Life with Two (and More)How has a month gone by, & I have not posted? I've got lots of things to share about the girls, and I'm not quite ready to hit publish yet for their posts ~ still missing pictures and a couple of stories on Madeline ~ those are coming soon.
Life has resumed to normal. I am out of the no sleep "baby fog" & "baby high" stages of bringing home a newborn even though I still feel sleep deprived. Being tired all the time feels normal now. Eric's insane travel has commenced leaving me to hold down the fort. I've returned to my normal, non-pregnant-girl gym routine ~ woo hoo!!! Madeline is back at school regularly barring any future inclement weather conditions. Oh, and I've taken both girls to the grocery store & Target all by myself as if I'd been doing this Mommy thing my whole life. Like I said, life has resumed to normal. And, did I mention, life is great?!
Life with our two girls has settled in rather nicely. We've had to get used to Eric's traveling again, and I'd say that's been the biggest adjustment as far as Madeline is concerned. She got very used to Eric's travel pre-Amelia, and then she got very used to Eric being home after Amelia was born. I think she forgot that "Daddy's working" = Daddy doesn't get to come home every night thus leaving Mommy in charge. Yes, there have been some hairy moments when one child was probably not having her needs met in the most timely manner, but we survived. I have since been able to iron out most of the kinks in order to prevent a tremendous amount of melting down at high demand times like lunch/dinner, baths, bedtime, etc. Madeline has had to re-acquaint herself with the phrase, "Daddy's working.", so that always brings her terrible two behavior out more often. I guess that's her way of expressing her displeasure regarding Daddy's need to work. However, our nightly prayers now include, "We thank God for Daddy's job, & Daddy's ability to take care of us, so Mommy can stay home." This simple sentence seems to make sense to Madeline, and it seems to remind her that her world is okay even when "Daddy's working."
We are in the process of getting our one year warranty things fixed around the house, and it's a mess! There must've been a billion nail pops to fix, and it's going to be a cleaning nightmare for me. The Spackle and dust is EVERYWHERE. Not to mention, our builder doesn't do the touch up painting part, so we have to go back and do that part ourselves. YUCK! I foresee myself burning the midnight oil doing some serious cleaning in the next few weeks while Eric is traveling. I do my best work while he's traveling and late at night with no little girl interruptions. I'm just crazy like that, I guess. However, we are not looking forward to re-painting our ceilings, walls, trim, etc.
I've returned to the OB for my postpartum check-up, and I was given a clean bill of health. I had a follow-up with my hematologist for my platelet count, and they were up in the 120,000 range, so once again, I was given a clean bill of health there too. I was "cleared" for exercise ~ haha! I cleared myself for that about two weeks after Amelia came home. :)
Eric and I were able to go out on a "just us" date ~ my parents came over for a few hours, and we were able to go out to dinner without worries. Grandma is great like that! Eric and I had almost forgotten how nice it is to eat without cutting up someone else's food, burping someone else, or reading the cocktail menu like a book while we wait for our meal.
Madeline attended her first birthday party at a Kindermusik type place for a friend from school, and it was fun. Chaotic but fun. I must say, I am new to this kid birthday party thing, so it was a little overwhelming for me to have all those 2 and 3 year olds running loose doing their thing. Most of the other moms were chilling talking to one another, and I seemed to be watching Madeline like a hawk making sure she was minding her manners, sharing, and behaving. Perhaps I need to relax a little bit and trust that she will do the right thing without me hovering. I will learn to chill out eventually.
I've returned to my pre-baby workouts, and it feels awesome. My heart rate gets high, I sweat, I listen to music, and I have made my muscles work hard again. It's been so great to get back into my rhythm, and I have all the sore muscles to show for it. And, best of all, Amelia is already spoiled rotten in the kids' care by those wonderful ladies. They are smitten with her, and they love having a new baby to cuddle. It's a win-win for us all!
Madeline got her first shiner last weekend. Eric was cleaning up his truck, and she ran smack-dab into the tailgate, not once but twice. Her little face took a beating, and in her Madeline post, the pictures reveal her nice shiner. Madeline also had her first time out at school. Apparently, she was standing in the baby doll bed in the house center, and the teachers had to ask her repeatedly to stop. By the third offense, she was put into time out. As a result, at home, she was not able to have TV the whole rest of that day (which really amounts to two Dora shows --- one before nap & one before bed), but you want to talk about kicking a girl while she is down, then take away her Dora TV shows. According to her teachers, no TV for time out at school made a very lasting impression on her because she not only obeyed immediately when corrected the following day at school, but she mentioned that time out at school = no Dora TV that day. Score for Team Mommy & Daddy!
Finally, I had a girls night with my Supper Club girls, and it was so wonderful to chit chat with the ladies! I'm so blessed to call these girls my friends. It was such a refreshing evening out, and I'm so lucky to have a hubby that supports my girl time!
is venturing into uncharted territory with her talking back and sass, and I must say it's bringing me back to my 5th grade teacher school days. I knew I taught 5th grade for ten years for a reason! I've decided I handle these situations MUCH better than the irrational temper tantrums ~ maybe it's my school teacher comfort zone or maybe it's just a change of pace in the discipline department to keep me on my Mommy toes. Whatever it is, I don't like the fact that my two and a half year old has decided that pouting, talking back, laughing when she is disciplined, trying to boss me around, & sticking her tongue out at me is an appropriate response to Mommy! And, of course, to keep it interesting, she'll throw in one of those awesome temper tantrums at the drop of a hat just to make sure my blood pressure completely skyrockets. Seriously, if there is a boundary, she's testing it. If there is a line, she's crossing it all the while keeping her eye on me and how I react. I'm taking LOTS of deep breaths. I keep reminding myself that Madeline is learning about the world around her and our expectations of her, so it's my job as her Mama (Daddy too when he's home) to teach her that these are not appropriate tools to navigate the world. I'm sure she sees & hears these things in addition to being two and a half and feels the need to test drive this territory for herself. As Dr. Phil would say, "How's that working out for you?"
This timeout chair is occupied more often than not these days, and that doesn't include the times I have had to issue a few spanks for larger infractions.
