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Another New Normal

The above photo really has nothing to do with this post. It is just a photo of Audrey getting some heavy duty sleep while the chaos of our life unfolds around her. Truth be told, she generally isn’t so sacked out in the bouncer seat with her arms free, we generally swaddle her up like the newborn that she is. Isn’t she just sweet as a chocolate chip cookie? 

Speaking of babies, look at the picture of all the A-Town babies from well over a year ago. Weren’t they so little? This morning Charlyn asked me if I’ll remember THIS stage that I’m currently in and I just know I won’t. Time will pass and this season of my life will fade from my memory – the midnight nursing sessions, Maggie wearing her tap dancing shoes all day long, nursing in the car, learning how to maneuver in the world (like at the grocery store) with two kids, feeling sad that Sydney doesn’t get the attention she once did. Other memories will take over and there will be a new normal. 

When I went back to work in September, I established a new normal of being out the door early in the morning and having my afternoons with Maggie at home. As much as I really loved working, I’m thankful that I am no longer rushing out the door first thing and having to say goodbye to both my girls. I also really missed seeing my girlfriends and all their kids. I’d gotten so used to adventures to parks, Jetty Island and all our houses, but the reality of squeezing in a playdate after work really wasn’t an option for all our schedules…we’ve all always had different nap schedules, live far apart, etc. 

With the birth of Audrey and me being home now, it has again opened up the door to fall into a regular schedule of playdates with my A-Town girls. I’m not going to lie….it feels SO good to be back in the swing of things with them! Our kids all get along and we’ve been friends since grade school. Making friends as an adult is not one of my strengths….I wish I was better at it, but there is something to be said for old friends and not worrying about the popper etiquette of sharing information, blah, blah, blah. 

It turned out that Valentine’s Day was a day that we were all open to get together at Lara’s house. Mira, Lara’s new bundle of joy, was born one day after Audrey and I hadn’t gotten adequate holding time of her since we’d only seen her once. [That is the only bad thing about having babies at EXACTLY the same time as one of your BFFs. It is nearly impossible to love on them in the way that you would if you didn’t have a newborn of your own.] Plus, we hadn’t seen everybody else in ages. We hopped at the chance to go and Maggie worked hard on making Valentines for all her friends. 

I didn’t take pictures of it, but the delivery of valentines was the sweetest of things between all the kids. Maggie and Caroline had a hug-fest and I’m pretty sure that Gavin never let his box of Sweethearts go the entire day. Erin brought goodies to decorate cookies and with the help of Marc, Maggie decorated a coookie that was twice the size of her head. We ‘accidently’ forgot the cookie at Lara’s house when we left….

But the icing on the cake wasn’t the cookies, the valentines or even the fact that we were all reunited after a long time. No, the icing on the cake was when Marc busted out Thomas’ new electrical jeep/tractor. Maggie, who doesn’t know how to steer, loved driving and riding in the tiny vehicle. Her and Mara spent an extremely long time cruising around the property laughing and giggling together. Once Mags discovered the reverse option, she never really drove it too far because she kept backing up. Mara, on the other hand, probably would have driven the little cart all the way home had we let her. 

Marc got out the lawn mower and the boys rode around for a very long time. It was actually quite funny watching the whole thing unfold….and to see what type of driver the young kiddos are. Eventually Marc and his little tribe of followers came back inside and we had a bit of play time in the playroom, with Maggie wanting to play guitar with Marc. She gave us a quick concert of “Country Roads”  before too long. 

I laughed with my friends that day wondering why I ever thought taking care of JUST a newborn was difficult….Audrey is a dream, especially if she’s being held or I am wearing her. Having two children is a challenge, one that I’m slowly figuring out ways to make it easier. Getting together that day at first felt like somewhat of a chore to pack everything up and get there on time [which we weren’t], but by the time we got home that evening, I found myself so happy to be back in the saddle again with my A-Town playgroup.  

Give me another me another month or so with two kids, and I’ll be ready for all sorts of adventures, and another new normal. 

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Flower Girl Duties

Practice Makes Perfect!

A whole new parenting feeling arrived for both Barry and me this past Saturday afternoon when we watched Maggie pull of a perfect version of being a flower girl when Jeff and Courtney got hitched. We’ve practiced a zillion times at home and these photos prove that we practiced before the ceremony. (Don’t worry, Fashion Police, Barry didn’t wear jeans! We changed later. Mags had to be there early for photos.). We watched YouTube videos of other flower girls and talked at length about what would actually go down.

I wasn’t prepared for how nervous I would get watching her walk down the aisle and what it felt like to see her do something completely on her own. I can’t even begin to imagine what it will be to watch her  participate in a sport, speak publicly or do anything beyond this first flower girl trip down the aisle. I could not have been more proud of her as she slowly made her way to Brian, who was one of the groomsmen, and dumped out handfuls of petals….finally ending with a huge dumping of the remaining petals in front of Jeff, the groom.

