Today Audrey is two months old and we celebrated by taking her in for a check up. My littlest chicken is growing like a weed and apparently we make long babies. She weighed in at 12lbs 6 oz and 24 inches long, both in the upper nineties for percentiles. Our doctor told us that she had two 4 month olds come in recently that weren’t nearly as long as Audrey is. I find this hilarious because my nickname from my childhood was The Little. I was teeny, tiny and never once have been told that I was tall or long. I guess we know that Barry’s genes are working.
Last weekend my parents took Maggie back to Anacortes for the night and left Barry, Audrey and me to do as we please. Here’s the difference between your first and second child: with Maggie we probably still hadn’t left our house when she was close to 2 months old. We certainly weren’t doing normal things like taking day trips to Seattle! After Barry, Audrey and I took Syd for a walk, we hopped in the car and headed for Ballard. When we got there it was raining cats and dogs, but we still loaded Audrey into her snowsuit and carried her through the massive rain storm. Again, with Maggie we NEVER would have found ourselves out of the house, let alone in Seattle. We wandered, shopped, chatted and Audrey came along for it all. At one point we all three squeezed into a changing room and took turns trying on clothes, I fed Audrey while Barry took his turn.
The night before we went to see Chach in a play and Audrey and my dad came along while Maggie stayed at HBHQ with my mom. Audrey pretty much slept through the whole play (sorry, Chaya!) and we accidently dressed her in glow in the dark jammie. Again, I marveled at the fact that we were actually out of the house doing something normal…and it didn’t feel stressful.
I can’t say that I’m a better parent or that Audrey is a better baby. I can say that I’m a different parent and that Audrey is different than Maggie. We’re all a bit more laid back about things. Audrey probably cries more than Maggie did when she’s trying to tell us something, but I feel like she’s more content to watch things happen around her for longer stretches too. Maggie puts on a great show.
Since the first moment I held that sweet girl, Audrey Bell, I’ve felt like she’s been here forever. So tonight as Barry danced around the kitchen holding her, we both could hardly believe that it has only been two months since we first laid eyes on her. I’m so glad she’s here and it’s probably lame to say that it’s going to fast.
I thought I was done for yesterday. I feel asleep tired the night before and I definitely woke up tired. Tired and grumpy. I don’t like being grumpy, but life with a newborn and toddler is a bit challenging sometimes. I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining, but some days I find that it is hard to get things done around the house, take care of both the girls, shower, make meals, and still feel like I’ve had some adult conversation without ‘somebody’ in the background either yelling, crying or telling me to ‘say bye-bye!’
This is how she looks at her sister.
After my grumpy attitude followed me around most of the day yesterday, I went to bed with hopes that I’d wake up in a much better mood. A good night’s sleep (what exactly is that with a newborn, I’m not sure…but I did sleep) helped and I woke up today feeling more refreshed and less concerned about things like showering and cleaning up the house. Actually, I played Monsters with Maggie and convinced her that my monster was really strong and could fly and put laundry away. I also convinced her to put everybody’s socks away, which meant that she ran from room to room flinging sock balls onto beds. It worked and the laundry got put away. Win-win if you ask me.
The last couple days have been rainy and gross and it dampens my mood to look out and see the rain cloud hovering. I am so looking forward to the day that I realize it’s warm enough to fling our back door and windows open. For now, we’ll keep going out in the rain and coming inside to peel everything off, only to put on another set of clothes that’ll get wet if we venture out. Today on our morning walk, Maggie rode in the stroller all bundled up, commentating the entire way, and I wore Audrey in her snowsuit and hat. As I looked down at Audrey’s little face, as we turned to head back home, I wondered if she’d be bothered by falling rain. The answer? Nope, she slept through each and every drop on her face and only woke up when we got home and I put her down.
I read this post and it made me feel a bit better about being a grumpy human. I can’t be happy all the time, the ‘perfect’ mother that is just so happy to wake up and zip though a day where getting a moment alone might mean a walk to the mailbox. Sometimes it is just a simple thing that makes me feel rejuvenated and centered again. Lara was recently referencing her alone time away from being a mother and said the she was vacuuming out their car to get a few minutes….it truly is the little things.
About a year ago Maggie picked out some pink duct tape to give to my dad for his birthday and since then, Maggie has had a standing love affair with tape. We’ve had so many different things taped to walls, windows and other areas of our house. We’ve taught Maggie how to cut the pieces of tape she needs and she has spent hours working on different ‘projects’ around the house. Some people have questioned our willingness to let Maggie use the tape as needed, but I figure she could have more expensive hobbies and some day she probably will. Plus, she’s pretty creative with where she sticks it. Charlyn, who remembers her boys’ tape phase, showed up a few weeks ago and gifted Maggie with special removable tape. Mags spent a good part of yesterday working on a ‘project’ in our dining room with that tape.
On one hand, I think to myself that having Alone Time isn’t all that important, but then I think to Grumpy Mom and realized that when I’m Grumpy Mom the time that I need the most is alone. I don’t aspire to be the perfect mother. I want my children to understand what it means to live in a household where they are involved, included and encouraged. I also want them to live in a home where they can entertain themselves with creative projects without total adult supervision and guidance. So when Maggie picked up the tape and started covering the dining room chair, I could have freaked out that she wasn’t putting it on paper or some other surface that tape is ‘supposed’ to be used on. I chose to let her go to town with that tape, nursed Audrey to sleep and took a few minutes to myself.
