And Then There Were Two

I don't want to abandon this five-year-old blog, but I really don't know how I'm going to find the time to keep up with it. I have a moment of peace and quiet while Lindsay sleeps and Reed takes a cat-nap before his dream feed. Charles Reed is 8 weeks old. These 8 weeks have flown by... how did the first 8 weeks drag so much more slowly when my Lindsay was a newborn?

I don't have any big, sweeping statements to make about parenting two. It's like parenting one but twice the work. Reed is a snuggler who loves to curl up in the crook of my elbow. He is a good sleeper - right now he does about 10:30pm-5:45/6:00am without waking. Knock on wood.

His older sister just turned two-and-a-half. She has quite a few opinions and is bold about voicing them but can be swayed without too much trouble. She wants to do everything herself, but knows with certainty that there are some things that only grownups can do. I would say that age 2 is not so terrible for us. She loves her brother and her only fault is excessive love - her hugs and kisses are often too aggressive.

I'm learning every day that mothering is a process, not a task I can cross off my daily checklist. So many things we do throughout each day build on top of the previous day's lessons... about sharing, caring, growing, learning.

My bigger one starts school in a week. She and I are so enthusiastic and look forward to her growing independence. So glad I have my little one at home for some one-on-one time, which he rarely gets.

Lindsayisms, 28 months

"When I get [to be] a grownup, I'm going to ..." ... "cut with a sharp sharp knife"... "have a computer"... "touch the dirty dishes"... "park the car"... She is fascinated by all the things grownups get to do.

"Say, I DO like spinach!" (After picking all the spinach off the pasta and telling us she doesn't like spinach, we said just try one bite...) ... then realizing that got a laugh out of us, "Say, I AM hungry!" She draws her inspiration from Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham, of course.

"Privacy!!!" (in the bathroom)

She is very interested in talking about gender differences, and has fun identifying people as a boy or girl. She knows that boys are handsome and girls are pretty, so she says things like "Baby Reed is going to be handsome." (And "Baby Reed is going to be nudie when he comes out (but we have clothes for him)."

She is quite particular about her naptime / bedtime routines ... TWO books, TWO songs, and prayer. If you skip a step you're dead meat. She is also learning that some books are way too long so we will read only one tonight.

Favorites: still mac n cheese, peas, broccoli, peaches, raisins, chicken sausage, fish, sweet potatoes, sweets of almost any sort (but she recently rejected blueberry sorbet).

Praying

In early March Lindsay started praying a real prayer on her own: “Dear Lord, Thank you for this food. Thank you for this day. Jesus name pray. Amen.” (“Now we eat now!”)