Brian had Skittles in his pocket which enticed her to stay up front for the ceremony, but after she spotted Barry’s parents, she hit the road. Regardless, I was one proud mama. It got me thinking about the urge I fight to want to help Maggie sometimes to speed up the process of whatever it is we’re doing (cooking, getting in the car seat, setting the table, etc.). She’s been reminding me with a swift, “NO, I DO IT!” that she is fully capable and willing to do grown-up-ish tasks.

Seeing her head down the aisle with white and yellow petals floating around her, I felt like she was totally on her own doing exactly what we’d practiced, talked about and prepared for. Perhaps that is the bigger lesson here: parenting, mixed with a whole lot of love, patience and nurturing, is really about practice, communication and attempting to prepare our children for the bigger picture, the bigger world, really.

*Video coming in a following post. Prepare your head to be turned to the side, unless I can get Barry-Miller-Tech-Wizard to help me out.

 

 

 

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Bits

BONES

A couple days ago I made the bed and discovered that Sydney had amassed 5 of her bones over the course of the night and early morning hours. FIVE! What could a little Pug need 5 bones for? For whatever reason seeing the bones made me feel extremely happy and a bit weepy about Sydney. I honestly feel like she’s my first child and she has been SUCH A GOOD DOG since the first day we got her. She’s a bit quirky,very smart and we adore her. Some day she won’t be leaving bones in our bed….I don’t like to think about that.

SWAG

So, I read the Justin Bieber Rolling Stone article and may or may not have blasted “Boyfriend” through our house a few months ago. Barry was under strict orders (don’t worry, I don’t really give him orders) not to share the information with anyone. But here I am sharing it with my 3 loyal readers (Hi, Mom!). Anyhow, after reading the RS article, I found myself compelled to use the word ‘swag’ as often as appropriate. Turns out there aren’t too many appropriate times I need to use that word in my life. Total bummer.

Except Barry got some swag at a nerd conference a few months ago. He came home toting a new lunch box with a thermos to boot. He started using the lunch box and the thermos got tossed into the abyss of our water bottle cupboard and forgotten. (You know that cupboard where broken, but still semi-loved, water bottles go?) Jump to a couple weeks ago when Summer finally arrived and we actually started packing lunches for our outings. I tried out the swaggy thermos and fell in love. Seriously, I want to marry this thermos.

It comes complete with a really weird image of two dudes sitting on an old car, but it keeps things VERY chilly and I can use the cute cup if I’m feeling really fancy.  Swag, swag, swag!!!  I’ve all but abandoned my fancy-pants water bottles for this freebie and so far I’m not regretting it. My only question is this: will the two dudes scare my little Kindergarteners once I start back at school…because they kind of scare me. I’m going to risk it and Swag it up. All thanks to The Biebs.

DUCKS 

We have a pond walking distance from our house where ducks live. Every so often we’ll walk by “the lake”  to see how they’re getting along and let Sydney sniff around. The other night Barry and I told Maggie that we were going to go feed the ducks and loaded her down with crusty bread and old crackers. She was beyond excited and we were happy to take an evening stroll. Well, of course the ducks were gone and we were left looking at a pond with hardly any wildlife, save for the bugs.

As we continued on our walk Maggie became upset that we couldn’t find the ducks. We explained to her that we didn’t know where they had gone, but we’d come back soon to look for them. Maggie wasn’t satisfied with answer and started to yell at the top of her lungs, “Ducks, where are you?? I got bread!! Where are you, ducks?”

She started waving around the lone hot dog bun and kept bellowing out her sales pitch to the ducks that probably couldn’t hear her.

DOLLIES

Since Maggie started falling in love with baby dolls, probably around 18 months, she has shown such compassion, love and patience for her babes. It makes me proud to see her mother in such a way. Lately she’s been putting them to bed and insisting that we be quiet. Heaven forbid we wake her sleeping babies. I know how it feels when someone or something wakes up my baby, so I always oblige and tip toe around their bed. Syd continues to be evicted from her bed/disc in the living room. It doesn’t worry me, because clearly she has found another place to chew on her bones. (See above).

THOSE TWO

Last weekend Barry went hiking with some of his friends for another over-nighter. When he got back home, Maggie “helped” him unpack his backpack and wanted an answer about everything that he pulled out. We’d just returned from camping, so she knew a thing or two about tents, sleeping bags and backpacks; however, it was his special water pump that captivated her. She spent the longest time pumping water in and out of her little pool. And when she was done, they plopped down on our drying tents and had a love-fest. It never, ever stops making me feel happy, fulfilled and grateful seeing them together.