****Edited below ******

Curses on you, Croup!

I sleep between two fevers

Barking baby seals

For more of Haiku Friday go to A Mommy Story or Playgroups Are No Place for Children.

******I just wanted to add, for those of you waiting for an update on this fiasco, that the blog has finally been removed from the website (after several weeks, several phone calls, and a deadline of today, issued by my lawyer husband). And someone emailed me to ask if that event might have a relation to the publication I mentioned yesterday. No, the two events are not related at all, so please don’t think that Sekund had anything to do with that.

Labels: Bodily functions, The Big One, The Little One, Writing

I love this picture. I think it’s both hysterical and oddly artsy.

I found this new online magazine recently, Sekund, which focuses on parenting the second time around, ie. when you go from one kid to two (”Second”). I’ll have an essay in the May issue, coming out some time this month, so my husband has been taking pictures of the kids and me to publish with my article. I’m actually considering submitting this one because I think it pretty much captures it all.

Go check out the magazine though. It’s fun and brand new. You can subscribe to have new issues sent via email, and I’ll also update here when the new one with my essay is out (of course!).

Labels: Pictures, The Big One, The Little One, Writing

Here are the top five things you do not want to be doing while a baby is screaming at you. And I have a lot of experience with this now, so you can trust me.

5. Driving. I seriously considered driving into the car in front of me the other day because it JUST WOULDN’T MOVE.

4. Anything where a sudden jerk of the arm may result in blindness, burn, or maiming, such as applying eyeliner, taking a sip of your cup of coffee, or chopping carrots.

3. Trying to conduct a time-sensitive phone conversation involving something critical, such as making a decision about locking in an interest rate on a home loan before market closes.

2. Trying to put the blue pants on an almost three-year-old who wants to wear the brown pants. BTW, the brown pants in this scenario are obviously dirty and unavailable. Seriously, the moms who can keep it together and maintain patience with their older child when things like this happen (aka child who is being insistent about a minor detail and being totally uncooperative despite younger brother’s screams of fury) are totally amazing.

1. You know what it is people . . . yes, you do. Involves a throne? Yeah. I don’t need to tell ya’ll. Man, I hate it when that happens. Talk about a time you don’t want to feel rushed . . . and I especially like it when you can hear the baby screaming in the other room where you’ve left him in his crib and you’ve got the older one in the room with you yelling at you to come and do whatever it is he wants you to do - fix a train, find a sippy cup, pick a booger, whatever - but you can’t actually hear what he wants because the baby is so loud, and you can’t actually help him right now anyway because, well, you’re stuck. Yeah. Love that moment. What is that, like every day?

Labels: Bodily functions, Mommyhood, The Big One, The Little One

Each day I debate whether or not to try and take both boys out for a drive in order to get Sam and Robby to nap simultaneously. It’s a tough decision to make. When it works it is wonderful. Both boys sleep, and I get at least a little downtime. I have my snack in the car and listen to a book on tape. The problem is that sometimes it doesn’t work, like really, really doesn’t work. Usually when it doesn’t work it’s because Robby wakes up too early and ends up screaming - he does not like being in his car seat once he is awake. Sometimes this could happen right as Sam is falling asleep, sometimes it could be about 20 minutes into Sam’s nap. But when this happens things get ugly. I end up with two miserable children crying in my car some distance away from my home.

When Robby wakes up early I often try to still get Sam as much sleep as I possibly can. That is why there have been many instances where I end up pulling in to some random parking lot, pulling Robby out of his car seat and nursing him in the passenger seat while Sam sleeps on. He’ll usually go back to sleep and then we sit there until Sam wakes up, Robby goes back in his seat, I drive the rest of the way home, and we all slug inside. It’s kind of ridiculous. It’s certainly silly that I have to go to this extreme in order to get Sam to nap these days. That’s what I was thinking about today whilst I sat in the passenger seat, looking at the clock to see if Sam had at least been asleep 45 minutes because Robby was starting to stir. I was thinking about this ridiculous situation that I keep finding myself in as Robby opened his eyes wide and looked up at me. I was thinking about it when he gave me a great big smile. And I was still thinking about it when he shat all over both of us.

