Sprung.

Goodbye to the Toyota.

The ole gal went back to the dealership on Friday afternoon. Three years ago I picked her up as a childless woman, and by end of her 3 year lease she had dents from two car seats pretty firmly embedded in her leather seats. With no accidents, flats, break downs, or speeding tickets in those three years, along with safely carting two newborn babies home from the hospital , she treated us well.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I shed a tear as we drove her for the last time. I'm weird like that. End of an era and all that jazz.

I met a mom at our gym a couple of weeks ago who had kids who appeared to be close in age, like mine are. I asked her how far apart her kids were, and she told me "Well, these two are 14 months apart, but they are # 3 and #4 in our family.....our first two were 14 months apart, then 18 months till #3, then 14 months till #4." Do the math on that, and her first child was still 3 when her fourth child was born. THAT'S busy. I immediately asked her what the heck she did about naps. The Julia napping from 9-12 and Luke napping from 12-3 thing was simply killing me. I never ever had a moment to myself, and it was hard to do some of the things that I wanted to do with Luke. She told me to get her to one nap ASAP.

We have been working on this for the past couple of weeks. I gradually moved her morning nap later by as long as she was happy each day. This whole week Jules and Luke napped at the same time. Like a prisoner sprung from jail I have been on the go every single day for a week straight.

Monday ~ Morning at the gym and an extra long yoga class
Tuesday ~ Had 3 friends and their toddlers over for the morning and lunch
Wednesday ~ Playgroup
Thursday ~ Please Touch Museum with our friends
Friday ~ A friend and her two kids over for the morning and lunch.

Saturday we spent the afternoon at the Villanova game, and Sunday had friends over for the Eagles game. This morning we were at a birthday party. Tomorrow we are having a friend and her 3 kids over. Wednesday playgroup. Thursday a pre-school open house. And Friday going to a friends house. It's a binge.

Like an addict who has had their first taste of the forbidden substance, I got a taste of freedom and am going hog wild with it. After months inside the house, occasionally for a day, or three days in a row, I am drunk on my new found morning freedom. I am intoxicated with the 2 to 3 hours of alone time that I get from 12-3. I hardly even know what to do with myself without a kid underfoot. I need to slow down a little bit........

I had been totally impressed with the way that Julia was handling the two-soon-to-be-four teeth that are already in/coming in....until last night. Last night she went to bed at 7, but had me up at 11, from 12-1, 3, and then woke Luke up at 5.....I got about 4? hours of sleep. For the past few months I have been sleeping through the night, every night....so last night felt unduly cruel. We tried to snuggle in Luke's bed for a bit, but he would not go back to sleep. Nate relieved me at 7 when Jules woke for the day, and I got a great 1/2 hour of sleep while he took the kids downstairs to get them fed.

I'm tired. Heading to bed. All this freedom is simply exhausting.

Sleep

The kids have both been in bed for the night at 7 pm the last two nights. Life is good. Its enabled me to do exciting sexy things like mop the kitchen floor and do laundry. (party!). I'm not ashamed to admit that when Nate is away I fall into bed like a zombie before 9 pm most evenings. I can't make it through an entire Phillie's game to save my life.

I believe in letting my babies find their own schedule. I see it as my job to simply pay attention to and anticipate their needs, as I believe all babies naturally fall into a routine that works for them at some point in their development. Jules is apparently at that point. It happened so naturally and easily with Luke, that I was hopeful that it would with Julia also. It's different with your second child as you don't have as much time to study their schedule/needs and you are always having to still respect/work around the schedule of your first child ~ I just sortov trusted and sure enough it all came together. She takes a morning nap of about 40 minutes around 9.30, then a 2.5 hour nap in her crib from about 11 until 1.30. Then she cat naps for another 45 or so around 3....then off to bed by 6.45 or 7. She wakes once around 10 for a quick nurse, then again at 1.30, when she nurses and falls immediately back to sleep, then sleeps till between 7 and 8. I do find it amusing that they seem to be tag teaming their naps ~ Luke still takes two naps a day, so he sleeps from 9-11, Jules 11-1.30, Luke from 2-4. Hm. Fab, as it gives me lots of alone time with each of them, but leaves me in the dark as to when we are supposed to go out and do fun things. What I find is working at the moment is to take a long walk right after breakfast, get things done while Luke is napping, play outside with him while Jules is napping, and then get out of the house, to either the playground or the pool around 4. That takes care of that weird chunk of time before dinner when nerves tend to get a little thin for me.

I refuse to run errands with my kids. I think that it would be miserable for them, and miserable for me. Sometimes it means that my life is more simple than I might ideally choose. I don't always have the birthday gift or card at the appropriate time. I have put decorating our house on the back burner, even though it desperately needs it. I don't do a lot of pleasure shopping. I get my groceries delivered (which if anyone is pressed for time is simply the most wonderful thing in the world ~ free delivery specials are almost always available, and the big strapping delivery guy brings my groceries right to my kitchen island. Heaven). I have a sitter for 3 hours a week during the day, which is when I run my errands, kid free and happy.

I was talking to my friend Amy when we were down at the beach, and was asking her how she liked being a stay at home Mom. She, like me, had loved her career while she was working. She, like me, said that she loved being home with her son, and would not change it for the world. I loved her actual answer. She said that "I take being a Mom seriously. I work hard to be a good Mom. Some days that is a million times harder than working ever was." I could not agree with her more.