Two

Sometimes I look at True and see a moment where he looks just like Perrin when she was a baby.  It made me want to take this chance to share some fun pairings.

Perrin

True

Perrin

True

Perrin

True

Perrin

True

These two kids make me feel alternately lucky and like I might lose my mind--as it is with kids.  Parents inevitably comment on how hard it can be to raise their kids--the monotony, the unreasonable nature of toddlers, the way you always feel like you are shorting one kid on attention, choosing between sitting down with them to pretend some silly little thing or get chores done around the house.  

To me it can too often feel like I am choosing the wrong thing no matter what I do...the dishes REALLY need to be cleaned up, but my 2 year old REALLY needs me to talk to her using her grasshopper puppet.  Of course balance is always the answer; so we try as best we can.  Sometimes Netflix auto-play of Daniel Tiger gets a work out, and sometimes we don't have any clean butter knives.  Ok.

I try not to wish away their childhood and babyhood, especially knowing we aren't having anymore kids.  But it is hard not to wistfully dream of the day when you don't have to negotiate your way through dinner and dessert, and when no one will wake you up in tears.  I would say that parenthood is more demanding than I imagined before undertaking it, but you never imagined the purity, the achingly sweet moments that you share with these brand new people.  These moments usually happen in between the tedious everyday bits--I still don't understand how one child's smile or quirky toddler kindness can so completely disarm you--but it happens and I love it.  

So the take away here: It's really hard.  Have a beer and a hot bath.

I'm awake!

It is 9pm and Perrin has been in bed since 7:30.  We could hear increasingly loud sounds coming from her room so Joseph turns on the video monitor to take a look.  She is doing downward dog pose on her bed with her butt pointed at the camera and loudly proclaiming, "I'm awake mama! I'm awake papa!" 

Thank you, Perrin, for the clarification.   She went on to sing "Let it go! Let it go!" (song from Frozen) complete with large sweeping arm motions.  Joseph has finally given up on her settling down and is in her room right now in negotiations.  Spying on the monitor, I see there is a music box and papa serenades involved.  I don't hear singing coming from her room anymore so that means she is sleeping peacefully, right?


Yesterday evening during her bath, she was pretending to be a monster and would growl and roar and say she was eating me up.  When she got out of the bath and was streaking around the house before we could get pjs on her, we hear her say, "Monster peed."  

I go to check it out and she is using her stuffed orangutan, George, to mop up the pee on the floor. 

Me: No! Perrin, don't use your animals to clean up pee! Now he's all dirty!

Perrin: (crying) Monster crying (sniff sniff, tear).


True is doing regular baby stuff.  Soiling things, laying around having puffy cheeks and grinning at the insects dangling from his mobile.  (He loves those dang insects.)  

True and Simon. Turns out cats and babies like all the same stuff.

Oh my eyelid!

So the other night Puck decided at 2:30 that he needed to cuddle my head.  He walks along my body waking me up so that I would be nice and awake when he...gets his claw stuck IN MY EYELID!  I got up and went to the bathroom to wash the blood away and see what sort of care it would need.  There was a tiny scrape.  I couldn't believe it! A tiny scrape?! It had felt like I was lucky to come away with my eyeball intact and I was already imagining that I would have to start sleeping in some sort of helmet to keep me safe.  Tiny scrape or not, when he came up and tried to cuddle last night he was not a happy kitty.  

Our little True is doing well, as are his parents who are getting a decent amount of sleep.  This guy likes to sleep.  Of course he doesn't sleep straight through, but he likes to sleep from about 9pm to 10am in general.  It is usually digestive system stuff that wakes him, but if you take care of that, he is happy to go right back to sleep.  You can even lay him down in his crib awake and he will almost always be fine with it.  Good baby.  

 Last night at dinner, I had True sitting in a baby chair on the floor near the table.  I saw Perrin trying to peer around me and she says, "I wanna see my baby True."  So I scooched his chair over near her then she was able to go on with her dinner.  She is enjoying True about as much as a 2 year old can enjoy a tiny crying immovable thing.  I had them both on my lap yesterday to read a book and, with no prompt from me, she grabbed her brother's hand to hold.  He would jerk it away due to his erratic baby movements, but she would just get it and hold on again.  Or when he starts crying she will instruct me, "Mama, he wants the milk" or "Mama, pick him up!" with urgency.  I can't decide if it is bossy or sweet.  Probably sweet.

I have already been looking to Christmas and getting excited.  My mom is flying out to be with us for a few weeks, plus something about having more kids around, even when they aren't old enough to appreciate the holiday (or poop free pants) makes me yearn for the magic of Christmas.  

This Christmas we have been informed that Santa is sending our family an elf named Rupert  Jinglebottom to make sure all is well with our holiday spirit the month of Christmas.  Hopefully Rupert won't make too much mischief and mess. I have been reading this blog that got me excited about our elf, but she is a pretty funny writer in general.  Mostly I read it when I am nursing in the middle of the night and trying not to fall asleep. 

Anyway, I have heard that some of these Christmas elves are sweet and cheery, and that when their families wake up they find the elf has made cookies or decorated for the holiday.  I have this funny feeling that Rupert is going to be a bit of a trouble maker. 
    We can only hope for the best and be thankful that Santa didn't forget us.  Here's hoping he won't do anything too crazy like tp the Christmas tree or swap out the children's gifts with crummy gag gifts and hide the real presents.  We shall see when we meet Rupert in December.  

I just wanted to share a handful of pics that were taken of True when he was 2 weeks old.  They are too sweet to keep to ourselves, in my completely unbiased opinion.