So today, instead of waking up to see his mom nursing his new brother in the front of the car in a strange parking lot somewhere, Sam got to wake up to his mom frantically trying to change the baby’s diaper, onesie, and pants while she, herself, was covered in poo. And no, I did not follow the baby diaper bag rule: I did not have a change of clothes for myself as well as the baby. Nope, just the baby. And no, this was not a small dollop of poo on my clothes - I was covered. Sam woke up, took a look at his brother and mother and their little charade, I pointed out to him that Robby had pooped all over my pants, and he just shook his head yes and looked out the window.
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Scary enough for you? No? Well, I’m sending in an old archive post to Scribbit’s Write Away Contest, which I have never entered before even though I’ve always wanted to. She has prizes too! And the topic for this month is: Things That Scare You. Very few of you will remember this one since it was one of my very first posts from back in the day.

Labels: Bodily functions, Mommyhood, The Little One

Oh, this makes me feel much better. Perhaps I’m not scarring them after all.

Labels: Brothers, Pictures, The Little One, Toddler

I’m counting down the days until I will be on my own with two kids. I’ve had the amazing benefit of having my husband here followed by my mom since I am technically still not supposed to lift Sam (yeah right!) because of the C-section. So I still don’t know how I will handle this mother of two thing. Right now the suspense is killing me. For every meal, every tantrum, every failed nap I think, “How will I do this when it’s just me? How will we eat? How will we rest? How will I get Sam out and socializing and not let him go crazy with boredom? How?” And I know it all works out and we will just have to get in the groove, but I won’t know how it will all work out until I actually see it happen.

I’d like to know that no one will feel neglected (including me and my husband) but I’m not just not sure I will ever feel like I’m not neglecting someone at some point ever again. So far what I’ve learned about parenting two is that if, at the end of the day, I feel good about my interactions and time spent with one child then my immediate following thought is that I didn’t spend enough time with the other. I’m thinking I may feel that way every day for the rest of my life, or at least until they move out.

On a happy note - I have pictures:

And look what we found by the side of the road! Sometimes an activity will find you.

Labels: Mommyhood, Pictures, The Little One, Toddler

People always talked about how different the second child would be from the first. My response was always that he wouldn’t have a choice; I knew I’d never be able to do the things for a second baby that I did for Sam. Sam was the crankiest, fussiest, colicky-est little thing I’ve ever seen or heard of. Others agreed. For example, while other parents were heading out of the house with infants sleeping in their car seats, even taking them into restaurants while in their car seat, Sam would scream the moment he was placed in it from day one. So every time I wanted to leave the house I had to consider how long of a drive it would be and ultimately if the activity was worth listening to Sam’s primal screams for the duration of that drive. This also included the stroller - Sam would absolutely have NOTHING to do with any stroller of any kind until about 7 months old. He would tolerate being worn in a sling or front pack for short durations of time, which is how I survived those first months.

So when Robby fell asleep in his car seat for the first time Hubby and I just about passed out. Since then we have learned that as long as he is in motion, Robby will generally sleep in his car seat, be it in the car, in the stroller, or in a cart. AWESOME! This means that I can actually take Sam out to playgrounds and so forth in the mornings, which makes me so happy. I’d envisioned a Fall and Winter of the 3 of us being stuck inside the house, Sam having to amuse himself while I tried to console a crying baby all day every day (again, Sam cried CONSTANTLY so that’s what I thought all babies did). That’s not to say Robby doesn’t cry or that we don’t have difficult times. Try coming around our house any time after 4:00pm and you’ll see what’s up. Or try having him sleep on anything but your lap when we’re home and you’ll hear some serious protest. But if I am able to take Sam out for some hard core play in the mornings while his little bro sleeps and is content, then we are already doing better than I’d expected. Hopefully I haven’t ruined it all by writing it down…

Proof:

Labels: Pictures, The Little One