Dinner with Two One-Year-Olds

We had some friends over for dinner recently.  We both have little boys only 6 months apart.  They both have the same initials and neither of them like to sleep through the night.

Man it was nice.

Why you ask? Because there was not a lot of finished conversations.  I'm not sure all four adults were ever together at the table for more than 5 minutes.  There was lots of screaming and lots of asking my child to "please share".

It sure was nice to know that there are other people out in the world going through the same things we are.  The same time of life, the same sleep issues, same theory on going out to eat (um, we don't...). 

I kept telling them how fun it was and how much we enjoyed the visit, but I'm not sure they believed me. This wasn't a case of "misery loves company", but istead a comfort knowing that we were not alone.

God has put me here, right now, at this stage of life.  He has surrounded me with these people in this place with this family he is so graciously letting me borrow. 

God is good, and I am thankful.

21 Months

 So here we are, each month flying by faster than the previous.

I'm really having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that before we know it, we will have a two year old.  The few tantrums that we have experienced are a good indication however.

Our Little Man has completely taken off developmentally.  Some days I want to tell him to stop trying to repeat everything I say, he is too young for that! Then I realize that may deter him from learning in the future, so I just giggle at all his little echos in the background.

He has got animals and their noises down! We have run the gammet of the typical barnyard animals.  We just added kangaroo this week, but sadly the kangaroo doesn't make a noise that I know of? We just say that he hops. 

My favorite noises are the rooster, chicken, dinosaur and the winner is what mommy and daddy say.  Apparently we are cranky people because when you ask him what mommy and daddy say he just growls and smiles.

His colors are coming along, if he doesn't know what one color is his default is "gween" which cracks me up.

He is also really coming along with his numbers as well.  He is just recognizing them at this stage.  If I show him a paper with numbers 1-10 on it he is able to color the "3" or "7" if you ask him too.  He seems to know we are trying to make him perform or something as he will only humor us with this performance for a few minutes before moving on to color something else.  I'm good with that. :)

He is so loving with all of his stuffed animals, he has oodles of hugs for each of them.  Stuffed, or tiny and plastic that go in his barn.  I am going to buy him a baby doll too as he loves the one in the church nursey and might be nice for him to have his own baby when his sibling comes.  People that think that may "confuse" him are crazy.  You will thank me when your daughter wants to marry him someday.

The child LOVES grapes!

We are all of the sudden able to go out to eat with him occasionally.  He went to two carpet stores with us on Saturday with a stop at Chipotle in between.  I was finished eating before him and he loved drinking water out of his big cup with a straw.  He held that straw in his teeth throughout the entire trip to the second carpet stroe.  Classic.  This new relaxed pace while out running errands and at a restaurant is awesome and something I never thought would happen.

Potty is going well.  He will pee every time I change his diaper and we have been able to wear our "big boy pants" for about an hour at a time.  He still isn't comforatble with pooping in the potty, but eventually we will be able to catch it and make a big, happy, clapping, oohing and ahhing deal over it which he loves.  He is still pretty young, but I am excited to see what I can do with him once I stay home full time. 

He has still continued to be pretty picky with foods, which was aggravating for the first few days but I have learned to just roll with it.  He has decided that he does indeed like smoothies so I feel good knowing he is getting his fruit and some green veggies in.  I just change the fruit up every day and add raw spinach.  He drinks it up and calls it "juice".  I offer him what we are having for dinner and something he likes if I know he won't eat said dinner at every meal.  HIs first word to me this morning was "eat?" so I think we may need to add in a bedtime snack...  I will not cook two meals forever but for now making him penne when we have spaghetti makes sense to me as it's easier for him to eat.  Spaghetti is super difficult for those under two!

He LOVES MOPs now which is a far cry from how he felt about it at the beginning of the year.  Now he walks in by himself and is happy to go.  When I show up he smiles at me and tries to go back to playing.  Church nursery is still a bit of a struggle but I think it's only because he doesn't want to say goodbye to daddy. 

If Nana is anywhere in the picture he chooses her for everything from changing his diaper to getting a snack.  Hilarious.

