Its Wednesday night. Nate has been away since the crack of dawn on Sunday morning. Both babies are sleeping at the moment. Both are fed, reasonably clean, and very happy. This is the first time Nate has travelled since Julia joined our family, and man do I miss him. There has been a silver lining to this long trip though......I have learned a lot about my kids, and a lot about my family and friends, and a lot about myself.
In the day to day since Julia was born I have been very busy nursing, changing, entertaining, writing thank you cards, cleaning, cooking and falling in love with her. My little Luke's care often and mostly fell to Nate. While I busily worked in the kitchen/laundry room/house in general with Jules in the sling the bulk of the "play with Luke and keep him alive/out of trouble/happy bit" fell upon Nates shoulders. It's been great to have some time to simply hang out with and enjoy my little man while Nate was gone. The mere reality of two little babies under my care has kept me from much cooking, or cleaning, or really too much of anything at all while I got to simply enjoy these sweet little beings.
My son LOVES to be outside. Loves it. Like, clamors at the door yelling "Deck Deck Deck" every 10 minutes or so. Rain or shine, cold or hot, thats where he wants to be. One of my big hopes for my kids is that they love the outdoors, that they love to play with sticks and mud and salamanders, that they rip their jeans and make tree forts and play kick the can and catch lightening bugs (or, really, that they do anything but play video games and intone "Mom, I'm bored" all day long). I just never expected that the urgent need to be OUTSIDE would begin at 14 months old. And I certainly never expected to have a newborn to be tending to at the same time. We have two decks at our house. One which has steps down to the yard, and one which has no ground access. Luke loves both equally, and both present equal challanges (to me). The one with ground access means that little man wants to walk down the steps all the time into the yard. The one with no access means that Luke can play "Newton and his apple" while he tests the Universal Law of Gravitation.....Right now the area about 15 feet below the deck features a sippy cup, a spoon, a block or three, a plethora of dogfood,and one of Jules' onesies. Nice. Gravity still seems to be in effect around out house. Thanks Luke. This weekend we have to work on getting a gate for the other deck so that we can begin to spend more time over there.
It was warm enough out today that Luke sported his first pair of shorts since last year. My guy is THICK. Like, cankle thick legs and round healthy meaty baby guy thighs. I love em. I went and bought him a pair of sandels, which seemed to be a hit. We have visited the playground behind our house every day this week, and Luke now climbs up the jungle gym thingy and goes down the sliding board all by himself. My Mom has been a tremendous help this week, and my house looks much the better for it. If you have called and I have not called you back, forgive me. By the time night rolls around I cant wait to climb into bed with my little girl and love on her for a while before I fall asleep by 9 pm. Last night I scared the poor child as I screamed as the Flyers scored an overtime goal to close the series with Washington and advance to the next round of the playoffs. I'm going to make it up to her by taking her to the Sixers playoff game on Friday night. Two teams going postseason! Go Philly!
I know that this post makes no sense, but its where we are at the moment. I'm proud of myself for getting these two precious babies up and fed and cleaned up and dressed and loved and nurtered every single day. I may not have done much furniture shopping, or closet organizing, or photo album creating.....but as my Mom reminded me.....right now just steering these little creatures through the day is in and of itself an accomplishment. I'm proud of my husband, who is working hard for us. I'm proud of my kiddos, who grow and learn and crack me up. I'm incredibly greatful for the help we have gotten this past week, from Carolyn, and Mom, and Erin, and everyone else who has chipped in. Thank you! :)
Melissa,
ReplyDeleteYou have such the right attitude! My mantra is that my house will always be here (the occassional dust bunny as well) but my children will only be young once. I want them to grow up and talk about how Mommy and Daddy would drop everything to play pirates or Thomas the Train (2 current favs), not talk about how clean my floor was or sparkling my windows were. That's important, just not a priority at this point. One day. Enjoy your little beauties. They are precious.
Love, Dana & Drew