It only took a few minutes of me in the other room by myself, probably checking my e-mail or sending a text, to feel a bit less isolated and grumpy. I grabbed my camera and snapped a few pictures of Maggie and continued on our dinner prep that we’d started an hour or so before. (By the way, lasagna takes a long time to make sometimes.)
I don’t feel guilty about taking a few minutes for myself, but I do feel guilty admitting that I feel challenged sometimes with day-to-day tasks with two kids. I thought I wanted to be one of those people that had it all together in the traditional sense…but there is always laundry to be done, a table to be wiped down, a diaper to change, a shower to be had, a hand to hold, a cheek to kiss, a meal to prep….and the list goes on and on. Having it all together does not mean that my house sparkles with cleanliness, that I’m wearing an actual outfit (do I even have ‘outfits’?), or that the laundry is done.
I am choosing to have it all together by raising a toddler that feels like she has a mother that includes her, talks to her and patiently answers most questions. I am choosing to have it all together by taking care of myself….walking, bathing, reading, keeping in touch with friends, sleeping, and laughing. I am choosing to have it all together by doing what I can to keep my house tidy….getting rid of what we don’t need, deep cleaning when I can. I am choosing to have it all together by communicating with Barry about all things…the highs, lows and everything in between. I’m deciding right now that having it all together means it is time to stop trying to be something that I’m not. Having it all together means that just being me is enough.
The littlest one stirs, so this is where the writing ends and the snuggles begin….because having it all together means that I’m available for midnight snuggles.
I’m not sure Audrey knew we even went on a walk.
Payback for all the times I screamed at my parents.
I didn’t think that I’d be the type of mom that dresses my girls in similar out fits. Turns out I’m wrong. I am that mom. It’s a little bit embarrassing, but I think they’re so dang cute in their ‘twin jammies’ and at this point Maggie, the only one of the two that can voice her opinion, absolutely loves matching her sister. I’m not inclined to make this a habit, but you can bet your bottom dollar that I’ll be doing this again. Not having a sister to be matchy-matchy with, I can’t totally wrap my brain around the complaints that I might field down the road. So it goes, this whole parenting gig is one twist after another.
We’ve had a few recent playdates with some of my A-Town girls and their kiddos. Thomas and Maggie are both in the stage of loving to make little animals and figurines talk, and thankfully they’ll do it together. Hearing them have conversations with their little toys is very entertaining. Barry and I try to play ‘Dollies’ as much as we can, but it can get really repetitive. The other evening I went for a walk and when I left Barry and Mags were playing a very involved game of Dollies and by the time I got back from my walk, which seemed like a long time, they were still playing, except Barry was lying flat on his back with his eyes closed holding his dolly up on the coffee table half-heartidly. So, when Thomas comes over and is just as excited to play Dollies (although he might call it something else), Maggie is very into it.
Both Thomas and Maggie also aren’t too interested in the babies when they’ve got each other to play with. Every so often they’ll come check to see what the two little ones are up to, but for the most part Thomas and Mags are happy as little clams to play together. It doesn’t seem all that long ago that we’d meet up for a playdate and they wouldn’t even ‘play’ together. Now they play so much and so hard that by the time it’s time to go, there is often tears and sadness.
Sister SwitchAudrey telling Mira about the embarrassing twin jammies. What Audrey doesn’t know is that Mira has the SAME pair! TRIPLETS!!This is what a puppet show given by 2 year olds looks like.
Maggie gave up naps long ago and that means that we often have an early bed time around here and try to keep our afternoons fairly relaxed and stress free. Very rarely does she take a nap, but yesterday she was yawning so much mid-morning that I took an opportunity, once Audrey was asleep, to read some books in bed. Maggie will jump at a chance to read a book and she wasn’t convinced the bed was the place to do it, but eventually bought into the idea. After reading a few chapters out of her Nancy Clancy book, we turned the light off and snuggled. I was informed, many times, that she did not want to ‘lax. Miracle of all miracles she fell asleep.
And I had exactly three minutes of a quiet house all to myself before Audrey decided to wake up.
It was a restful three minutes. I stared at the wall and wondered what I should do with my free arms and free time. Audrey answered for me. Thanks, Chica.
We still have quiet time in the afternoons, but I need to be more intentional about it. I feel like so much of my day is telling Maggie to wait…wait for me to finish feeding, changing, bouncing, dressing her baby sister, or feeding and changing myself. By the time Audrey is asleep and I have a few minutes, I work hard to try to fully engage with Maggie. We often have a ‘project’ going on that we like to work on together. Last week we made a month-by-month mini scrapbook for Audrey and Maggie was my Sticker Girl and Cutter. Yesterday we made a St. Patrick’s Day sign from some of her old paintings and glitter. Mags loves projects and to be able to tap into that creative side with her is really fulfilling. It also makes me feel a bit better when I’m asking her to wait yet again. If we’ve got a special project set up, we an talk about the next steps that we’ll do on it while she waits for me to finish.
Working hard on making her own stickers.
And when she can’t wait any longer, she’ll start in on her own project. Sometimes this is good….sometimes it isn’t. Either way, having a few projects to work on keeps the grumps away. If you’ve ever experienced a grumpy almost 3 year old on any given day…..you’d move heaven and earth to have a project as a distraction.