Lastly, we finally took away the pacifier.  He only used it as nap and bedtimes but was waking up at night when he lost it.  Mommy "broke" it so he threw it in the trash.  Night #3 and he is back to sleeping through the night.  Yay!

A Change of Heart

Maybe it's the intense pregnancy hormones, but I have had a change of heart.

Thank you to everyone who read my frustrated, whiney, lack-of-sleep post and didn't pick up the phone to call and tell me to get over myself.  I felt much better after dumping it into the blogging world.

No, we are still not sleeping.  Good news? I can see two more 2-year molars popping through.  I always feel much more relieved when they come in together.  I'd rather just get this all done at once.

However, in the last week a great friend of mine had a miscarriage, my Grandma fell and broke her arm and now is very weak, my mom is completely beside herself stressed (of course she won't accept my help), and then I was so blessed to have read this and this.  I blubbered through my morning coffee.

Anyway, what I'm getting at is that not only have I been given the oppourtunity to get over myself and be strong for someone else, but I realized exactly what kind of opportunity I have in front of me.  I'm ashamed it took me reading of someone else's loss to get over my own pity party.  I guess though, to give myself a break, when you are in the midst of somethings, it's hard to see anything outside of your own world.

3rd Trimester and No Sleep

I remember how blissful pregnancy was with Asher.  I took naps when I wanted, ate lots of salmon and spinach, and exercised at least three days a week.

Now I am in my third trimester with my second and a toddler and I am beat. 

When I first became pregnant I was so excited that my little boy both decided to start sleeping through the night AND weaned himself from his last bedtime breastfeeding session.  It was glorious.  It took me weeks to be able to sleep through the night myself but I felt like a whole new woman.  It had been some 15 months since I had been sleeping regularly.  I had forgotten what I was actually like with sleep.

I stopped needing that powder and blush, I actually did my hair, and I attempted to put my contacts back in (that last one didn't work, pregnancy messes with my eyes a bit).  I was social, looking for ways to serve others, coming up with fun things for a toddler to do, getting dressed everyday.  It was awesome.  Awesome I tell you.  Four months of bliss.

Then this little thing called a 2-Year Molar knocked at the door.  This was a month ago (I think, honestly, I think it's been longer, but I have lost track). And then a runny nose from the church nursery.  Now we are back to getting up at least twice a night and this momma has hit the wall again.  No, we don't do cry-it-out and no, I'm not going to start now.  I wouldn't want to be left in a room to cry myself (loudly and frantically) to sleep, so I don't want to do that to my child.  On top of that, I live in a 1930 all wood-floor home.  There is no "quiet" place here. 

I'm just venting, please excuse me.

So I have lost my time at night with my husband, my mommy-time in the morning.  I haven't had a date in over a month, and besides MOPs haven't gotten out to do anything with other people.  Luckily the weather has been extremely mild for this part of the country and we have been able to get outside quite frequently. 

The problem is however, that I am due in 12 weeks with baby #2.  I'm not quite sure that this was A) a good idea or B) this is going to work.  I am not good without sleep.  In fact, I'm pretty much a nightmare.  I thought I would be a bit more rested and ready than this.  I haven't gotten that "nesting" energy yet but have been extremely emotional about leaving my son to go to work.  There is no "big boy" room set up, no closets have been cleaned out and I can barely keep the house presentable.  I am what you call, stressed.

I just keep putting one foot in front of the other in hopes that I will not harm this baby with a third cup of coffee in the day or the lack of sleep.  I have this irrational fear that if my body does all of it's repair during sleep that the baby won't grow without it either.  I also keep hoping that if I just keep faking it, I won't pass out somewhere from exhaustion or my son won't grow up thinking that mommy is no fun and is cranky.  Lord help me.

Yesterday at work I was told I was "getting fat" and several ladies asked me if I was feeling ok.  Obviously I have some work to do in the faking it department. Although, I can tell you, there is no sucking-it-in that will help the fatness at this point!

So there you are, a cranky, sleepy, stressed out blog post from my week (or so) long blogging hiatus.  Woohoo!