

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This year has really been an experiment in the minimal amount of brain power required to still function as an adult. Something about this pandemic and repetitive home monotony has turned my brain to mush. Add in all the insane things happening in the world, and my brain just wants to shut down, instead of think of the consequences of an attempted coup.

So of course it’s super fun to add in pregnancy brain, plus nausea medication that includes a time released sleeping pill that keeps me in a never ending fog.